Howdy Neighbors!

Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. We are proud to welcome National Livestock Credit Corporation as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. National Livestock Credit Corporation works diligently to provide unsurpassed service to their customers in the area of livestock financing. Check out the National Livestock Family of Services website by clicking here.

Another of our sponsors on our daily email service is Cusack Meats, and Al Cusack wants everyone to know that he APPRECIATES Oklahoma's Farmers and Ranchers! You can go to the Cusack website and select some great gift packs of meat for giving- or for yourself! And, our email this morning is also a service of Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the Tulsa Farm Show coming up December 6-8, 2007, as well as the Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City next spring. Check out details of both of these exciting shows at the official website of Midwest Farm Shows by clicking here.

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However, everywhere we check, we find little evidence that the impasse is broken and in fact, may be further from resolution than we saw at this point last week. Colin Woodall with the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, offered his thoughts in a Status report as the weekend began this past Friday- and he contends that there are over 250 potential amendments to the Farm Bill- and that it is now likely that Majority Leader Harry Reid will try a cloture vote today or no later than tomorrow- and if that fails- as it likely will- then he has signaled an intention to pull the bill from the floor and hold it over until December and has no plans to bring it back until the two sides can come to some agreement on the amendments to be allowed during the debate. Woodall says this is the long way of saying that the Senate did not make any progress on the farm bill this past week and it is doubtful that they will get anything done between now and the Thanksgiving adjournment on Friday.

Meanwhile, it is most interesting how aggressively the Bush Administration is telling their side of the farm bill debate- as the USDA General Counsel Marc Kesselman is being dispatched to the west coast today to offer "remarks on the Farm Bill" to the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. Of course, that's the land of Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House. USDA and the White House are not shrinking away one bit from a fight to the finish on what they want to see as far as farm policy is concerned.

Dicks believes that the real pressure will start building next spring as we get closer to wheat harvest and the need for USDA to have to regulate the 2008 wheat crop under the 1949 permanent farm law- that's the incentive to either get a new farm law or revert to an extension of the 2002 farm law.

Dr. Dicks says that if everything hit perfectly we might see a completed measure by around Christmas- although he admits that as the Senate delays debate that gets less and less likely. The quick turnaround would be similar to what we had in 1985. At the other end of the spectrum- we saw a total breakdown of the process in 1995-96 when nobody could agree and we finally ended up with "Freedom to Farm" in April.
We have our conversation with Mike Dicks linked below for you to check out- take a listen!

Click here to listen to Ron and Mike Dicks on the ins and outs of Farm Policy here in 2007-2008.

The top young farm family in the state honored by the group this year was the Tim and Sheila Taylor family of Payne County- selected for the YF&R's Achievement Award. This award is given by the organization for their achievements in farming and ranching and leadership in the agricultural community. This thirtysomething couple owns and rents a total of just over 1100 acres, with the main focus of the operation cattle and hay production. Tim started farming parttime, then fulltime back in 2001. He and Sheila are the sole operators and owners of their enterprise.
The Young Farmers and Ranchers also honored Joseph Tripp of Kay County with what they call their "Excellence in Agriculture" award- given to young people under 35 who are involved in farming or ranching- but have a fulltime occupation off the farm- the award is based on their involvement in agriculture as well as participation in Farm Bureau and and other community organizations. Tripp works for Conoco Phillips and also operates a 1,000 acre ranch and farming operation in the north central part of our state.

Joe Mayer of Texas County and Scott Dvorak of Noble County were spotlighted as winners of the 2007 Distinguished Service Awards- Mayer winning the Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award and Dvorak the Distinguished Service to Oklahoma Farm Bureau Award.

A couple of notes from elections that were a part of the annual OFB meeting this past weekend- when Mike Spradling was elected President of the group on Saturday- that kicked into gear a backup plan by District Nine for a representative on the State Board of Directors- Phyllis Holcomb of Kellyville will fill the seat held by Spradling since 1999 as she takes a fresh three year term. AND, the new Young Farmer and Rancher Committee Co-Chairs for 2007-2008 will be Jon and Natalie Leeds of Webbers Falls.

This is a story about Monsanto's Posilac. Monsanto offers this description of the product on their web page "Bovine somatotropin, or bST, is a natural protein produced in the pituitary glands of all cattle and it helps adult cows produce milk. Milk from cows receiving supplemental bST is unchanged and just as wholesome and nutritious as always - full of calcium, protein, phosphorus and vitamins. In fact, the level of bST in milk remains the same."

Melissa interviewed several dairy industry officials- including Dr. Noah Litherland at OSU, and she also talked with a "Mom" and her level of concern about the safety of the milk products that she feeds her family. We have the conversation linked below that we had with Melissa about this story that will be seen tonight on KWTV News9 in their 10:00 PM news. Take a listen now and tune in tonight.

Click here to listen to Ron and Melissa talk about her Hormone Milk story.

It appears that Ron Bormaster and John Sampson who ramrod this annual renewal are sticking their toe into fresh water as they add a portion of the lower level of the huge building on as an expansion area for the 2007 Tulsa Farm Show. The upper level is full of exhibits and a couple of small demonstration areas complete with bleachers- and here in 2007, a part of the lower level will feature a private treaty Bull Sale being put on by the Oklahoma Simmental Simbrah Association- they will have as many as forty bulls with outstanding bloodlines for you to take a look at.

Thursday will feature the annual FFA Livestock Handling Skills Competition- which will showcase a total of ten FFA teams from across the state that will compete for Scholarships. The Contest is once again being sponsored by the folks from American Farmers and Ranchers.
All three days of the Tulsa Farm Show, there will be Livestock Working Demos as well as Gentle Horse Training with Craig Cameron. Admission and Parking remain free at the Show, being held at the Tulsa State Fairgrounds- click below for the direct link to Farm Show website.

Click here for more details on this year's Tulsa farm Show.

The chicken segment swung to an operating profit of $51 million, compared with a $20 million loss last year. Beef also swung to a $1 million operating profit, compared with a $34 million loss in the same period last year. Pork, the only profitable segment of the three proteins in the year-ago period, saw its operating income jump by 60 percent, reaching $24 million from $15 million last year.

Tyson offered guidance for 2008 that reflects a much lower potential profit for the coming year compared to what stock market analysts expect. "As we begin 2008, we are experiencing some challenging market conditions," CEO Dick Bond said in a statement. "Based on present assessments, we believe we will incur additional increased grain costs of approximately $300 million in the chicken segment [and] the current beef environment is extremely difficult as well."

The AgPreference 8th Annual Farmer and Rancher Forum happens tomorrow at the Quartz Mountain resort-featuring the analysis of Dr. David Kohl from Virginia Tech. If you want to check on last minute availability for this all day event- contact Diane Beach at 1-800-727-3276.

Dr. Jeff Edwards of OSU reports that all of the Oklahoma State variety trials are in the ground- and he adds that with a little help from Mother Nature, they will all soon be emerged. We have linked below the full list of some thirty sites around the state where wheat variety plots have been planted- they are listed alphabetically.

Click here for the full list of the OSU Wheat Variety Plots for 2008 harvest.

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