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 have KIS Futures as a regular sponsor of our daily E-Mail. KIS Futures provides Oklahoma Farmers & Ranchers with futures & options hedging services in the livestock and grain markets- Click here for their recent TV Commercial or call them at 1-800-256-2555.

We are also pleased to have as a regular sponsor on our daily email Johnston Enterprises- proud to have served agriculture across Oklahoma and around the world since 1893. Johnston Grain wishes our wheat producers a safe and prosperous harvest this season- for more on Johnston Enterprises- click here for their website!
And we are proud to have American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company as a regular sponsor of our daily update- click here to go to their AFR web site to learn more about their efforts to serve rural America!

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Tributes for McSpadden have poured in from state and federal leaders. Governor Brad Henry called Clem McSpadden "a true Oklahoman, a dear friend and a deeply committed public servant who loved the state of Oklahoma and its people, and he spent his life working to make a difference in the lives of those around him."

In recent years- McSpadden had founded McSpadden and Associates, a lobbying firm that had several clients that he and his son Bart (along with younger son James as well as Jamie Longacre) served. One of those clients was the Oklahoma Pork Council. We talked Tuesday afternoon with Roy Lee Lindsay, Executive Director of the OPC about his relationship with Clem McSpadden and how Clem understood the importance of agriculture and rural Oklahoma. Roy Lee adds that all of Oklahoma is a little poorer today with the death last night of McSpadden.

Listen to our conversation on the life of Clem McSpadden with Roy Lee Lindsay of the Oklahoma Pork Council.

This designation would make farm operators in these counties eligible for low-interest loans through Farm Service Agency's Emergency Loan (EM) Program. A secretarial disaster designation also makes the counties eligible for payments under the Livestock Indemnity Program and Supplemental Crop Revenue Assistance Program, which will be funded through the Permanent Disaster Trust Fund Congress just recently authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill. Additionally, this disaster designation makes livestock producers eligible for "involuntary conversion" under the tax code. If a rancher is compelled to sell livestock early due to drought conditions, the tax on the gain from the sale of those animals is allowed to be postponed for one year.

Senator Inhofe, in a news statement issued jointly by the three lawmakers, says "Farmers and ranchers are struggling, the situation is urgent, and it becomes more so every day. I am committed to continue working to ensure the federal government helps these farmers and ranchers as best it can and as quickly as possible." We have the letter as sent to Secretary Schafer linked below- click and read.

Click here to view the letter from Senators Coburn and Inhofe- as well as Congressman Lucas on the need for a drought declaration.

Testifying before the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, Spradling said the nature of farming and ranching has changed and producers need the ability to transport goods long distance. "Concentration within the agriculture industry has reduced the number of grain elevators, cotton gins and livestock markets forcing producers to drive longer distances, often across state lines, to sell their commodities," Spradling said. Under current law, crossing state lines changes the classification from intrastate carrier to interstate carrier, triggering commercial requirements.

Spradling, testifying on behalf of the American Farm Bureau, believes increasing the minimum weight requirement from the current 10,001 pounds to 26,001 pounds would ease the problem. During the annual American Farm Bureau convention in January delegates made uniform federal truck weights a priority issue.
We have an audio overview of this issue with comments from Mike Spradling of OFB- click below to take a listen.

Click here to listen to Ron with Mike Spradling of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau on the Truck Weight Issue.

In today's Beef Buzz, we talk with Dave about some of the common sense things a producer can do to help in reducing the chances of a successful terrorism strike against especially animal agriculture. Some of these practices may help your operation survive even if an agroterrorism incident should occur in your area.

The Beef Buzz is a daily radio feature of the Radio Oklahoma Network and is heard on great radio stations across the state. We also have an extensive archive of previously aired Beef Buzzes on topics that you may want to listen to again- or hear for the first time! Go to WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com and click on the Beef Buzz button to go to those older shows.

Click here to jump to today's Beef Buzz with Ron and Dave Sparks of OSU

ARS has a priority program tackling many aspects of Ug99 with a team of more than 10 scientists, all of whom are keenly aware of Ug99's growing shadow, which emerged in Uganda and has already spread to Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Yemen, and Iran. The scientists are located at ARS labs at Raleigh, NC; Aberdeen, ID; St. Paul, MN; Manhattan, KS; and Fargo, ND. Among their tasks are determining U.S. wheat and barley vulnerability to Ug99, identifying new sources of genetic resistance, discovering molecular markers to speed up breeding for protection, developing rapid detection methods, and nationwide surveillance for Ug99 in the United States. To support the monitoring work, ARS has established "trap" plots of wheat along known wheat rust pathways throughout the United States.

Of course, the ARS scientists are not going it alone. They're collaborating with researchers across the country and around the world to find ways to deal with this massive threat to a global food staple. As part of this cooperation and collaboration, ARS coordinates sending promising U.S. wheat varieties to Kenya and evaluating them for Ug99 resistance. This provides U.S. wheat breeders with a head start on protecting the country's wheat. The screening is done in partnership with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), based in Mexico. ARS has already evaluated more than 5,000 U.S. wheat lines in Africa through this program. Results from the 2005-2007 screening showed that Ug99 has overcome even more major resistance genes than previously believed. ARS also will develop new sources of genetic resistance to rusts from three wild relatives of wheat and make it easier to introduce those genes into commercial wheat varieties.

Click here to read more about the Ag Research Service Ug99 Wheat Breeding efforts.

The Senators wrote, as the authors of bills and amendments to sharpen rules related to "actively engaged" and "schemes and devices," we are requesting that USDA take immediate action to produce interim rules on these two issues that restore integrity to our payment limit system. The Senators want stricter enforcement and oversight to ensure that individuals who receive farm payments are actually actively engaged in farming. And they want proper oversight of schemes and devices that have historically been used to evade payment limitations.

The Senators also wrote - we support a recommendation that the active personal labor and management requirements be combined into a single criterion - and that USDA - define active personal labor and management through rulemaking to ensure individuals' contribution to the operation is meaningful and measurable.

We will not have every feature that we are planning for you up and running as we kick off tomorrow afternoon and into Thursday morning- but there will be many features that I know that you will enjoy and find very useful right now- and many more are on the drawing boards.

All of our news will be available via an "RSS" feed, we plan on offering Podcasts, we plan on hosting the best calendar of agricultural events of interest to Oklahomans to be found anywhere on the Internet- and a whole lot more. Stay tuned!

We also invite you to check out our website at the link below to check out an archive of these daily emails, audio reports and top farm news story links from around the globe.

Click here to check out WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

Here are some links we will leave in place on an ongoing basis- Click on the name of the report to go to that link:
Our Daily Market Wrapup from the Radio Oklahoma Network with Ed Richards and Tom Leffler- analyzing the Futures Markets from the previous Day-
Ron on RON Markets as heard on K101 mornings with cash and futures reviewed- includes where the Cash Cattle market stands, the latest Feeder Cattle Markets Etc.
Previous Day's Wheat Market Recap- One Pager From Country Hedging- looks at all three US Wheat Futures Exchanges and the why of that day's market.

Daily Oklahoma Cash Grain Prices- As Reported by the Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture.
The National Daily Feeder & Stocker Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
The National Daily Slaughter Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
Finally, Here is the Daily Volume and Price Summary from the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.