Howdy Neighbors!

Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. We are excited to have as one of our new sponsors for the daily email Producers Cooperative Oil Mill, with 64 years of progress through producer ownership. Call Brandon Winters at 405-232-7555 for more information on growing Nu-Sun Sunflowers this year- and check out the full story on PCOM on their website by clicking here.

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And our email this morning is also a service of Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the annual Tulsa Farm Show held each December, as well as the springtime Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City. Check out details of both of these exciting shows at the official website of Midwest Farm Shows by clicking here.

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Rod Wanger with the Oklahoma FSA office has provided us some Oklahoma perspective- "Oklahoma producers began utilizing critical feed use acres on July 2. There are 5 other states that have a July 2 beginning date including Texas and New Mexico. Oklahoma has had 210,000 acres signed up for the program. Texas has had 583,000 acres, and New Mexico 177,000. Colorado has had 253,000 acres signed up but their date to begin activity was July 15. Oklahoma currently has 984,000 acres in CRP, so 21% of the acres had elected to do critical feed use activity. Oklahoma would rank third in the nation with the number of acres signed up for critical feed use."

The contention of the National Wildlife Federation is that USDA simply failed to do their homework when it came to the impact of this program on wildlife habitat on those acres that are under CRP contract. Julie Sibbing, a senior program manager for ag policy at the NWF, says her group got concerned over this lack of public input as this program was announced- and she believes that she group has a strong case and will prevail.

We have an audio overview with Sibbing of the National Wildlife Federation on our brand new look website- and we have a link to that story and audio below.

Click here for the NWF's reasons for going after USDA and the Critical Feed Use program.

Congressman Frank Lucas of Oklahoma's Third Congressional District is very concerned about the cattle producers who have already turned cattle out on some of these lands- and are now being told by Uncle Sam- they get them off now or they are illegally using their CRP acreage. The sprawling district that Lucas serves has the bulk of the CRP contracted acres found in Oklahoma.

He is calling on USDA's lawyers to aggressively defend the Emergency program- and ask the judge to speed up the restraining order process- and allow those who are now on CRP lands to be able to convert over to the standard emergency haying and grazing program where producers would be forced to give up part of their rental payment. Lucas says that if you don't have anywhere to go with these cattle- that's better than nothing.
We talked at length with the Congressman about this issue and we have that full conversation linked below.

Click here for the conversation that Ron had with Congressman Frank Lucas on the CRP Critical Feed Use program.

"Current weight limits imposed by the Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act (SAFETEA) and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) burden farmers and ranchers hauling their products to market," said Spradling. "The American Farm Bureau Federation recommends changes to FMCSA's rules regarding Commercial Motor Vehicles (CMVs) that will make them more workable for some farmers and ranchers while still maintaining the safety of rural roads."

Spradling commended a member of the subcommittee, Congresswoman Mary Fallin, for her work with Congressman Dan Boren and others on HR 3098, a measure that would raise farm truck weight limits to 26,001 pounds and address some of the other uniformity issues. We have Mike's full testimony before the Committee yesterday on our brand new look website- and we have the link to that page listed below.

Click here for the testimony of Mike Spradling on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

Eller served as senior vice president of government affairs for NCA for a decade (1981-1991) before leading NCA as executive vice president for five years (1991-1996). He was also a member of the initial industry-wide long range plan task force and the subsequent oversight committee that facilitated the formation of NCBA. He was the last Executive of the old NCA- wrapping up his time with the cattle organization as Oklahoma cattle producer Bob Drake served as the last President of the NCA.

More on this story on our website- click here to read.

McSpadden died earlier this week after a battle with cancer- he was 82. The family has asked that in lieu of flowers that contributions be made to the OSU Foundation and the Clem McSpadden Endowed Scholarship program.

There is an organized "tribute" to Clem that we have a link to below- it includes Clem's "The Original Cowboy's Prayer- the entire prayer is really fabulous- but a couple of lines stick out to me as to how Clem will be remembered by so many- "Help us compete in life as honest as the horse we ride and in a manner as clean and pure as the wind that blows across this western country. So, when we make that last ride, that we know is inevitable, to the country up there-where the grass is green and lush and stirrup high and the water runs crystal clear and deep, You will tell us, as we enter that Arena, our entry fees are paid."
Clem- Rest in Peace, you good and faithful servant.

Click here for the Clem McSpadden Memorial Tribute

At the Ft. Cobb test station- the top four yielding varieties were from Monsanto/DeKalb, with the best yield per acre of any of the OSU tests recorded in this data in the state produced by DeKalb CWH 683, a Roundup Ready Canola. Yield per acre for 683 was 3280 pounds per acre at Ft. Cobb.

We have this story- complete with the link to the complete test results as published by OSU- linked below.

Click here for the story on our website about the Winter Canola Test Results

I think you will find the new site functional with a lot of good information available with just a few clicks. It is a site that we want to be useful to you- so please give us feedback and continue to let us know about news stories in your area- calendar events for groups you are involved with- and together we will make this site the most useful agricultural location on the internet for those interested in farming and ranching in our state!

We still have more features to add- so please excuse any growing pains that may show up in a link or two not yet being operational. We'll be spotlighting some of the features we have planned and those we have in place in the days ahead in our daily email. In the meantime- let us know what you like and what you think we need to fix!

Click here to jump to our new look website- Same Address- New Look!

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.