From: Ron Hays [ron@oklahomafarmreport.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2008 06:41
To: ron@oklahomafarmreport.com
Subject: Oklahoma's Farm News Update
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Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Thursday January 24, 2008!
A service of American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance, KIS Futures & Midwest Farm Shows
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-- Frank Lucas Says His Gut Tells Him Farm Bill Extension will be Final Result...
-- Senator Chuck Grassley is not buying the Peterson Plan of Permanent Law being okay...
-- The Bush Administration Adds Two Countries to the List of "Fully Reopened" to US Beef.
-- A Vision for Rural Oklahoma- Courtesy of the Republican Rural Caucus in the State Senate...
-- Gravity Grabs the Grain, Oilseed and Cotton Markets on Wednesday.
-- Rural Development Honcho's Visit this month to Oklahoma spotlighted.
-- KOKC- one of 35 Great Choices Across the State to Listen to Ron on RON!

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 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 website or call them at 1-800-256-2555.

We are also proud to have American Farmers and Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company as a regular sponsor of our daily update- click here to go to their NEW AFR web site to learn more about their efforts to serve rural America!
And our email this morning is also a service of Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the just concluded Tulsa Farm Show, as well as the Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City this coming April! Check out details of both of these exciting shows at the official website of Midwest Farm Shows by clicking here.

If you have received this by someone forwarding it to you, you are welcome to subscribe and get this weekday update sent to you directly by clicking here.


Frank Lucas Says His Gut Tells Him Farm Bill Extension will be Final Result...
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The number three Republican on the House Ag Committee, Frank Lucas of Oklahoma's Third District says there seems to be three options for how the farm bill debate will play out here in 2008. Option one that everyone is saying is their preference is to cut a compromise from what the House and Senate have done to this point and get a new farm bill passed and signed by the President. The biggest fly in that ointment remains the Administration demanding the Senate and House to abandon what their bills say and go with the what the Administration says should be the farm bill priorities- spending much less on the Commodity Title and paying for the overall bill with no new taxes.

The second option, according to Congressman Lucas, is what Chairman of the House Ag Committee Colin Peterson says is his preference if no deal is cut- allowing Permanent Law to kick in. Lucas says that no one else that he knows agrees that is a realistic solution. The third option that Lucas sees as the most likely outcome in the short term is a one or two year extension of the 2002 farm law which would keep our commodity programs as they are from the last five years- not perfect- but leaving something of a safety net in place.

The western Oklahoma politician and rancher when he's home in Roger Mills County adds that Peterson's comments about wanting an open process comes only after he has tried writing a farm bill himself in the "preconference" setting. Lucas says that the only hope is to get all involved- from both the House and Senate and from both sides of the aisle to come up with a measure that will easily pass both bodies and can be veto proof.
We have an audio overview of our conversation with Frank Lucas on our Farm Bill page at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com- go to that page regularly and see our latest posts. We have the Lucas conversation linked below for you to take a listen to.

Click here to listen to Ron and Congressman Lucas talk about the current farm bill status.


Senator Chuck Grassley is not buying the Peterson Plan of Permanent Law being okay...
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Add Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa to the list of those that rejects allowing the law of 1949- the so called Permanent Farm Law to be implemented here in 2008. Senator Grassley, in talking with fellow farm broadcaster Ken Root of WHO Radio in Des Moines, Iowa says that is a non starter.

Senator Grassley says that House Ag Committee Colin Peterson is in a very difficult spot as he has spent his Christmas recess in Washington trying to work with the Administration, the Senate and Nancy Pelosi to come up with some sort of a deal that will fly with all concerned.

Senator Grassley believes that the calls by Peterson to go with Permanent Law is the frustration that the Chairman has after weeks of discussions have gone nowhere. He doubts that these calls for a return to the 1949 Law are really where Peterson stands on the subject.
We have Ken talking with Senator Grassley linked on our website on our Farm Bill page- we have that entire Farm Bill page linked below- you can review what Senator Grassley said on Wednesday as well as what Colin Peterson was saying on Tuesday on our 2007 Farm Bill page- take a look!

Click here for the 2007 Farm Bill page at our website, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com


The Bush Administration Adds Two Countries to the List of "Fully Reopened" to US Beef.
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On Wednesday the countries of Indonesia and Barbados gave full market access to U.S. beef and beef products of all ages. These decisions comply with international health guidelines. "Indonesia is setting a standard for other Asian nations by agreeing to import U.S. beef and beef products consistent with World Organization for Animal Health guidelines," acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner says. "Much like our recent agreement with the Philippines in November, this agreement with Indonesia emphasizes that we will continue to press for full market access for U.S. beef and beef products of all ages throughout the Pacific Rim."

Conner was also pleased with the move by the Barbados minister of agriculture to open the nation to U.S. beef. According to Conner, Barbados is one of the strongest economies in the Caribbean with large per capita incomes and more than half of their gross domestic product coming from tourism.
"More than 100 countries now allow the entry of at least some U.S. beef and beef products, a result of intensive efforts by USDA to regain market access," Conner says. "With this agreement, Barbados and Indonesia signal their determination to be guided by the same international standards that help to deliver top quality cuts of U.S. beef and beef products to consumers and retailers around the world."

Of course what the Acting Secretary did not say was the message he wants to send to South Korea, China and Japan- other countries are willing to accept the OIE standards as they relate to BSE- when are you coming out of the dark ages and getting on board? The Acting Secretary told us at the AFBF meeting in New Orleans earlier this month that the Administration doesn't want a step by step deal that is likely to find us short of the OIE guidelines for years to come- but rather wants to hold and get the whole standard agreed to when a deal is finally struck. That's why the Japanese and South Korean deals have been stuck in the mud since the OIE ruling last May that says that US Beef of any age- boneless or bone-in - is safe as long as the SRMs are removed.


A Vision for Rural Oklahoma- Courtesy of the Republican Rural Caucus in the State Senate...
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Members of the Oklahoma State Senate's Republican Rural Caucus have released this week their policy agenda for the 2008 legislative session, which includes their "Vision for Improving the Quality of Life in Rural Oklahoma." The Republican Rural Caucus' agenda calls for more funding for county roads and bridges, opposing forced school consolidation, attracting and keeping physicians in rural Oklahoma, among others.

"As senators who represent a number of rural communities, we understand the significance tied to rural Oklahoma," said Senator Ron Justice, R- Chickasha, Republican Rural Caucus Chairman. "The success and livelihood of rural Oklahoma directly affects our entire state. Our vision for the 2008 legislative session echoes this thought and aims to bring support to rural families and businesses." "We as rural senators experience first hand the quality of Oklahoma's resources," said Senator Owen Laughlin, Republican Floor Leader. "Water is a necessary resource. We must find ways to increase the amount and quality of water."

The Republican Rural Caucus vision includes:

Dedicating more motor vehicle taxes and fees to the improvement of county roads and bridges.
Opposing any legislation that requires the forced consolidation of public schools.
Immediately eliminating Oklahoma's Death Tax, instead of its current date of elimination, 2010.
Ensuring the protection of personal property rights in dealing with land and water.
Modernizing the slow, archaic trucking permit system to help keep the state's valuable resources moving.
and Improving access to healthcare by attracting and keeping physicians in rural Oklahoma, and by protecting the financial viability of rural hospitals and ambulance services.


Gravity Grabs the Grain, Oilseed and Cotton Markets on Wednesday.
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It was mostly limit down on the crop futures on Wednesday in Chicago, New York and Kansas City as fears of a recession continued to roil the commodity markets as well as the equity marketplace. It was an incredible day for the Dow Jones, down 325 points just before noon our time- before a reversal sat in and erased the losses of the day and ended up pushing the Dow Jones Industrials 299 points up on the day.

The market watchers seemed to agree that speculative long liquidation fueled the limit drops of thirty cents a bushel in Kansas City wheat, twenty cent a bushel in Chicago corn, fifty cents a bushel in soybeans and three hundred points (three cents a pound) in New York Cotton.

The overnight electronic trade as of 6 am this morning is showing that there is a little bit of bounceback in the grains and oilseed trade after the washout of yesterday.
One of the regular features that we have on our website is the daily market wrapup featuring our own Ed Richards along with Tom Leffler of Leffler Commodities- it can be accessed either on our MARKETS page or on the page we call "LISTEN TO RON" on our website WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. We have linked the second of those pages below- scroll down and click on the link for the close with Ed and Tom to listen to Leffler's thoughts on the market tumble of Wednesday.

Click here for the Listen to Ron page on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com


Rural Development Honcho's Visit this month to Oklahoma spotlighted.
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The regular newsletter, the Oklahoma Outlook, produced by the Oklahoma state office of the USDA Rural Development agency- features a look at a visit by a key USDA official to the state earlier this month.

Jim Andrews, National Administrator for USDA Rural Development's Rural Utilities programs paid a visit to Oklahoma in January. During his stay, Mr. Andrews kept an aggressive schedule meeting with the Oklahoma Association of Electric Coops, the Oklahoma Rural Water Association and also spent time in Stroud meeting with officials in this Turnpike community has gotten a multi million dollar loan from USDA to develop better cellular service.

We have the full newsletter linked on our website- and that link is also at the bottom of this story. Click and take a look at some of the other things that Brent Kisling and his team are up to in the Rural Development Agency of USDA.

CLick here for the December-January Newsletter of the Oklahoma USDA Rural Development Agency


KOKC- one of 35 Great Choices Across the State to Listen to Ron on RON!
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KOKC, the fifty thousand watt AM Radio Station that so many across the western part of the United States grew up with when the call letters were still KOMA, is still cranking out great programming. Now, instead of the rock and roll hits of the 1960s, it's great talk show programming here in the new century.

And they have a great commitment to local news, weather with News9 Meteorologist Gary England and his team- AND farm and ranch news!

KOKC is on the AM dial at 1520 AM- and you can hear Ron Hays and Ed Richards three times daily on KOKC. Ron's morning farm news is heard at about 6:35 AM weekdays, his midday farm news update is right after Paul Harvey midday news at 12:26 PM, while you can hear Ed Richards with a market closing report at 2:31 PM. In addition, check out Sam Knipp from the Oklahoma Farm Bureau weekday mornings at 6:57 AM on KOKC.
And if you go to our website, you can click on the Radio Oklahoma Network logo at the top of every page- and it will take you to the RON site where there is a map that you can find out more about our entire listing of RON ag radio affiliates.


Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, KIS Futures and American Farmers and Ranchersfor their support of our daily Farm News Update. For your convenience, we have our sponsors' websites linked at the top of the email- check them out and let these folks know you appreciate the support of this daily email, as their sponsorship helps us keep this arriving in your inbox on a regular basis!

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



God Bless! You can reach us at the following:
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phone: 405-473-6144
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