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 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 "new look" website or call them at 1-800-256-2555.

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

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At the front end- the Grand Champion Steer was close to an all time record as a "combine" of companies and ranches bought the Steer by the name of "Ozzie" from Morgan Wynn of McAlester who was showing her third steer ever- that Crossbred steer commanded $52,000! Among the buyers who purchased the top steer of the World's Largest Junior Livestock Show were Express Ranches, Bank of Western Oklahoma, First Capital, Senator LeBlanc and Limestone Ranch.
The Reserve Grand Steer commanded $25,000- purchased by the State Fair of Oklahoma and Dorchester Capital- the second best steer in the show was exhibited by Morgan Swink of the Guthrie FFA.

The Grand Champion Barrow was shown by Stephanie Payne of Yukon FFA- and was bought for a final price of $25,000 by a combo of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau and Blue and Gold Sausage. The Reserve Grand Barrow was shown by Carli Newby of Lindsay 4-H- and she got a payday of $17,000 from a combo set of buyers- the Daily Oklahoman and the Choctaw tribe.

The Grand Champion Market Lamb got a final bid of $23,000- which was the same price as last year's top Lamb- and the purchaser was the same- Touchstone Electric. The Lamb was owned by Jade Terbush of the Navajo FFA. The Reserve Lamb came in at $17,000 with the Choctaws and Chesapeake Energy teaming up to buy the number two Lamb shown by Heather Glass of Elgin FFA.
We have a special audio review of the auction and some final numbers from the Oklahoma Youth Expo- all linked at our webpage for the Oklahoma Youth Expo on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. And later on Friday,we will have an interview with Jeramy Rich reviewing this year's event- so you can check that out as well.

Here's the link to the BEST coverage of the Oklahoma Youth expo to be found on the Internet at www.OklahomaFarmReport.Com!!!

The marketing number was better than what the pre report expectations were-so that was friendly as well. We have some audio commentary to share with you from Tom Leffler, who can be heard on our market wrapup daily on the Radio Oklahoma Network, as Ed Richards visits with him daily after the close.

Click below to hear Tom's take on the Cattle on Feed numbers, as well as some comments on the USDA Cold Storage report as well.

Click here for Tom Leffler talking Cattle on Feed...

Changing the FMCSR definition, as the Boren/Aderholt/Fallin bill does, of a commercial motor vehicle from 10,001 pounds to 26,001 pounds would provide much-needed uniformity among states and clarity for enforcement officials, the letter says. "Farmers and ranchers work every day to transport food products to markets or processors within close proximity to their property. They are not commercial truckers who are driving cross-country," says the National Cattlemen's Beef Association's Executive Director of Legislative Affairs Colin Woodall. He adds "As such, we do not believe that individual cattle producers should be subject to the same restrictions as drivers of commercial motor vehicles."

The six groups that came together on the letter include the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, American Farm Bureau, American Soybean Association, National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, National Association of Wheat Growers and USA Rice Federation.

OETA broadcasts Horizon on Sunday afternoons at 3:00 PM central time. RFD repeats that broadcast of Horizon several times during the course of the week- check your schedule for exact times and days.

We have linked the Horizon website link below for you to check out- Rob does an excellent job and covers a lot of important rural stories for Oklahoma on a regular basis.

Click here to jump to the Oklahoma Horizon website for more on this weekly TV effort of the Oklahoma Career Tech.

We sat down with Dr. Ward in his office and talked about this merger- comparing it to previous big mergers in the industry and looking at what JBS Swift might have to do to satisfy US Regulators to make this happen.

Our conversation with Dr. Ward- at leas the first part of it- is on our Good Friday edition of the Beef Buzz. You can hear the Beef Buzz on great radio stations around the state, as well as going to our web site and listening to Beef Buzzes since the time that we started here on the Radio Oklahoma Network! In addition, we have this Beef Buzz with Clem Ward linked below for your listening convenience- check it out!

Click here to listen to Ron and Clem on today's Beef Buzz from RON!

The Noble Foundation in Ardmore and Oklahoma State University concurred with the request and provided EPA with letters supporting the exemption.
Prowl H2O is a selective herbicide for controlling sandbur as it germinates and producers have a very narrow window of opportunity to treat their Bermuda pastures and meadows for this weed.

The OARA and the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry also remind producers that this is also the optimal time to treat pastures for invasive weeds such as musk thistle. 2,4D type products are effective during this time of year.

No, it's not the Easter Bunny Arriving- but rather the forces of good and evil squaring off on a hill overlooking the inconsequential town of Jerusalem- and the battle that was then carried to a cave used for a tomb- for three days. There was one Victor- and He has won that victory for all mankind- for the "whosoevers" of the world.

I have linked for you something a little unusual for this email- but it's news you can use- for encouragement, for enlightenment- for the opportunity to change your life forever if you have not yet dealt with the decision that the Roman Ruler Pilate had to ask about some two thousand years ago- What do I do with Jesus?
Max Lucado writes in a piece that he calls "Passion, Pain, Promise" "It's a fair question. A necessary question. What do you do with such a man? He called himself God, but wore the clothes of a man. He called himself the Messiah, but never marshaled an army. He was regarded as king, but his only crown was of thorns. People revered him as regal, yet his only robe was stitched with mockery. Small wonder Pilate was puzzled. How do you explain such a man?"
We have the link to Max Lucado's review of what he calls the "most significant week the world has ever seen" below- check it out- consider it my gift to you for this Easter holiday.
We'll see you on the other side of Easter- next Monday!

Click here for Max Lucado's Look at the Passion, the Pain, the Promise!

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