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

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One fight arose over Crop Insurance- as House Republicans offered a strengthened Crop Insurance plan that would take some of the money away from the Permanent Disaster and use it for the combining of a couple of crop insurance programs that give fuller protection to a producer. Congressman Randy Neugebauer of Texas offered the amendment- and he had Congressman Moran of Kansas and Congressman Lucas of Oklahoma speak in support of his plan that offered money also to restore Direct Payments to the 2002 Farm Law levels. It failed straight across party lines in the House- so the Senate avoided a vote on it.

We have the audio on this debate on our Farm Bill webpage on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com- which we have linked below.
ONE OF THE LATEST THINGS WE HAVE JUST ADDED IS THE CONVERSATION THAT WE HAD WITH CONGRESSMAN FRANK LUCAS AT 12:30 am ON FRIDAY MORNING AFTER THE 6 AND A HALF HOUR TOTAL SESSION- CHECK THAT OUT AS WELL!

Click here for the 2007 Farm Bill webpage on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com.

One of those rebutting Senator Grassley was Republican Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas- who said he did not want to get to the point where he had to tell a cattle producer wanting to partner in some way with a meat processor in a value added plan that he could not sell his cattle in that way. Roberts urged a no vote.

When it came to a vote, the two Iowa Senators found themselves pretty much by themselves as Senator Harkin admitted the votes were not there on a voice vote- so the Packer Ban failed on the Senate side of the Conference Committee without the House having to even consider it. We have the audio comments of both Senators Grassley and Roberts on our Farm Bill Webpage- which is linked below.

Click here for the Farm Bill Page of our website- WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

However, Colin Peterson got close to being ugly about the idea- ridiculed the supporters for not willing to give up the two percent for the greater good- and at the end of the day- it was a party line vote- with Moran losing 7 to 9. As a result the Senate was spared having to go on the record.

There are still several Commodity Title Issues to be dealt with. Payment Limitations is a very complicated proposal by the Principals- and they are waiting on a CBO score. The Beneficial Interest matter is one where they are hopeful to get closer to the Administration- and they need a budget score on this as well. Peterson says one final issue concerns grain storage issues. They are hoping to pull these issues together by Monday- and I would suspect that the "Principals" will assemble what they want and will force feed the rest of the Conference Comittee.

The question remains- is it enough for the White House? At about 10 PM last night, Deputy Chcuk Conner offered this statement ""The president wants to sign a farm bill that meets his criteria.
"If sent to him without meeting his criteria, he would be forced to veto the bill.
"We encourage the conferees to produce a bill which will gain his signature by reducing the cost and implementing real reform."
We have some of the comments from the Direct Payment debate on our Farm Bill 2007 webpage- click to take a look and listen on the link from either of the two stories above.
The Session ended pretty quickly after the Commodity Title was considered at around 12:30 AM central time- Senator Harkin indicated the next Conference Committee meeting would be no sooner than 1:00 PM washington time on Tuesday.

"Your report this morning indicated that in Oklahoma, the pasture ratings are 81% in the fair to good condition rankings. Although this may be representative of most of the counties in Oklahoma, it isn't the case in Cimarron County. I have concerns that the state is unaware of climatic conditions facing the panhandle, especially those in Cimarron and Texas counties.

"I certainly understand the plight of producers who have been inundated by recent rains, but as another concern, drought is affecting this area. In Cimarron County, few dryland wheat acres will be harvested this year. By Mesonet data, wheat acres in Cimarron Co. have received .81 inches of rainfall since October 2007. We are historically dependent upon winter snows to assist in filling soil moisture profiles and those were not forthcoming. Little to no acres have been available for grazing. The Mesonet shows that we are experiencing a deficit of 8.21". Many producers are also reconsidering their number of corn acres to be planted under irrigation this season due to depleted soil moisture, higher gas prices and seed costs.
Much of the rangeland acres in the northern and western areas of the county have received less than .1 of an inch of moisture in over a year. Conditions in those areas are promoting erosion from wind for the first time in years. Virtually little to no grazing acres are left unaffected from forced deferment or herd reduction. The plight of farming and ranching producers in the panhandle is also critical."
Cherrie- thanks for this current look at conditions in this important part of the state.

If we stay at those levels, we expect no damage to the 2008 Oklahoma wheat crop. More damage may have ocurred Thursday evening from the round of severe weather that we had across portions of the state. The hail that rained down in some locations- including around Stillwater and points north- likely damaged some acres of the 2008 wheat crop.

We will also have this interview linked on our website over the weekend- so if you happen to miss the live segment- you'll be able to take a look at it on our hme page at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. (we have that linked below)

Click here over the weekend and go to our website, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com where we will have the Chelsea Clifton interview after it airs Saturday morning on KWTV News9!

Mark Johnson, who along with his wife Brenda, own J&J Angus Ranch- tells us about the offering- There will be a total of 75 Angus lots including
- Over 30 cow-calf pairs with spring calves sired by Raven, TC Total, Moneymaker, 263c, Franchise, 1I2, Prime Star and Double Take. Many featuring the service of EXAR Titleist T011.
- 20 spring yearlings and 13 fancy fall born heifer prospects, halter broke, with show and donor potential
- 8 powerful herd sire prospects sired by Raven, Future Direction, Benchmark, MC 2500 & Papa Equator
- Multiple embryo and pregnancy lots representing the most elite cow families in the breed.

J&J Ranch is located on the south side of State Highway 51, 1.5 miles west of Interstate 35 (exit 174), look for the red barn on top of the hill. If you want more information, you can call Mark or Brenda at 405-880- 5887. We have the sales catalog linked below- click and check it out.

Click here for Sales Information for the J&J Angus Ranch Production Sale Coming May 10, 2008.

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. Previous Day's Energy Market Recap- also from Country Hedging
The National Daily Feeder & Stocker Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.
The National Daily Slaughter Cattle Summary- as prepared by USDA.