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 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!

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. For more on Johnston Enterprises- click here for their website!
And we salute our longest running email sponsor- Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the just concluded Tulsa Farm Show, as well as the April 2009 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.

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.

About every two days, another front is expected to roll through our region- keeping temperatures up one day- and down the next. 50s and 60s are now being predicted in the main body of the state this weekend and early next week. It will likely remain dry and windy for the next few days. However, the party may be interrupted by about Thursday of next week as Arctic air may arrive in Oklahoma.

According to the Weather Discussion that is up on the National Weather Service site coming out of Oklahoma City- there may be a chance for precipitation in some form by next weekend. The discussion reads "SOUTHERN STREAM SYSTEMS TO APPROACH REGION LATE NEXT WEEK INTO THE WEEKEND MAY YIELD OPPORTUNITY FOR SOME MUCH NEEDED PRECIPITATION." The forecasters in Norman seem to think we could have the current ridge of High Pressure start to break down by the middle of next week, which would allow moisture to get back into the mix for our state.
I have linked the current forecast discussion below for you to catch up on the latest thinking by those weather folks at the NWS.

Cick here for the current weather discussion as found on the National Weather Service website for Oklahoma.

From the link below- you can jump to our webpage that has more on what Kim is thinking right now about the wheat marketplace. You can click and hear his conversation with Clinton Griffiths about the current "why" of the market- and how wheat producers should be reacting.

On that same page- we have details of what is going to be featured on the weekly TV show SUNUP as seen on OETA each Saturday morning.

Click here for more with Dr. Kim Anderson and the scoop on SUNUP as found on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

The governor originally requested a disaster declaration in November, citing the impact of the 2007 ice storm, cold weather in April and October of 2008, and heavy rains from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike last September. "Our pecan farmers were hit by just about every weather challenge imaginable and suffered losses accordingly," said Gov. Henry. "The federal aid won't solve all of their problems, but it is a step in the right direction."

The U.S. Agriculture Secretary approved disaster declarations for 40 counties: Alfalfa, Atoka, Bryan, Carter, Choctaw, Cleveland, Coal, Cotton, Craig, Creek, Garvin, Haskell, Hughes, Jefferson, Johnston, Lincoln, Love, McClain, McCurtain, McIntosh, Marshall, Mayes, Murray, Muskogee, Nowata, Okfuskee, Oklahoma, Okmulgee, Osage, Ottawa, Pawnee, Pittsburg, Pontotoc, Pottawatomie, Rogers, Seminole, Stephens, Tulsa, Wagoner and Washington.
Farmers in contiguous counties are also eligible for aid under the declarations.

Our Beef Buzz today focuses on how the Final Rule alters how we will certify which country cattle come from as they reach the packing plants. The so called visual inspection of cattle just before slaughter changes the dynamics of how much hassle COOL will be for cow calf operators as well as stocker producers. Dr. Peel also talks with us about the mixed origin label- and how it has been tightened some by the writers of the rule- which could cause some headaches for packers, processors and retailers in the days to come.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on great radio stations around the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network- and can also be heard at your convenience as we post them on our website, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. We have today's Beef Buzz linked below- but you can access many of our Beef Buzz shows going back to the fall of 2006 by going to any of our website pages- looking on the left hand side of the page- and clicking on the Beef Buzz button. That takes you to the current Beef Buzz and a listing of older shows as well.

Click here for the Friday Beef Buzz from the Radio Oklahoma Network

Of the 4,477 dams regulated by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) in the state, 2,105 are inspected annually by local conservation districts. These are small watershed upstream flood control dams that were constructed as floodwater retarding structures. And it is not just the high hazard structures that are inspected - conservation districts inspect all of their dams including those designated as low hazard.

Of these 2,105, 229 dams are classified as "high hazard" since they have the potential for loss of life if they should fail. For many of those the reclassification to high hazard has been a recent development - in recent years or even months. An upstream flood control dam originally built as far back as the late 1940s in a rural location becomes high hazard if the situation changes to where loss of life could occur if the dam breached - that could be only one residence or business built below a dam.
The changes in classification put a real strain on budget resources in keeping inspections going toward the right targets. We have more on this story on our website- and invite you to check this story out by clicking on the link below.

Click here for more on the Dam Inspection story for the state of Oklahoma

The cattle fever tick eradication program was initiated in 1906 and was initially funded by Congress in 1907 as a cooperative federal/state/industry disease and pest eradication effort. Due to these efforts cattle fever ticks were eradicated from all 14 states that comprised the fever tick's historical range and were pushed across the Rio Grande River by 1943. A permanent quarantine area was established along the Texas side of the Rio Grande River in 1938 to prevent re-establishment of fever ticks from Mexico in Texas. Despite the success of the program, since 2005 the level of tick infestations has been increasingly trending upward. Tick incursions from Mexico are increasing, resulting in a historically high number of infested premises as well as temporary expansions of the permanent quarantine buffer area in Texas.

The ticks are vectors for diseases which could cause great economic hardships to the cattle industry and agriculture, in addition to posing a threat to foreign trade. The increasing incursions of tick infestations in Texas, the increasing level of acaracide resistant ticks in Mexico, the identification of some acaracide resistant ticks in Texas, and the increasing role of wildlife (especially white-tailed deer, elk, and nilgai) in the spread and maintenance of fever ticks in Texas are of great concern.
While we have not seen problems as far north as the Red River yet- they have been getting closer, and support for this program is good news for the Oklahoma cattle industry.

Meanwhile, we are heading to Guymon later today to help celebrate the Panhandle Ag Appreciation Days being put on by the Guymon Chamber of Commerce. We will be involved as an emcee and moderator of the events, including the dinner and program they have planned for tonight and then their program planned for Saturday morning as well.

Finally, we are excited that we get to speak to the Fairview Chamber of Commerce banquet planned for Monday evening in that Major County community. We'll be talking about historic changes both at the state and national levels of government and how they can be impacting agriculture and local main streets like we find in places like Fairview.

There are a lot of things that continue to be on the Calendar here in January and February- and we invite you to check them all out by going to our Calendar page as found on our website- click on the link below to be jumped there in a flash of an eye.

Click here for more on the Calendar Scene as listed at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

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- Two Pager From The Kansas City Board of Trade looks at all three US Wheat Futures Exchanges with extra info on Hard Red Winter Wheat 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.