Howdy Neighbors!

Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. It is wonderful to have as a regular sponsor on our daily email Johnston Enterprises- proud to be serving agriculture across Oklahoma and around the world since 1893. For more on Johnston Enterprises- click here for their website!

We are also excited to have as one of our 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 the oilseed crops they handle, including sunflowers and canola- and remember they post closing market prices for canola and sunflowers on the PCOM website- go there by clicking here.
And we salute our longest running email sponsor- Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the just concluded Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City. Check out details of both the Southern Plains Show and the Tulsa Farm Show at the official website of Midwest Farm Shows by clicking here.

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There is concern about cabbage aphids on canola right now- with many people electing to spray the crop. Neuens advises producers to scout your fields carefully to avoid losses from these bugs.

We talked with Neuens at the Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City- and you can hear our conversation by clicking on the link below for our webstory and the audio from the conversation that Gene and I had over the weekend while at the Southern Plains Farm Show.

Click here for more on the Winter Canola situation here in the southern great plains as we talk with Gene Neuens of PCOM.

Both Francie Tolle of American Farmers & Ranchers as well as Tim Bartram of the Oklahoma Wheat Growers were in Washington this past week- working with Nicole Scott, the new Chief of Minority Staff for the House Ag Committee- and of course, Nicole's boss, Congressman Frank Lucas. It appears that based on emails that were sent to Francie, Tim as well as to me that Congressman Lucas was able to get some clarification from USDA.

The email from Nicole says "Congressman Lucas had a conversation with Jim Miller, Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Ag Services. He confirmed that the second crop does not need to be insured and assured the Congressman that he would get the word out to the Oklahoma offices." AFR's Tolle adds that it is her understanding that a "notice" on this issue will be sent to the county FSA offices- nothing was out as of Friday- she is hopeful that it will be there on Monday.
As we head to Washington later today- we are hopeful of getting further details on how this will all shake out- and what sort of "slack" that Oklahoma wheat producers may get because of this significant damage to the 2009 wheat crop.

General Wesley Clark, co-chairman of Growth Energy, bluntly put it - we're disappointed with the Board's vote. Clark said - this was a poor decision, based on shaky science, not only for California, but for the nation. Today's decision puts another road block in moving away from dependence on fossil fuels and stifles development of the emerging cellulosic industry. He said - the regulation adopted by the ARB unfairly penalizes biofuels by adding an - indirect land use change figure - to the carbon intensity of biofuels.

American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman called the California Air Resource Board's decision - the absolute worst move at the worst possible time. The board is unfairly punishing renewable, American-grown biofuels, and has created greater market demand for imported petroleum products. Stallman pointed out that - the standard put in place measures the indirect land use for biofuels without measuring the indirect land use for other fuels. Stallman says - the board has applied a false measurement to American crops that are grown and will continue to be grown regardless of their end use.

We have more ag industry reaction and an audio overview of this unfolding story-click on the link below for the rest of this story as we have it on our website.

Click here for more on the California decision to consider ethanol a carbon using hog globally in their biofuels assessment

Among the bullet points from the National Pork Board-
1. Establish, implement and enforce strict sick leave policies for workers presenting influenza-like symptoms such asfever, cough, body aches, and sometimes vomiting and diarrhea.

2. Implement biosecurity for workers reporting international travel.

3. Limit visitors to swine facilities

4. Follow other generally accepted biosecurity practices

On Sunday afternoon- there was an updated release from the National Pork Board- reminding folks it is SAFE to eat pork.: Amid public concern about the reports of swine influenza in humans, the National Pork Board wishes to reassure the public that pork is safe and will continue to be safe to consume. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has posted this statement on its Web site (cdc.org/swineflu): "Swine influenza viruses are not spread by food. You cannot get swine influenza from eating pork or pork products. Eating properly handled and cooked pork products is safe." The CDC and other health organizations continue to caution that the virus is contagious and is spreading from humans to humans. The CDC has said it has not found any evidence to indicate that any of the illnesses resulted from contact with pigs.

There's a lot more details in the recommendations from the National Pork Board- and we have a lot of that in our webstory found on our website, www.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. Click on the link below for that story.

Click here for more on the concerns raised by The National Pork Board over a new strain of Swine Flu.

In addition to those two contests, eleven speech contests were decided as well. Click on the link below to jump to the complete list of the FFA champions in these various categories. The six winners in the various senior division prepared speech contests will compete this Tuesday(tomorrow) at the State FFA Convention in OKC for the right to claim the overall Prepared Speech Championship and the right to represent Oklahoma in Indianapolis next fall as well. The Kingfisher FFA dominated the six categories, winning four of the divisions, but will have only three in the finals, as McKenzie Walta actually won BOTH Agriscience and Animal Science. (How in the world do you memorize two speeches and compete and win at the highest levels?) By the way, McKenzie Walta placed second nationally in the FFA Creed Speaking Contest at the 2007 National Convention- I STILL would have voted her hands down the best Creed Speaker that day! Click and Listen to our conversation from 2007 with McKenzie in Indianapolis at that Creed Competition.

On Saturday, it was the Judging teams and more that were competing. We have the link to the complete listing in our story below- but to sample a few of the contests- the Livestock Judging Contest saw El Reno knock Kingfisher out of defending their championship of last spring. Meats Judging was taken by the Tuttle FFA Chapter, besting OK Union. The Horse Evaluation was won by Locust Grove. Ag Issues was won by DePew, Ag Communications taken by Kingfisher and Ag Sales won by Amber Pocasset.

Click here for the FFA Speech and Contest Results from Friday and Saturday in Stillwater

Speaking of horse training with Scott Daily, we visited with Scott on Saturday afternoon about how he approaches each horse- and a tip or two for the rest of us that want to stay in control when we are involved with an equine critter. Click here for that story on our website about Scott Daily and his horse training efforts. BY THE WAY- we do have a bunch of pictures of one sort or another from this year's Southern Plains Farm Show. Some are of the folks that were visiting with exhibitors, some with the horse training and livestock handling sessions and we even snapped a few of the tractors on the grounds- both and antiques. Click on the link below for our Flickr page from the 2009 Southern Plains Farm Show.

We are jumping on the company plane this morning (the Southwest Airlines company plane) and heading for Washington and the 2009 Washington Watch event of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting. We will be there for a limited amount of time this year- as we are looking forward to getting back to OKC in time for the Tuesday night general session of the State Convention of the Oklahoma FFA. Perhaps the highlight of our time in Washington will be hearing from Wayne Pacelle, the CEO of the Humane Society of the US.

Click here for our Flickr Page of the picutres from the Southern Plains Farm Show

They will be selling over 600 head- including
120 Angus Breeding Age Bulls
75 Registered Angus Spring Pairs
17 elite fall Angus show heifer prospects
107 Registered Limousin and Lim-Flex Spring and Fall Pairs
144 fancy Angus AI'd spring calving commercial heifers
and 25 commercial Angus spring pairs

For information you can contact the folks at Express Ranches at 1-800-664-3977. We also have the link to more on this sale as found on their website- click on the link below to jump there.

Click here for more on the Grass Time Sale of Express Ranch coming May 1, 2009

Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows, Producers Cooperative Oil Mill and Johnston Enterprises for 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

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.