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 are crushing, 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 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.

With that news in mind- we talked to State Representative Dale DeWitt of Braman about money and ag related spending at the state level. DeWitt is the Chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee that has oversight over the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture and other Natural Resources efforts from the state.

DeWitt told us he sees across the board cuts coming for Fiscal Year 2010- with the question being- will the Legislature honor the desire of Governor Brad Henry to not make cuts in education. Our story and the interview we conducted with DeWitt is our front page story of the morning on our website- WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com and we have it linked for you below.

We note only talk about money- but also about the so called Right to Farm bill that DeWitt is carrying this session. It has already passed the full House- easily- and awaits action in the State Senate.

Click here for more with Dale DeWitt on State Money Woes and a Right to Farm bill update.

We talked with Francie after her presentation about the signup problems that farmers are running into for the 2009 Commodity program- problems that have popped up because of interim rules issued by the Bush Administration- especially the eligibility question of who qualifies for farm program payments. USDA Secretary Vilsack says he intends to stay with the Bush rules for the 2009 crop year- and a book of more than 300 pages has gone out to the county FSA offices.
We have our conversation with Francie linked below- click and you can get her perspective of what you need to do before you try to signup for the 2009 farm program. Signup continues until June first of this year.

We have also posted a couple of other stories from the AFR meeting that was held on Friday and Saturday- click here to listen to our conversation with State Senator Ron Justice after he spoke to AFR members at the Friday luncheon. AND- click here for our postmortem on the convention activities with President Ray Wulf of the general farm organization. We have other stories that will be coming over the next few days as well- keep reading our daily email and listening on the Radio Oklahoma Network for those.

Click here for our review of 2009 Farm Program Signup with AFR's Francie Tolle.

The Chairman of the Senate Ag Committee, Tom Harkin, says the economic recovery package contains key provisions that will direct crucial funding toward rural development, nutrition and conservation initiatives, many of which were included in the farm bill.
However, the opposition to this stimulus was almost unanimous among Republicans. Oklahoma Senator Dr. Tom Coburn offered a statement after his no vote that said ""This bill failed to win broad bipartisan support for a simple reason - it won't work. In fact, according to the CBO, this bill will, over the long-term, either have zero effect on our economy or cause our economy to shrink. Congress' greatest failure during this process was that when we had an opportunity to give meaning to President Obama's call for 'a new kind of politics' we reverted to the same bad habits of the past. Congressional leaders chose division over unity and ideology over common sense. Congress also reverted to its bad habit of larding up bills with special interest pork projects that stimulate re-election campaigns rather than the economy."

Our story that is linked below includes the full statement from Senator Harkin and his thoughts on how the Stimulus will help rural America, as well as the disappointment expressed by Senator Coburn- and there are comments from our interview with NFU President Tom Buis on the stimulus package as well.
We also have comments

NCC Senior Economist Dale Cougot emphasized that, "as growers look at expected returns when comparing prices for cotton against competing crops, they will be influenced by lower fuel and fertilizer costs along with agronomic considerations, such as crop rotation and weather conditions in Texas, California and parts of the Southeast. Growers will continue to monitor relative crop prices over the coming weeks. USDA's latest grain estimates, showing an increase in stock levels, highlights another major influencing factor this year. Also, the ratio of crude oil at $45 per barrel to corn at $4 per bushel does not foretell profitable ethanol production."

In our part of the country, Texas growers expressed intentions of reducing area by 9 percent to 4.5 million acres. The other regions' reductions of relatively more acreage implies Texas' share of the total upland area is expanding, now more than 57 percent, up from 54 percent. "This will entail a wider variance in abandonment acres as crop estimates are prepared for the season," Cougot stated. He noted that only modest adjustments were in Kansas (+7 percent) and Oklahoma (-2 percent).
We have more details on this report- including a chart of the intentions state by state and audio as well from the NCC meeting in Washington.

Click here for more details on the National Cotton Council's Acreage Survey Report Issued Friday in Washington

The Oklahoma Farm Bureau has their annual State Legislative and Leadership Conference today and tomorrow. Scheduled to address the group are Lt. Governor Jari Askins, Congressman Tom Cole, Speaker of the Oklahoma House Chris Benge, and Senate President Pro-Temp Glen Coffee. Click here for more details on that event that starts after lunch today.

We talked about a variety of issues with Buis- from the Stimulus package to Farm Bill Implementation to COOL and a lot more.

Our visit with Buis is a featured Podcast on our website- and available via Itunes as well. Click on the link below and that will jump you to our webstory on our site with a listen bar for the conversation we had with Buis. It's worth your time to take a listen as the President of the NFU is probably one of the most plugged in leaders with the Obama Administration of any farm group in America- that elevates the importance of his insights on today's farm issues.

Click here for our full chat with Tom Buis of the NFU.

Superior dubbed this sale the Prime Time Roundup sale- and had many drafts of cattle coming off wheat pasture- and various types of preconditioned programs with pens of cattle were offered for sale as well.

We have our Friday midday updates that we posted on our website, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com- video of the action inside the room as a consignment of cattle were sold and then some audio with Ralph Wade as he talked about the mood of the market on Friday morning after the sale had been going for a couple of hours.

Click here for our audio and video reports from the Superior Sale held in Oklahoma City this past Friday.

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.
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.