Howdy Neighbors!

Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. We are pleased 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!

It is also great to have as an annual 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!

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Sen. Inhofe, a lifelong Oklahoman from Tulsa, was elected to the United States Senate in 1994. He currently serves on the Armed Services Committee, the Foreign Relations Committee and as ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee. Oklahoma Farm Bureau's nomination of Sen. Inhofe for the award cited numerous examples of his work on critical Farm Bureau issues. He has led the fight in the Senate to stop cap-and-trade legislation, noting Farm Bureau's “Don't CAP Our Future” campaign against climate change legislation during a speech on the Senate floor.

We talked to Senator Inhofe before the presentation- and he expressed confidence that Climate Change legislation will not move in the US Senate, claiming that proponents of the measure have only 20 votes of the 60 needed to get the bill through the Senate. He also expects the EPA's efforts to declare Carbon Dioxide a dangerous substance to fall apart, as he says that he had asked the EPA's Lisa Jackson back earlier in 2009 if the EPA endangerment finding was based on the IPCC science- Ms. Jackson said yes. Senator Inhofe believes that since the findings of the IPCC have been found to be highly suspect that EPA's case to regulate greenhouse gases will be challenged in court and found to be lacking.

Click on the link below and you can read and hear more on Senator Inhofe and the AFBF presentation made to him by AFBF President Bob Stallman.

Click here for more on the Golden Plow Award to Senator Jim Inhofe

According to the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, this measure is designed to protect a livestock owner's right to perform traditional animal husbandry practices, as well as to utilize equine dentists, chiropractors and farriers at the discretion of the property owner.

Beyond these bills, Peterson says that OFB is watching the budget discussions and that she is hopeful that programs important to rural Oklahoma will not be asked to accept bigger budget cuts than other parts of state government. She says the group fully understands that all of Oklahoma government is looking at cuts- and that the key is to find ways to minimize negative impacts in services from the state that would come from those cuts.

Click here for more on Farm Bureau's efforts at the State Capitol in 2010.

In fact, the group will arrive in Spain, spend the night in Malaga in southern Spain, then cross over to Morocco to for the first part of their travel experience. This portion of the travel will include both a look at the culture of the country as well as time out in the country, doing things like visiting a cattle farm located in the Atlas Mountains, about an hour's drive from Meknès. Agrotours says that this farm is the first one to have introduced modern production of beef cattle for meat production on open rangeland.

When they cross back into Spain, they will see cattle and horse operations, citrus production, olive production, greenhouse vegetable production, meet with USDA FAS officials and a lot more. We will miss not traveling with the group here in 2010, but we are delighted that Clinton Griffiths will be tagging along with Class 14- and will be giving us a taste of what the trip is all about over the next two weeks. We will have updates here on our email, updates on our website and of course, reports on the radio network as well.

Click here for more on the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program- including the application for Class 15, which is NOW available at this link.

“It's become evident that EPA's endangerment finding may be based on flawed data,” said Tamara Thies, NCBA chief environmental counsel. “The fact that EPA did not choose to reconsider its finding after the extent of the climategate scandal was revealed publicly is perplexing to say the least; ignoring climategate will not make it go away.” Since “climategate” wasn't exposed until after the public comment period of the endangerment proposed rule had expired, NCBA and the Coalition are calling on EPA to convene a proceeding for reconsideration, and stay any further regulatory actions or rulemakings based upon the finding until the reconsideration is completed

Click on the link below for more on the arguments made by NCBA- which are similar to what Senator Inhofe spoke of in our conversation that we had with him last night.

Click here for more from the NCBA and their call for EPA to rethink the regulation of Greenhouse Gases

Distillers grains are the livestock feed coproduct of ethanol production from grain. In a typical dry mill ethanol biorefinery, one-third of every bushel of corn entering the facility is returned to the market in the form of high protein, nutrient rich livestock feed. Only the starch portion of the corn kernel is converted to fuel, while the remaining protein, fat and other nutrients remain intact in the coproduct. “Distillers grains are a vitally important coproduct of U.S ethanol production from grain,” said Renewable Fuels Association Vice President of Research and Analysis Geoff Cooper. “The increasing availability of distillers grains is providing livestock and poultry feeders around the world with a feed source that can partially displace the need for corn, soybean meal, and other ingredients in feed rations.”

The amount of distillers grains exported in 2009 is equivalent to the feed value of 5.4 mmt (212 million bushels) of whole corn and 1.6 mmt of soybean meal, according to displacement ratios developed by Argonne National Laboratory. Assuming world average yield rates, 2009 distillers grains exports eliminated the need for nearly 5 million acres of corn and soybeans internationally.
Total U.S. distillers grains production in 2009 was approximately 30.5 mmt, meaning exports accounted for more than 18 percent of total use. Notably, 2009 distillers grains export levels are equivalent to the total amount of distillers grains produced and used in 2003.

Click here for more on the report about Distillers Grains moving into the Export Marketplace

The Top 10 Individuals Overall were as follows:
Kaylee Kerbs – High Individual
Jett Eder – 2nd
Darin Annuschat – 3rd
Chase Reed – 4th
Mike Kinna – 5th
Jared Givens – 6th
Garret Knebel – 7th
Clint Mefford – 8th
Nick Pope – 9th
Jorge Huizar – 10th

Ronnie and Tyler Glover will be offering sixty six 18 month to two year old Angus bulls- with EPDs that showcase moderate birth weights, excellent growth and superior carcass value. These bulls are the offspring of some of the Angus breed's most popular sires.

Also selling that day will be 80 spring calving two year old commercial pairs. Call Glover Cattle Company at 580-595-1494 for more information. You can also click on the link below for our Auction Listing at www.OklahomaFarmReport.Com, which includes the link for the sale catalog for Glover from National Cattle Services.

Click here for more on the Glover Angus Bull Sale coming March 3 in Elgin.

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.