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!

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"There is a big demand for cotton around the world right now," Schroeder said. "Increased demand has depleted the world supply of cotton and in response, cotton prices have increased. At the same time, NCC statistics are telling us, cotton acreage will increase in the Southwestern area wich is Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. "It is predicted cotton acreage in these three states will make up almost 55 percent of the cotton grown in the US in 2010. Oklahoma's cotton acreage could increase as much as 25 percent, compared to last year."

Jeannie Hileman, manager, Farmers Cooperative Gin, Carnegie, Ok. is anticipating some more big production numbers. "Our board members were talking about the expected 25 percent increase in Oklahoma cotton acreage this year," she said. "Of course, that is acres, not bales at the end of the season we are talking about; there is a lot of weather to get through before harvest. "But we have plenty of subsurface moisture in dryland cottonfields right now; an excellent start before planting begins. We are looking at our need for more gin machinery. Last year, we ginned 60 percent more bales than the year before. Another 25 percent this year would stretch our capacity to take care of our clients.

SHe adds that "the excellent outlook for cotton prices this year would give our farmers a good opportunity to get good prices for a cotton crop that would help them rotate their wheat ground, get rid of persistent weeds that affect winter wheat and also let the cotton plant's taproot improve the tilth of their fields."

Click here for more on the cotton acreage prospects in 2010.

So the question remains- Will the Democratic Leadership decide to deal with the so called Death Tax this year- or push a final decision off into 2011? At one point, it appeared that there was an opportunity to get a more permanent fix here in the early months of 2010 for Estate Taxes that might include a three to five million dollar exemption per person and stepped up basis, something that Mary Kay Thatcher told us at the recent Commodity Classic was essential for farmers and ranchers.

This past weekend at the TSCRA meeting in Ft. Worth, we spent time with Colin Woodall of the NCBA about the prospects for Congress doing something about the Death Tax- and he says it may be very difficult to get a longer term fix on the issue. Click on the link below for more on this issue which is our focus on today's Beef Buzz, as heard on great radio stations across the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network.

Click here for more on the Death Tax Issue with Colin Woodall from today's Beef Buzz

The groups said they did not believe America's farmers and ranchers should have to bear a disproportionate burden of the cuts made to decrease the federal deficit or offset spending in other areas of USDA's budget. They pointed out that the USDA budget proposal actually increases outlays by $4 billion and said the proposal's provisions seem to "disregard the fact that the 2008 farm bill was fiscally-responsible and completely offset so as not to add to our country's deficit."

Click on our link below to read more about what both the coalition of farm groups have written Congressional leadership about- as well as a letter that came from several lawmakers to their leadership as well.

Click here for more on the call by farm groups to leave the farm program "pot of money" alone.

In 2009, the special rangers investigated 1,022 cases in Texas and Oklahoma, primarily involving stray or stolen livestock. Working closely with federal, state and local law enforcement officers, the special rangers recovered or accounted for 3,918 head of cattle, 57 horses, 14 trailers, 24 saddles and 43 items of miscellaneous ranch property. The total market value of all recovered livestock and property reached $4,825,475.58. The average value of property recovered or accounted for each day was $13,220.

Click on the link below for more on the report made by the Rangers this past weekend in Ft. Worth. Four of the districts out of the 29 that TSCRA serve have Oklahoma counties included- and two of the rangers actually live here in the state.

Click here for more on the TSCRA report regarding 2009 efforts to fight rural theft.

There are two projects scheduled for Oklahoma. First, Pioneer Long Distance, Inc.: The Western Oklahoma Wireless (WOW) Project; $1,819,349 loan and $1,783,322 grant. The funding will provide wireless broadband service to unserved and underserved rural areas in western Oklahoma.

The larger grant for Oklahoma is targeted at the Panhandle. Panhandle Telephone Cooperative, Inc is gearing up for a #37 million dollar broadband project. The Western Oklahoma Broadband Infrastructure Development Project; $3,366,188 loan, $10,098,562 grant, and $23,297,597 of private investment. The funding will provide a broadband infrastructure to rural areas within the western Oklahoma panhandle area.

"The broadband projects announced today will give rural Americans access to the tools they need to attract new businesses, educational opportunities and jobs," Vilsack said. "The Obama Administration understands that bringing broadband to rural America provides a gateway for businesses and key anchor institutions - such as libraries, schools, public buildings and community centers to provide services to thousands of Americans. These projects will create jobs building these networks, and the completed systems will provide a platform for rural economic growth for years to come."

Click here for more on these broadband projects being funded by USDA

The abstract of the paper authored by Mitloehner and two others says that the 18 percent number from a UN study does not match data they developed in California earlier this decade. The abstract says of the California data collection "direct livestock emissions (enteric fermentation and manure), totaling at less than 3% of total anthropogenic GHG and much smaller indirect emissions compared to the global assessment."

"We certainly can reduce our greenhouse-gas production, but not by consuming less meat and milk," Mitloehner said, in a news release from UC-Davis. "Producing less meat and milk will only mean more hunger in poor countries."

This story was originally out this past December during the Climate Change meetings in Copenhagen. We told you about this story then- and as it resurfaces because of his presentation this week at the American Chemical Society- we remind one and all that livestock- beef and dairy cattle especially- are not the bad guys when it comes to greenhouse gases.

Click here for the full news release on this research that comes from UC-Davis.

In the sale catalog- which we have a link to on our auction listing at www.OklahomaFarmReport.Com- the link to that is below- the OBI team writes "We pride ourselves in offering the very best in professional service to our member breeders as well as other seedstock producers who desire to use our facility to glean individual performance information on their bulls. Our goal from the very start of Oklahoma BEEF, Incorporated has been to provide a standardized, highly credible post-weaning gain testing environment to accurately measure the genetic merit for post-weaning average daily gain, weight per day of age and yearling weight of seedstock bulls."

For more information, contact Tim Stidham, Test Station Manager at 405-624-1181- or go to our auction listing linked below.

Click here for more on the OBI sale coming up March 25.

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.