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. Johnston has opened up four million bushels of additional storage space for the 2010 wheat crop. For more on Johnston Enterprises- click here for their website!

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Farmers planted 31 percent of the crop this past week, as just 19 percent of the crop was planted a week ago in the 18 states that planted 92% of last year's corn acreage. Already 7 percent of the corn crop has emerged, compared to just 2 percent by this time last year and the five-year average of 5 percent emerged by now. Planting was delayed both last year and in 2008 by cold, wet weather.

The poster child state last year as it related to planting delays was Illinois. By this date, they had planted 4% of the crop- this year- 73%!
Indiana had planted just 2% at this point last year- this season they have 56% planted.

Click on the link below for the USDA national crop progress update issued Monday afternoon.

Click here for the latest crop progress update from USDA

The latest Oklahoma Crop Weather Update shows that for the wheat crop "Small grain conditions were rated mostly in the good to fair range for another week, with 16 percent of both wheat and rye rated excellent. The small grain crops continued to benefit from the spring rains. Wheat jointing is 91 percent complete, six points behind normal. Wheat headed progressed significantly from the previous week with 39 percent complete, but still lags 18 points behind normal."

For the Oklahoma spring planted row crops- "Fieldwork continued for row crops, though hampered by the rain. Cooler temperatures in some areas of the state delayed planting activities. Corn seedbed preparations are 86 percent complete, up ten points from the previous week but seven points behind normal. Corn planted increased to 51 percent, only three points behind the five-year average. Eighteen percent of the corn crop emerged, on track with last year's crop, but 13 points behind normal. Sorghum seedbeds prepared were eight points ahead of the week prior, at 56 percent, and six points ahead of normal as sorghum planting began. Soybean seedbed preparation reached 48 percent completed, with seven percent of the soybean crop planted. Peanut seedbed preparations progressed another six points to 74 percent completed. Peanut plantings were now underway with eight percent completed. Cotton seedbed preparation is 71 percent completed, just six points behind normal."

Click here for the full Oklahoma Crop Weather Update, as issued by the NASS office in Oklahoma City

The report does acknowledge that "The U.S. agricultural sector remains more productive than those of other high-income countries and is highly competitive in international markets." However, it speaks of few people now employed in farming, with many of those getting much of their income from off farm jobs, so they emphasize rural development as being more important than traditional farm program supports.

The report does have one section that is dedicated to farm program issues. The three bullet points include the following priorities of the Administration:

* As part of the Administration's National Export Initiative, the President has called for further measures to open foreign markets to agricultural goods.
* The President's 2011 budget calls for a number of reforms to existing farm support programs, including tighter eligibility requirements to preclude the wealthiest farmers from receiving payments and changes to the crop insurance program to reduce windfall profits.
* Initiatives such as the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food program promote the development of local and regional food systems that deliver fresh food to consumers who live in close proximity to farms.

Click on the link below to review the full report- and we also have comments from the top Republican on the House Ag Committee, Congressman Frank Lucas of Oklahoma on this report and the President's planned journey to mid America- making stops in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri.

Click here for more on the CEA report on rural America.

The state FFA officers, a team of eight student leaders, plan the convention and conduct the official ceremonies. The 2009-2010 state FFA officers are Amy Peel, president, Wetumka; McKenzie Clifton, secretary, Kingfisher; Tara Burchfield, reporter, Fairview; Robby Branscum, northeast district vice president, Fort Gibson; Josh Goff, northwest district vice president, Woodward; Kelli Shenold, central district vice president, Ripley; Ariel LeForce, southeast district vice president, Broken Bow; and Emily Beanland, southwest district vice president from Hollis.

We talked with Amy Peel, State President, in advance of this year's meeting, and we have that conversation linked below for you to check out. And be watching our Blue Green Gazette section of our website, as we will have updates later in the day today and into tomorrow about this year's convention.
We will also have the videos we have produced of the Stars in Ag Placement, Agribusiness and Ag Production later this evening- AFTER they have been announced on the Convention stage.

Click here for our visit with Amy Peel of Wetumka- State FFA President.

Over this past weekend, the negotiators had reportedly reached consensus to scrap a controversial carbon linkage fee on oil and gas that some industry groups said was a gas tax. But a Monday news conference to unveil the legislation was canceled as Graham looked for a commitment to deal with climate change before immigration.

Some say the last-minute collapse has destroyed the principals' credibility and any opportunity for a bipartisan compromise. An environmentalist close to the negotiations said - it depends whether this is a pothole or sinkhole. If it's not worked out in a few days - they say that's a pretty bad sign.
If climate change and energy legislation is indeed dead, the Environmental Protection Agency will begin regulating carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act. Stakeholders on both sides of the climate talks say that looks increasingly likely unless the Senate negotiations get back on track.

"Today's story accepts as fact a disproven myth that ethanol somehow drives up food prices -- the goal of a carefully coordinated propaganda campaign that is not based on truth," said Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis.
"The latest crop forecasts indicate that our farmers can produce more than enough grain to satisfy all the demand for food, fuel and feed in this country, and study after study has proven that ethanol can help clean our environment, strengthen our national security and create jobs, all without any impact on the cost of our food. We have more than 2 billion bushels of corn left unused from last year's record crop - a record planted on seven million fewer acres than the previous record. And we are on the cusp of what the USDA is predicting to be another record corn harvest."

"Finally, the article fails to acknowledge that ethanol production leaves all the protein, oil and fiber to be used in a highly-nutritious livestock feed. Ethanol only uses the starch from the corn kernel so we're getting both feed and fuel from the same bushel of corn - a fact that dispels any notion that ethanol increases feed costs," Buis added.

Click here for the Bloomberg article that got Growth Energy all worked up.

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.