Howdy Neighbors!

Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. We are proud to have KIS Futures as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. KIS Futures provides Oklahoma Farmers & Ranchers with futures & options hedging services in the livestock and grain markets- Click here for the free market quote page they provide us for our website or call them at 1-800-256-2555.

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, as well as the Tulsa Farm Show. Click here for more on the December 2010 Tulsa Farm Show, including information on how you can be an exhibitor.

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.

"Harvest is picking up today(Monday); however, we are getting into some fields that just aren't quite ripe yet. Test Weights are good, moisture is borderline.
"Protein range is 10.2 - 12.0 probably averaging around 11.0%

"We don't have a good feel for yields yet. Hailed on wheat averaged 21.0 bpa. One other field 47 bpa. I still believe we will harvest an average crop.
"Acres are down and abandonment high. Acres just not there this year in Tillman County.
"We should be going very good the next couple of days."

Thanks to Mike for this update- and we remind those of you harvesting either wheat or canola- give us updates(including pics when you have them) as things are happening. Have you pushed your canola yet? What sort of yield are you seeing? For our wheat harvest folks- would love to hear about variety, test weights, moisture and yield. Email me your reports to ron@oklahomafarmreport.com- the link to jump you to our email address is at the bottom of today's email.

It's been noted more than a few times that less that one-half-of-one-percent of funds raised by the animal welfare group The Humane Society of the United States actually goes toward helping Humane Societies across the Country. HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle claims the tie between his group and local humane societies was never intended to include a pass through of funds from the HSUS to the local animal shelters.

You can read more on this story- and hear Pacelle's arguments by clicking on the link below. And- we have a link to the website that has caused a lot of the heartburn Wayne Pacelle is experiencing- HumaneWatch.Org.

Click here for more on these claims by Wayne Pacelle of unfair treatment by groups like the Center for Consumer Freedom.

"With beef prices very strong, and replacement cow and springer prices still relatively low, CWT has determined that it will consider bids up to, but not to exceed, $3.75 per hundredweight (of milk production)," said Jerry Kozak, president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation, which manages CWT.

As was the case in 2009's herd retirement rounds, CWT has no set target for the volume of milk or the number of cows to be removed in this herd retirement.
"Whether CWT will remove a significant number of dairy animals will depend on the number of bids received and the price level of those bids. CWT will not pay more for cows than what they are currently worth in the marketplace," Kozak said.

For more details on this latest Dairy Buyout- click here for the CWT website.

"There are several factors affecting demand both fundamentally and psychologically. Arguably, most of the improvement so far is more psychological than fundamental. Fundamental factors such as unemployment and the overall labor situation have not improved much yet. However, there are indications that, while consumers have a long road ahead to heal their personal financial woes, a good bit of the uncertainty that paralyzed consumer spending the last 18 months is beginning to decrease. People that are employed are less concerned about losing their jobs and are beginning to return to somewhat more normal spending patterns. One of the unknowns is how much consumer spending may be permanently changed by all this. Certainly there is a need for personal savings rates in the U.S.to remain higher than prerecession lows and that suggests that consumer spending as a percent of disposable income would remain lower than before.

"There is nevertheless a likelihood that consumers will return to more familiar spending patterns and this will help, not only total beef demand in terms of quantity, but importantly will lead to a switch back to more middle-meat based demand. Restaurant performance surveys continue to show improvement based in part on better sales recently but also on expectations for coming months. However, the rate of improvement of the index is fairly slow. This is likely to be an on-going process over many months and possibly years. One of the questions in the very short run, that may well present the first real test of how much demand has improved, is that much of the recent wholesale beef price increase has not been fully reflected in retail prices. The post-Memorial day assessment of the holiday weekend and the resiliency of boxed beef prices into June will be an important indicator."

Click here for the rest of Derrell Peel's look at beef demand as we hit the summertime season of 2010.

Growers that are interested in learning more about this technology and want to see them in the field should plan to attend. The Sorghum Checkoff will sponsor field trials in Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico and Tennessee. To learn more about field trials in your area, click on the link below for the Sorghum Checkoff website. Express your interest using the Contact Us form in the top right hand corner of the website.

This new technology will allow producers outstanding weed control and flexibility in crop rotations. Herbicides used for weed control in other crops make the rotation to sorghum difficult because sorghum has little resistance to these products. The development of a resistant variety will allow growers the option of planting sorghum following other crops. Growers could potentially expect to see this new technology available for limited release by 2012.

Click here for the Sorghum Checkoff- where you can learn more about this new technology and request info on field days closest to you as they are planned.

One of our good readers pointed out to us that the deadline for proving your yields for the 2009 crop year is not necessarily today- in most situations, it is still several weeks away- but still, that's a job that will likely make you money if your average wheat yield is better than the average yield in your county and you signed up in 2009 for the ACRE program.

I want to refer you back to a conversation that we had with Francie Tolle, State Director of the Oklahoma FSA office in Stillwater a couple of weeks ago. She is concerned about those who have put off signup until the last minute- if you are trying to give this lovely lady gray hair- shame on you! You can click on the link below and hear that conversation that we had with her on 2010 Farm program signup and more- and if you are one of those still not signed up- you got just hours to get it done.

Click here for our story of May 21 with Francie Tolle of the Oklahoma FSA Office on 2010 Farm Program Signup

Nearly 600 head will sell, featuring 500 Fall calving bred heifers and cows,60 Spring Calving Pairs and 30 herd bull prospects ready to turn out. As always, this is a program known for quality and customer service. You can view the cattle anytime during this week- ahead of the sale.

Kris Black writes in the 2010 catalog "Once again we are offering a volume of quality cattle in the 9th sale. They are deep, diverse and right on target for major club calf production. There is a wealth of quality cattle from the bred heifers, all the way to the tremendous set of spring pairs with A.I. calves at side. The sire groups are impressive and exemplary of our goals."

Click here to jump to Collins Cattle Services website and details of the Cream of the Crop sale for 2010.

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.