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 brand new website!

And we are proud to have P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind Energy as as one of our regular sponsors of our daily email update. P & K is the premiere John Deere dealer in Oklahoma, with now ten locations to serve you(the newest location is in Blackwell!), and the P & K team are excited about their new Wind Power program, as they offer Endurance Wind Power wind turbines. Click here for more from the P&K website.

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In other areas of the state- the OWC tells us: In the Minco area, "Harvest progressed to 15 percent completion with farmers reporting yields in the 50 bushels per acre region. The weekend weather conditions were perfect for producers to really get going and our sources say they are really going hard today. The pop up showers missed that area of the state and have allowed for further progression of harvest.

"Watonga seems to be the dividing line for harvest progression in this section. West of Watonga the wheat is still not ready, too green and moisture is too high; therefore harvest is only five percent done. East of town into Kingfisher, harvest is about 20 percent down the road. Test weights are "excellent" by producer standards and are averaging 62.5 pounds. Yields are ranging from upper-20 to mid-40's (bushels per acre)"

In and near Cherokee in northern Oklahoma- "Harvest started on Friday and Saturday and Sunday represented the first full days of it. Our reports indicated that today there wasn't much going on and the sun hasn't came out so harvest is shut down after the rain. Rainfall totals were approximately 1 inch, with intermittent sprinkles throughout the day. We received two yield reports and they were both in the upper 40 bushels per acre. We also heard that test weights were averaging 63 pounds and one source received a handful of loads ranging in the 65.7 to 65.9 area, or "the highest their system can compute."

"Wheat harvest is off to a good start in most areas of the State and is anticipated to increase significantly in the coming week. Small grain conditions continued to rate mostly in the good to fair range, with 13 percent of wheat, five percent of oats and 15 percent of rye rated excellent. Ninety-two percent of wheat had reached the soft dough stage by week's end, up nine points from the previous week but three points behind normal. Twelve percent of the wheat was harvested by week's end, four points ahead of last year but 11 points behind normal."

For the row crops- "Conditions have been favorable for both fieldwork and growth of row crops with corn, peanuts and cotton all rated mostly in the good to fair range. Corn emerged increased two points from the previous week to reach 89 percent, seven points behind normal. Seedbed preparation for sorghum reached 95 percent complete, eight points ahead of the five-year average. Both sorghum planted and sorghum emerged increased seven points from the week prior to 70 percent and 39 percent, respectively. Soybean seedbed preparation reached 92 percent complete, 10 points ahead of normal. Sixty-eight percent of the soybeans were planted by Sunday, an increase of 14 points, while half of the crop had emerged, 11 points ahead of the five-year average. Peanuts planted reached 95 percent complete while 77 percent of the crop had emerged, both slightly ahead of normal. Cotton planted increased 18 points from the week prior to 82 percent complete, nine points ahead of the five-year average. Cotton emerged increased significantly to 64 percent, eight points ahead of normal."

Click here for the full Oklahoma Crop Weather Update from Monday Afternoon

Some elevators are simply posting a much lower wheat price- according to the Oklahoma Department of Ag listing of daily wheat prices- Frederick now stands at $2.97 a bushel, while much of central Oklahoma is at $3.27 a bushel. The Gulf Bid has dropped more than eighty cents since the first of May, and is over three dollars a bushel less than early June of 2009.

Protein is not the only problem- there are steep discounts facing producers that bring wheat in that has foreign material in it- feral rye, cheat or wild oats for example. Farmers could lose fifteen to twenty percent of the value of the wheat they bring in if weeds are a problem.

Click here for more on this economic storm in wheat country- including an audio overview of the storm.

In a letter, Reid said, - among the actions I think we need to explore are ensuring the oil companies are held accountable for their actions and the damages caused by their operations. Reid adds, this means Congress - must move much more quickly to help the country kick the oil habit as soon as possible and push harder for the production of affordable alternative fuels and advanced vehicles.

An energy expert and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, says Reid's letter suggests he wants to design a bill that would - include making oil rigs safer, reducing oil use and reducing oil pollution. Daniel Weiss notes - addressing oil pollution includes global warming pollutants produced by burning oil.

KCBT HRW wheat futures open interest has increased to record-high levels due to the largest projected wheat ending stocks numbers in over 20 years and an increase in both intra-market and inter-market spread trade activity, according to KCBT traders.

Volume has been extremely active in the KCBT HRW wheat futures contract thus far in 2010. At the end of May, year-to-date wheat futures trading volume was up 25.1 percent compared to 2009 numbers. Open interest measures the number of open trading positions in a market. Each KCBT wheat futures contract represents 5,000 bushels of wheat.
The Kansas City Board of Trade, founded in 1856, is the world's largest futures market for hard red winter wheat.

Big Iron is an online no reserve auction for farm equipment- and this auction will feature some quality forage handling equipment, semis and even a Cessna Airplane. Call 1-800-937-3558 if you have questions or would be interested in consigning equipment in a future auction.

The next auction could be really interesting, as it will be featuring antique machinery. Already, there is quite a list of items listed for the June 23rd online auction- and I suspect additional items will be listed in the next few days.

Our friend Matt Gard of Fairview continues to recover from a motorcycle accident- and hopes to go to a more advanced rehab center later in the summer and his insurance won't pay for any more rehab. As a result, some of Matt's friends have planned a fundraiser get together this Saturday afternoon- evening where all funds will go towards medical and rehab expenses for his treatment.

Shari Holloway is one of those who are helping put the event together- and she tells us it will be a great time, with lots of food and entertainment being planned. It will be held at the PPS Longhern Bldg 3/4 mile west on Junkyard Road North of Fairview, OK.
Shari also tells us that "If you can't attend, but would like to mail a donation, send to: Community National Bank, 101 N. Main, Fairview 73737- make checks payable to: Matt Gard Benefit."

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.