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 welcome Big Iron Unreserved Online Auctions as our newest sponsor of the daily Email. Their next auction is Wednesday, August 11 - featuring Low Hour, Farmer Owned Equipment. Click here for their website to learn more about their Online Farm Equipment Auctions.

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In the early part of the overnight trade- wheat prices continued to forge higher, running out of steam at $8.22 a bushel, basis the KC September contract- as we write this around 6 AM this Friday morning- it stands at $7.82- up a couple of pennies. Most of the gains have been in the current months based on existing supplies- as the July new crop contract gained just two cents on Thursday at $7.48 a bushel in KC.

Besides the news of the Putin move in Russia- other rumors from that region emphasize they are in bad shape for this crop year-There was new talk this afternoon of the Ukraine defaulting on wheat shipments to Asian customers and a possible export ban in Kazakhstan. In addition to the Russian export ban, the USDA released a healthy export sales number of 854,000 metric tonnes sold last week. In addition, 110,000 metric tonnes of U.S. wheat was sold to an unknown source.

Cash wheat prices have responded to rising futures- and now are above $6.00 a bushel in most locations across Oklahoma- click here for the regular cash wheat report from the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture.

Click here for some of the global coverage this story is getting- in this case from the British Financial Times

As for farmer selling to this point- we heard two tales- one is that many farmers sold everything at harvest and are now angry that the market is soaring higher, after all the talk at harvest was the burdensome global stocks and the "fact" that wheat prices would never dig their way out of the glut we were facing. We also were facing low protein counts at harvest, subterminal points in Oklahoma that were geared up to ship to the Gulf and no Gulf buyers wanting wheat if the protein level was not above 12%- they didn't want it at ANY price. That's why cash wheat prices had a two in front of them for a few days in southwest Oklahoma back early in the harvest season.

The other side of the farmer selling story is that while farmers sold some at harvest to pay bills- they held on to the rest and have been selling into the rally- Johnston Grain officials estimated that about 70% or a little more of their customers' grain from the 2010 harvest has been merchandised to this point with more likely to be sold if producers see this market peaking.
We'll have more from the Oklahoma Wheat Review in our Monday email.

The catch right now is that the Obama Administration has not figured out how to move the money around and what programs will take a hit to get Lincoln the money she wants to hand out. The Senator told Agri-Pulse last week that "In exchange for pulling ag disaster from the small business bill, I have secured an agreement from both Majority Leader Reid and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and have their commitment to deliver critical agriculture disaster assistance administratively in the next two weeks."
It might be noted that the Chairman of the House Ag Committee, Collin Peterson, told the Sugar Symposium in Vail, Co this past week that his staff is saying there is no way the USDA can move that much money around administratively.

Arkansas farmers would get the most cash in this Disaster Aid package, according to estimates that have been made by the Environmental Working Group, who have published the data on their website. Arkansas would get over $210 million, followed by Illinois with over $170 million and Texas with $146 million. Oklahoma farmers also do VERY WELL- as our state is in line for a $106 million dollar pay day if the money is found and delivered.

Click here for the EWG website overview of the disaster package proposed by Senator Lincoln.

Those counties include:

Texas County, Oklahoma $5,836,699
Garfield County, Oklahoma $5,535,355
Grant County, Oklahoma $5,416,936
Caddo County, Oklahoma $5,147,924
Tillman County, Oklahoma $4,761,712
Washita County, Oklahoma $4,674,832
Jackson County, Oklahoma $4,636,536
Kay County, Oklahoma $4,122,144
Alfalfa County, Oklahoma $3,996,980
Custer County, Oklahoma $3,800,783
Kingfisher County, Oklahoma $3,530,004
Cimarron County, Oklahoma $3,089,159
Blaine County, Oklahoma $3,056,491

All told, 74 of the 77 Oklahoma counties have money that could be coming in from this Disaster Aid package that may forthcoming- as promised by Senator Lincoln to farmers and as promised to Lincoln by White House Chief of Staff Emanuel- all outside of the normal legislative process.

Click here for the Oklahoma breakout of the possible disaster aid money that may arrive this month.

Gillibrand's approach is not likely to set well with Ag Committee leadership. Ag Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Ranking Member Saxby Chambliss of Georgia represent southern crops such as cotton, rice and peanuts. But Gillibrand admits these things take time and says that's why she wants to start this debate now.

Gillibrand's five areas of improvements are providing greater access to capital through USDA loan programs; ddressing the dairy crisis by overhauling the milk pricing system; expanding the Market Access Program and securing more funding to promote USDA's Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program; targeting assistance to specialty crop farmers via current conservation programs - as well a new program Gillibrand plans to introduce called the Conservation on Muck Soils program; and she wants to invest in new sources of clean, renewable energy.

Click here for the News Release from Senator Gillibrand's website on her view of farm policy priorities

Pricewise- Blach says we need higher calf prices to really shore up the financial balance sheet for our cow-calf operations. With higher prices, that should entice many of our producers to look at increasing the number of cows they run, even as they look to upgrade genetics along the way. In recent years, cow numbers have trended lower nationally- and the lack of strong positive returns, as well as the uincertainty of the macro economic picture has keep the cow calf segment on the defensive. Blach believes better calf prices would turn attitudes about expansion around in beef cattle country.

Click on the link below to jump over to our Beef Buzz with Randy Blach as we zero in on the cow-calf end of the business with the top hired hand of Cattlefax.

Click here for our Beef Buzz featuring Cattlefax's Randy Blach.

Also this weekend- I was asked to join Orion and Max for their weekly show, This Week in Agribusiness that is seen on the RFD channel. We talk about the wheat price situation with them in a four minute segment during the show. This Week in Agribusiness airs at 7 AM central time on RFD- and then repeats a couple of times on Sunday- check your listings.

Finally, the next two weeks- SUNUP has been preempted on OETA during their August Fest campaign. SUNUP returns to OETA on August 21st. By the way, we are sad that Clinton Griffiths has vamoosed and left Oklahoma- he did a great job on SUNUP- but we are excited that he will be on air with AgDay in the days ahead. He will be missed.

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.