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, September 22- featuring Low Hour, Farmer Owned Equipment. Click here for their website to learn more about their Online Farm Equipment Auctions.

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 springtime 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.

The big story of the weekly report is compilation of wheat planting stats for the 2011 crop. In Oklahoma, many producers have begun fall planting after the beneficial rainfall of the previous week. Wheat seedbed preparation was 75 percent complete by week's end, and 13 percent of wheat was planted, seven points behind normal. In Texas, one fourth of the crop has now been planted- and that is one percent ahead of the five year average. Finally, in Kansas- they have begun as well- with 11% planted already- two percentage points behind their five year average.

"Harvest is underway for most row crops as conditions continued to be rated mostly in the good to fair range. Ninety-two percent of corn had matured by Sunday, 17 points ahead of normal. Corn harvest was 64 percent complete by week's end, 17 points ahead of the five-year average. Sorghum coloring reached 83 percent complete, and 44 percent of sorghum had matured by Sunday, 16 points ahead of normal. The sorghum harvest was 17 percent complete by the end of the week, six points ahead of normal. The soybean crop was virtually finished setting pods by the end of the week. Twenty-six percent of the crop had matured, and seven percent was harvested by Sunday. Forty-eight percent of peanut plants had matured by week's end, on track with the five-year average. Three quarters of the cotton bolls were opening by week's end, 31 points ahead of normal."

Click on the LINK below to jump to the latest Oklahoma Crop Weather Update as issued by USDA.

Click here for the latest Oklahoma Crop Weather Update from NASS out of USDA

At CNBC's request, Baccus taped a question to Obama that didn't make the hour-long broadcast. Baccus asked why the President talked about wanting to help small businesses and farms- and then allowed his Administration to add more and more regulations and costs to doing business- to the point that survival was getting more and more difficult.

The question that the farm leader submitted did not make it- and Baccus says one of the reasons was that the President was too busy making campaign points instead of listening to the people.
During the Town Hall- the President contended that things will get better- "Everything I'm doing is thinking about how do we grow this economy and how we grow this middle class. It has not happened fast enough. I know how frustrated people are."
Click on the LINK below and you can jump over to our webstory where we audio comments with Steve Baccus on this subject.

Click here for more from Steve Baccus of Kansas Farm Bureau- unhappy with the President's policies and how farms, ranches and small business are treated.

To date, no boll weevils have been caught in the 2010 cotton season, Harris said. Trap density is one to 60 acres in five southwest counties and one to 80 acres elsewhere on approximately 272,000 acres,he reported.
OBWEO directors voted to set the 2011 crop year assessment, which supports the boll weevil eradication program, at $2 per acre of harvested cotton, Harris said.
2010 has been a year of transition for the OBWEO programs's Information Technology department. A new Eradication Manager online program was installed to replace the old system which could no longer be supported.

Click on the LINK below to learn more about the new tracking system that will be functional in the coming crop year- which should make it quicker and easier to monitor the traps that will be established in cotton growing areas of the state. The increase in acres in Oklahoma in recent years is due in part to the efforts of riding ourselves of the boll weevil.

Click here for more on the OBWEO and their plans for the 2011 Crop Season

The ERS report also dealt with higher feed costs and how that might impact marketing of feeder cattle. "Current crop production estimates indicate crop yields lower than those estimated last month. To the extent feed grain supplies are tighter than previously expected, demands for feeder cattle will be affected by higher corn prices and livestock costs of grain." The report speaks of higher corn costs making gains on pasture more attractive- which ends up meaning feeder cattle are heavier when they finally come to market as yearlings- ready for the feedlot. Heavier yearlings means fewer days needed in the feedlots with higher priced corn to be fed.

The ERS report adds this note about potential profits in the feedlots- even with higher feed costs- "higher corn prices generally provide incentive for shorter rather than longer feeding periods. This relationship between corn prices and feeding periods underlies the logic of placing heavier off-grass feeder cattle when corn prices are relatively high. Despite the significant increase in second-quarter 2010 placements over 2009 and 2008 placements, the extended favorable grazing season may provide feedlot placements of relatively large numbers of heavy feeder cattle during August and September. With current hedging opportunities, these cattle could provide positive cattle feeding margins into next year, despite higher corn prices."

To read the fuil report- including more on the cattle outlook- beef export picture and special article on Drop Credits and Exports- Click Here.

Under the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (EGTRRA), the estate tax expired at the end of 2009 but will return in 2011 at a rate of 55 percent on all assets over $1 million.

Members of Congress have floated several "reform" proposals, ranging from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' proposal to reinstate the tax at a top rate of 65 percent to South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint's proposal to permanently repeal the tax. Other proposals with various rates and exemptions also have been discussed.

The study concludes that If the estate tax were reinstituted at a 65 percent rate, more than 1.6 million jobs would be lost. If Congress takes no action and the estate tax returns to the pre-EGTRRA rate of 55 percent (60 percent for certain estates), between 1.4 million and 1.5 million jobs would be lost. Various compromise rates also produce job losses: nearly 1.2 million jobs would be lost at 45 percent; 900,000 jobs at 35 percent and 367,000 at 15 percent.

Click here to jump to the full report on the jobs impact with the Death Tax back in place in 2011.

Iowa State's Mike Gaul, career services director, said there are impressive salaries reported for numerous agribusiness sectors, food science, agronomy and technology-related majors. Starting average salaries for at least two disciplines, Ag Economics and Ag Education and Communications topped $40,000 annual starting salary- while those coming out of Agronomy and Crop Sciences averaged just a few dollars shy of $40,000 for that starting salary.

The lowest starting salaries for Ag Grads reported in 2009-2010 by the Iowa State study were found in Biological Sciences at a starting annual salary of $29,699 and Environmental Sciences, Fisheries, Forestry and Wildlife Biology- starting salary on average for this group was $29,489. Click on the LINK below to see specifics for seven different majors- what the salaries and types of jobs young people were getting- and the companies that were hiring.
If you're that well rounded student with a good work ethic- probably some FFA and/or 4-H background- it appears that jobs may be there in the agricultural arena that grads may only dream about coming out of other parts of the Universities these days.

Click here for some of the details of the study on College Grads and the Salaries for Ag Related Jobs

On Wednesday morning- the first 2 items close at 10:00 am CST- each 2 items following will close at 1 minute intervals there after unless time extends.
This is an unreserved online only internet auction event. Each piece will sell without reserve to the highest bidder.
To sell equipment on their next auction October 13, call a sales representative today, 1-800-937-3558.

Click here for more on this week's Big Iron sale- which comes to an end Wednesday morning.

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.