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, October 13 - 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 upcoming 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 Grand Champion Market Steer- shown by Logan Davis of Newscastle FFA, had the gavel banged after bidders had pushed the 2010 Champion to $38,000. Long time supporter of the Tulsa Sale, L.C. Neel, paid $38,000 for the Steer and indicated in the show ring after the auction that he believed that he had bought the Grand Champion Steer 31 different times over the years. The first Tulsa State Fair Premium Auction was conducted back in 1973. The top steer a year ago was not purchased by Mr. Neel- and it brought $35,000.

The Grand Champion Market Hog did not bring as much money for his owner- as Carli Newby of Lindsay FFA, a Freshman in High School, saw a group of buyers pay $12,500 for her animal- compared to the $14,000 paid in 2009. The group buying Carli's pig included the Choctaw Nation, Oklahoma Pork Council, Oklahoma Farm Bureau, Overhead Door and the Tulsa Ringmasters.

The Grand Champion Market Lamb was shown by veteran show ring winner Cooper Newcomb of Merritt FFA- the 2010 Grand Champion was purchased by the Bank of Western Oklahoma for a total of $12,000. The 2009 Grand Champion barrow sold for $13,000.
Finally, the Grand Champion Market Lamb was shown by veteran show ring winner Cooper Newcomb of Merritt FFA- the 2010 Grand Champion was purchased by the Bank of Western Oklahoma for a total of $12,000. The 2009 Grand Champion barrow sold for $13,000.

Click here to read more about the Premium Sale- as well as jump to our LINK that points you to the 170 pictures we have posted on Flickr of the Premium Auction and the Night of Champions at the Tulsa State Fair.

In its Crop Production Report, USDA forecast soybean production at 3.41 billion bushels, up 1 percent from the previous record, set in 2009. Soybean yield is expected to average 44.4 bushels per acre. Soybean growers are expected to harvest a record-high 76.8 million acres. Meanwhile, corn production is forecast at 12.7 billion bushels, down 3.4 percent from last year's record. Based on October 1 conditions, corn yield are expected to average 155.8 bushels per acre. Growers are expected to harvest 81.3 million acres.
All cotton production is forecast at 18.9 million bales, up 55 percent from last year. This is the first increase in cotton production in the United States since 2005. The cotton yield is forecast at 841 pounds per acre, up 64 pounds from last year.

The National Corn Growers Association and Growth Energy were both quick to confirm there will be enough corn to meet all demands for food, feed, fuel and exports during the coming year. NCGA expects the harvest of 12.7 billion bushels to provide a surplus, or ending stocks, of nearly one-billion bushels.
The official number for ending corn stocks is actually around 900 million bushels- a fourteen year low. While they offered no commentary on what impact this may mean to cattle feeders, the Texas Cattle Feeders Association did say that the under one billion bushel carryout "suggests there will be serious rationing of corn during the coming year."
Also weighing in on that aspect of the report was John Anderson, economist with American Farm Bureau, who opines "Corn producers will welcome the higher price, but livestock and dairy producers will have to pay more than they expected to for feed."

Click here for our report from this past Friday which includes direct links to the USDA Crop Production Report as well as the ERS Monthly Supply and Demand Report.

In fact, that pecan number is one of three numbers that were especially impressive. two years ago, our pecan trees produced just 5 million pounds- in 2009- that leapfrogged to 13.5 million pounds and now USDA is thinking another big jump to 22 pounds.
We got some details on the winter canola crop that was harvested this past June. It was a bigger crop than most of the crop observers were discussing- as conventional wisdom had us around 40,000 acres to be harvested this year- instead USDA found 60,000 acres planted last fall- and 55,000 acres harvested at the beginning of summer. Production per acre was pegged at 1,600 pounds (32 bushels per acre) for a total production of 88,000,000 pounds.

Also impressive was the continued rise of the Oklahoma Cotton Industry. Cotton production is forecast at 455,000 480-pound bales, up 1 percent from last month and 43 percent above 2009. An average yield of 824 pounds is expected from 265,000 harvested acres. That total production figure means Oklahoma is raising more cotton this year than Louisiana.

You can review all of the Oklahoma numbers in one place- click here for our review of the Oklahoma Crop numbers based on this October First data.

The collections will take only pesticides; no other types of hazardous waste such as oil, paint or antifreeze will be accepted. All pesticides will be taken, no matter the size. "No questions will be asked of participants," said Charles Luper, Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service associate with the Oklahoma State University Pesticide Safety Education Program.

"We've had 24 pesticide collections since 2007 with a total of 518,588 pounds of pesticide material collected," he said

The program is funded by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, with additional support from the Oklahoma Agribusiness Retailers Association and the OSU Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

Click here for more details- and there is a link that will download the PDF Flyer for the November collection sites.

The interesting thing about this time around- Doud says that the groundwork has finally been laid in place in Japan to get some stability at the Ag Ministry in that country, which will help the ability of the US Government to have someone to actually dialogue with. Every time we have had discussions with an official with the Japanese government on this subject- and some promises are made to begin a process to get this looked at- another head rolls and another Ag Minister is gone- and with it, the promises that were made to US negotiators.

Click on the LINK below to hear our recent conversation with Gregg about staying tuned in to the beef export market opportunities found in Asia here in the last quarter of 2010 and beyond.

Click here for the latest Beef Buzz with Gregg Doud of NCBA- talking Pacific Rim Prospects.

This year's audit also showed the number of packages in the fresh meat case with on-pack nutrition labeling is maintaining a gradual expansion. From 2007 to 2010, the number of packages with on-pack nutrition labeling increased four percentage points from 57% to 61%. When looking specifically at beef, the number of packages with on-pack nutrition labels in place increased five percentage points from 24% in 2007 to 29% in 2010. Ground beef also increased four percentage points from 77% in 2007 to 81% in 2010.

NMCS is an extensive audit of the nation's retail meat cases. For the 2010 research, surveyors audited 124 retail supermarkets and nine club stores in 51 metro markets across 31 states at various times of the day and days of the week. The survey was conducted in the first quarter of this year as a joint project of the Beef Checkoff Program, the National Pork Board and Sealed Air's Cryovac Food Packaging. Texas Tech University was a key contributor to the research effort.

Click here for the Executive Summary of the Report- which gives a lot of insight into where the consumer is being led by the processors when it comes to products in the meat case.

Videos of the cattle to be sold this weekend are now up on the internet. You can use the link right here to get tot eh listing of the videos or use the link at the bottom of the story to select either a catalog or the videos. The quality of the videos are great. For example, click here for Lot 20- one of the great buys they are selling a partial interest in.

From the sale catalog- Montie Soules and the Star Lake team speak of the kind of cattle they are committed to producing- "This year's sale evolves from the 30 plus years of selecting, mating and breeding Herefords. The cow families are intermingled with power cows throughout. We have used more pictures of family members, letting them illustrate the depth and quality of their genetic heritage. The strength of these families comes from years of discipline - selecting critically and culling hard - to achieve superior proven Hereford genetics. This sale is stacked with those results."

Click here for sale information from the Star Lake Cattle Ranch and their October 17 Sale at the Ranch in Skiatook.

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.