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 27- 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.

In Oklahoma- "Dry planting of small grains continued due to the lack of moisture while the emergence of small grains is behind normal. Wheat planted reached 78 percent complete by Sunday, one point ahead of normal, while 51 percent of wheat had emerged, four points behind normal." Texas wheat farmers have also been slowed by dry conditions- and are now up to 73% planted versus 66% last week. Kansas wheat producers are doing better- and now have 86% of their crop in the ground- a jump of 15 percentage points in the latest week and six points ahead of the five year average.

Nationally, it is a much more normal harvest for the soybean and corn producers across the country this fall. Corn producers had horrible conditions for harvest in 2009- with just 16% of the crop nationally harvested by this date- this season we stand at 68% done. The soybean story is much the same- 83% harvested here in 2010 versus just 29% in 2009. Click here for the full set of US Crop Progress numbers from Uncle Sam.

Back to our Oklahoma report- we look at the spring planted crops- "The warm dry weather allowed harvest to continue across the state. The corn harvest was virtually complete by week's end, 10 points ahead of the five-year average. Ninety-one percent of sorghum had matured by Sunday, 30 points ahead of normal, and 49 percent of sorghum was harvested by week's end, 16 points ahead of normal. Soybeans at maturity reached 68 percent complete by week's end and 36 percent of the crop had been harvested. Ninety-three percent of peanut plants had matured by week's end, five points ahead of normal. Sixty-five percent of the peanut crop had been dug by Sunday, 21 points ahead of normal, and 40 percent were combined, 13 points ahead of the five-year average. The cotton harvest was 30 percent complete by Sunday, 18 points ahead of the five-year average."

Click here for the FULL Oklahoma Crop Weather Update as released on Monday

When the boll weevil eradication program began in Oklahoma, Whittenberg served on the first Oklahoma Boll Weevil Eradication Assn. elected board of directors. Today, with the end of boll weevil depredations in sight, he is still a member of the Oklahoma board. Getting farmers who were already suffering money problems to agree to financially support the eradication effort required a lot of mediation and pursuasion, Whittenberg remembers. "We had some pretty spirited sessions," he said. "We perservered, however. Our board chairman, Jerry McKinley, was a good leader and kept everyone on target."

Click here for more on Ron's story and how he has been able to stay in the cotton business- thanks to the Boll Weevil eradication efforts.

SPEAKING of the 2010 Cotton Crop- while we have 30% of the crop now harvested- we found one field in northeastern Canadian County that is still showing some growth- and has the combination of both lots of full blooms and fully open bolls. We have some pictures from that field on our website- click on the LINK below to look at them (they were taken this past Saturday- October 16)

Click here to check out the pictures of open bolls and blooms in the same cotton field as we wind down the 2010 growing season.

Ashton tells us that she really has gotten hooked on this type of speech contest- having to rely on taking a subject- build a speech in thirty minutes and then answer questions to defend her work after the speech is concluded. The OSU Freshman won the 2010 Oklahoma Extemporaneous Speech Contest at the State FFA Convention this past May as a Senior at Kingfisher High School. This earned her the right to come to Indianapolis this week as the official conestant in this competition as Oklahoma's standard bearer. As I spent about an hour this past Wednesday with Ashton just talking issues- she impressed me with her knowledge about so many of the important agricultural issues of the day.
You can click on the LINK at the bottom of this story to jump to our website and listen to our conversation with this bright, articulate young lady.

Our coverage of the 2010 National FFA convention gets cranked up to full speed by tomorrow morning- a service of the Oklahoma FFA Alumni Association and the Oklahoma FFA Association. We will be having a couple of stories each morning here in our email that balance of the week- but a lot more than that in the Blue Green Gazette section of our website, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. You can also follow our activities through the day on Twitter- and we will have stories mornings and midday on our great radio stations across the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network.

Click here to read more and listen to our conversation with Ashton Mese of Kingfisher- Oklahoma's Extemp Speaker in Indianapolis at the National FFA Convention

"EPA conducts a rigorous analysis of the health and environmental effects of a proposed use of a pesticide; when used in compliance with the EPA-approved label, FIFRA-registered pesticides have already been proven safe," said Robinson. "Rather than spending precious time and resources on duplicative permitting efforts, EPA should instead be focused on working with landowners to support on-the-ground conservation solutions with true environmental value. Forcing producers to go through an additional burdensome permitting process will only increase production costs and add stress on already overburdened state resources, without providing any additional environmental benefits."

Click on the LINK below for more on these letters sent to the House and Senate Ag Committee leaders- which of course includes Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas who is currently the ranking Minority member of the House Ag Committee.

Click here to read more on this story and have the chance to see the letters actually sent to the Ag Congressional Leaders.

Dinner, along with opportunities to participate in lively silent and live auctions, promises an evening of enjoyable philanthropy. Standard event seating is available for $150 by reservation only. Table sponsorship is available for $1,500 and up.

Jet McCoy, a twelve-time International Finals Rodeo qualifier and member of the 2010 Amazing Race runner up team, will be Master of Ceremonies. There will also be a special performance by The A Bar Bunkhouse Band, at this year's ball. The A Bar Bunkhouse Band is comprised four young men, 16 to 22 years of age, who work to carry on the Western Swing tradition of Bob Wills.
Click on the LINK below to see the list of Oklahoma Youth that will be honored that night as Debs and Beaus- and we have a link that will get you over to the information you need to call and secure your tickets for this Ag Social Event of the Fall.

Click here for more on the Diamond Hats Ball Coming Up October 30th.

We receive a regular email commentary from Steve Dittmer, who operates an organization that he calls the American Agribusiness Freedom Foundation. Dittmer writes in the last couple of commentaries that we have received about a visit that NCBA members had while in Washington in recent days with the Chief Economist of the USDA- Dr. Joe Glauber. Glauber told the cattle producers that his department - the USDA Office of Budget and Program Analysis - and he, the chief enonomist, had done no cost/benefit analysis on the Rule.

Dittmer writes in his most recent email that "While USDA's chief economist has not been asked to do a cost/benefit analysis of one of the most consequential federal regulation in decades, comments on the Rule will come back through his office. Behind the veil of rulemaking non-comment, Glauber seemed to suggest that comments regarding economic impact of the rule could afford his department the opportunity to bring to bear their economic knowledge, background, and research in responding to comments."

What does that mean to cattle producers who want the economic questions about the GIPSA Rule answered- and answered by someone outside of GIPSA? I would say it means raise LOTS of economic questions about the Rule in comments you submit. Get really specific about what you want to know. AND send those comments to the Secretary- to GIPSA, but also to Dr. Joe Glauber, Chief Economist of the USDA. His email is jglauber@oce.usda.gov

Offer your own guess about the cost of the Rule- ask USDA to confirm or deny your estimates- and explain why and how they agree or disagree. Dr. Glauber seems to have his hands tied unless enough demands force the US Secretary to call for a full blown economic study. You can read up on the RULE- and get the link for submitting your comments on the RULE by clicking on the LINK below- it goes to our PRIMER on the GIPSA Rule.

Click here for more on the GIPSA Rule on Livestock Markets

The next stop is after lunch at 2 PM- the Texas County Fairgrounds in Guymon where properties in Texas County will be up for bid.

Tomorrow, the auction of leases will be at the High Plains Technology Center in Woodward- with leases found in six counties to be offered, staring at 10 AM. Counties involved include Harper, Ellis, Woods, Woodward, Major and Dewey.

Click here for the detailed listing of the leases being offered this year by the Commission- organized on a county by county basis.

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.