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. One of the great success stories of the Johnston brand is Wrangler Bermudagrass- the most widely planted true cold-tolerant seeded forage bermudagrass in the United States. 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 ten locations to serve you, 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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"Conditions for wheat and rye continued to improve from the moisture received the past two weeks and grazing prospects are improving. Wheat emerged reached 94 percent complete by Sunday, four points ahead of normal." Our neighbor to the north- Kansas- has improved some from a week ago, but still has a lot of wheat ground rated poor to very poor. Twenty six percent of their crop are in those two lowest ratings, while 38% is in fair shape and 32% in good condition. Four percent is called excellent.

Back in Oklahoma, ninety-four percent of canola plants had emerged by the end of the week, an increase of four points from the week prior.

For our spring planted crops, "Harvest is winding down ahead of normal for all row crops. Sorghum harvest reached 94 percent complete by Sunday, 15 points ahead of normal. The soybean harvest was 94 percent complete, eight points ahead of the five-year average. The cotton harvest was 73 percent complete by Sunday, 11 points ahead of normal."

Click on the LINK below for the complete rundown of crop, pasture and weather conditions summarized for Oklahoma over this past week.

Click here for our November 22nd Oklahoma Crop Weather Update

USDA will conduct the referendum Feb. 1-28, 2011, at local Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices for producers and the Agricultural Marketing Service office for importers. Ballots may be obtained in person, by mail or facsimile at county FSA offices, or via the Internet.
Any eligible person engaged in the production or importation of sorghum from July 1, 2008, to Dec. 31, 2010, is eligible to participate. Individuals are required to provide documentation such as a sales receipt or remittance form that shows they engaged in production or importation of sorghum.

The Sorghum Checkoff Program, and its 13-member board, is authorized by the Commodity Promotion, Research, and Information Act of 1996. The mandatory program is funded at the rate of 0.6 percent of the net market value on grain sorghum and 0.35 percent of the net market value of sorghum forage.
The Sorghum Checkoff is intended to be a national, coordinated, self-help marketing program designed to strengthen the position of sorghum in the marketplace, maintain and expand existing domestic and foreign markets and uses for sorghum, and develop new markets and uses for sorghum.

To learn more about the sorghum checkoff efforts as the program has gotten off the ground, click here.

"The U.S.-China trade relationship continues to flourish, thanks in large part to agriculture. U.S. farm exports to China have grown nearly tenfold over the past decade, from $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2000 to $15 billion in 2010. With each $1 billion in exports supporting 8,000 jobs, that $15 billion supports nearly 120,000 U.S. jobs.

"Last year, China became the second largest export market for U.S. agriculture overall and remained the largest market for U.S. soybeans, with 2010 sales of $9 billion.

"China will continue to be a key trading partner as agriculture contributes to President Obama's goal of doubling total U.S. exports over the next 5 years."

The most recent comments on this website were posted November 17- suggesting that thousands of additional comments pro and con are still to be added to the more than 44,000 comments that came in on the GIPSA rule.
Many of these comments on both sides of the issue were created with a template- with lots of the same verbiage repeated over and over and over.

One comment that we came across that supported the GIPSA Rule was from Jon Kirkpatrick of Colorado who stated "for years the meat packing industry has used their market power to bully livestock producers and feeders to accept unfair and deceptive contracts. I am pleased that USDA is finally stepping up to protect the independent livestock producer, feeder and contract grower."

One comment that we happened onto against the Rule came from Mark Gardiner of Gardiner Angus of southwest Kansas. Mark writes "this rule is simply wrong, un-American, and would be a devastating mistake to inflict upon our industry."

Click here to jump to our Beef Buzz, where we talked about these comments and more- and have the link to where you can go and look at comments yourself.

"As proposed, the GIPSA rule is bad for farmers and ranchers, retailers and consumers," said Roy Lee Lindsey, OPC executive director. "We'd like the agency to issue separate, appropriate, clear and legally supportable rules consistent with Congressional grants of authority, for each of the poultry, swine and beef industries, recognizing that each segments of the meat industry is unique."

In its comments, OPC said the "one-size-fits-all" approach to rule making would have a devastating impact on the structure of Oklahoma's pork industry. For example, the prohibition on packers, or entities owned by packers, from selling hogs to another packer would increase operating costs for produce­rs because they would have to incorporate a middleman.

Click here to read more about the OPC comments- and we have a link to the full submitted comments provided to USDA by the Oklahoma Pork Council

American children are learning about the origins of our food and healthy food options by visiting farms, learning from hard-working farmers and ranchers, and trying their hand at agriculture through networks of school gardens and farm-to-school programs. Thanks to farmer's constant enterprise and innovation, rural communities are building new domestic and international markets for their high-quality food, fuel, and fiber products.

Mr. Obama concluded, - while we gather with family and friends during this time of Thanksgiving, let us celebrate farms of every size that produce the abundance that graces our tables. During National Farm-City Week, as the bounty of agriculture moves from America's farms to our tables, we honor all who foster our healthier future.

A quick reminder that with Thursday being Thanksgiving, ag markets will be closed and we will have no email for you that day. We will have a limited email available on Friday after the holiday- and the ag futures market will operate a half trading day.
Many auction barns from Wednesday forward are closed the balance of this week- so check with the barn you do business with if you are planning on loading some cattle and heading to town to sell them.

We have added several items to the end of the calendar yesterday- and more to come today- so click here and check our calendar pages of our website, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. In particular, check out the loaded program that the Oklahoma Wheat Growers have for their annual meeting on December 11.

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.