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!

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The stockyards sits a few miles out of town- east on I-44 but the people who work there and the cattle producers who bring cattle to the market were impacted with the devastation that Sunday afternoon brought to this town just over the state line from Oklahoma.

The USDA Market News Reporter captured the mood at the stockyards on Monday- and how cattle producers rallied around one worker at the yards that lost everything. The weekly reporter wrote "The mood at the stockyards today was very somber as a life- taking tornado struck Joplin Sunday evening, causing total destruction and numerous deaths. Buyers helped one family that was connected to the stockyards as they auctioned a heifer several times over to raise money for the family as they lost everything but their lives in the tornado. The generosity of everyone raised 10,000 dollars for the family, which cried with appreciation."

Oklahoma Beef Council member Richard Gebhard pointed out the posting to us from within the Monday market report- and Scott Dewald of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association responded to Richard's email to several folks "And that is the way we do things in cattle country."
One Oklahoma group is helping and every dime that you give them will go to their Joplin releif efforts that are on the ground offering meals and hope to folks as you read this. I am speaking of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma- Click here to learn more about the relief efforts in general and click on the LINK below to designate money to the Relief Efforts now underway in and around Joplin. There are other ways that you can choose to help- they are good- and I encourage you to give and give to one you trust will direct your help into this hard hit area. I trust Sam Porter and his team of Disaster Relief workers- they will put any donation you make with them to good use.

Click here to jump to the donation page for the Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief Efforts for Joplin- check on the form that you want the money directed solely to the Joplin efforts.

The wheat crop remains 80% poor to very poor for the second week in a row as farmer wait for many fields to dry out before they pull a combine intoi them. A limited percentage of the crop has been harvested to date in Oklahoma. South, Texas has 76% of the wheat crop in poor to very poor shape, while the Kansas crop has slipped to 55% poor to very poor. Meanwhile, Canola in the mature stage reached 77 percent complete by week's end, up 12 points from the previous week.

Nationally, corn and soybean planting has gotten closer to being caught up. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported today that 79 percent of the nation's 2011 corn crop has been planted, as growers are working hard to catch up. The percentage of acres planted now falls just 8 percentage points below the five-year average. In some of the major corn states, such as Iowa, Illinois, Kansas and Missouri, planting has surpassed the five-year average mark, and growers in Iowa are virtually finished planting their prospective 13.9 million acres.

"Most of the corn has been planted and is starting to emerge," Dick Gallagher, a grower in Washington County, Iowa, said last week. "It's coming up a bit yellow due to the cold, but I'm optimistic that it will improve. A little over half of the bean crop is also in the ground as of today and planting is still going strong."
Click here for the complete national Crop Progress report issued Monday afternoon by USDA.

Back to the Oklahoma numbers- CLICK here for the latest Oklahoma Crop Weather Update as released yesterday afternoon as well.

Neuens also discusses the 33 different locations available to producers that are accepting canola this year, making it more convenient than ever before for Oklahoma wheat farmers growing canola to deliver canola to PCOM here in 2011.

Click on the LINK below to enjoy our visit with Gene Neuens about the progress we have seen in establishing canola as a rotational crop for winter wheat in the southern plains- as well as a discussion about contracts and marketing canola for this crop season.

Canola TV can be found on Youtube- click here to jump to the WinterCanolaTV channel we have deveoped for PCOM on this popular site and check out some of our previous episodes that focus on producing canola in the southern plains.

Click here for more information on information on merchandising your canola crop.

"For several months I have been anticipating that tight feeder supplies would catch up with feedlots and feedlot placements would have to decrease due to a lack of cattle. I still think that will happen but, I confess, I continue to be amazed at the cattle industry's ability to wring out feeder supplies to an extent unlike anything we have seen before. The May Cattle on Feed report shows feedlot inventories up seven percent over this time last year. However, it should be noted that the May 1 inventory is only 101.4 percent of the previous five year average and highlights the fact that we are still comparing to a small year-ago value.

"April placements were up 10 percent year over year and were up nearly 13 percent over the previous five year average for April. It is a big placement number by any measure. This highlights the obvious question of where feedlots continue to find these numbers of feeder cattle to place. It is necessary to look at the placement weight breakdown and regional patterns, along with other data to understand just how unique the current situation truly is.

Click here for the rest of Dr. Derrell Peel's analysis of the current cattle market

Kay Johnson-Smith, Executive Director for the Animal Agriculture Alliance, says there are ways for farmers and ranchers to combat these videos, including producing their own videos and telling their story about agriculture. The Animal Agriculture Alliance has already begun the process of showing the public the truth about agriculture by producing videos, which are available on their website, as well as starting their own YouTube channel.

Click on the LINK below to hear the rest of the story from Kay Johnson-Smith and find out what you can do to help promote agriculture.

Click here for more information about the fight against anti-agriculture

Several programs from the 2008 Farm Bill have spent less than projected. The projected cost of the commodities program from 2008 to 2012 was $41.6 billion. The new projected total cost for those five years is $32 billion.

"Many programs enacted by the most recent farm bill have spent less than was projected," said NFU President Roger Johnson. "NFU has always held the position that agriculture is willing to cut our share to bring down the federal deficit, but we can't balance the budget with disproportionate cuts to agriculture spending. To do so is irresponsible and damaging to America's future."

Click here for our story and links to see the copies of the letters sent to both bodies of Congress

The Oklahoma Pork Council teams up with OBI each year to host a blood drive. When asked why the Oklahoma Pork Council wanted to team up with OBI, Brooke Clay, Oklahoma Pork Council Director of Promotions, said, "Oklahoma pork producers love to give back to their community and this is a way for producers across the state to give back to the whole state and not just in one specific region."

During the drive each person who donates at any OBI donation center across the state will receive a pulled pork sandwich and squeezable pig. This year the blood drive will take place May 26 and 27, just before the Memorial Day weekend. Also, people that donate during the drive can register to win a backyard barbecue for up to 40 people.

Click here to learn more about how you can donate during the Oklahoma Pork Council Blood Drive

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.