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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Anderson believes that producers could end up with a 70 million bushel crop in Oklahoma, which at $8.25 per bushel, results in a crop worth almost $580 million. Because of the higher price available to producers, there will not be a big drop in value to producers even though there are fewer bushels this year. In fact, this early estimate is only about 6% fewer dollars back to Oklahoma wheat farmers on the smaller crop in 2011 versus 2010. However, the lack of volume is not good for elevators and the industry that rely on the volume of wheat going through the market, says Anderson. And for those producers who ended up with no crop, they only get proceeds from crop insurance, a far cry from those producers who have thirty bushel an acre wheat or better.

Another concern for producers for the 2012 crop season is the issue of seed wheat. One concern is the limited supply of seed wheat available while another is the cost to produce seed wheat. The cost to produce an acre of seed wheat is about $380, says Anderson. Anderson says producers need to prepare for a short supply in seed wheat and for it to be more expensive than previous years. However, Anderson says to be careful if producers are considering using bin-run wheat because the market is so sensitive to quality.

Click on the LINK below to hear the rest of Ron and Dr. Anderson's conversation on the potential value of this year's wheat crop.

Click here for more information on this 2011 wheat crop season

The 2011 wheat harvest moved rapidly with the dry conditions. "Wheat harvested increased significantly, jumping 32 points to reach 45 percent complete by Sunday." That 45% is well ahead of the ten percent done by a year ago and the five year average of 20%. Texas harvest was rather slow this past week, with 24% of their crop now complete, just slightly ahead of the five year average of 21%. Kansas still has no measurable amount of harvest done, according to their state statistician.

Canola in the mature stage reached 98 percent complete by week's end, up seven points from the previous week, and 50 percent of the crop had been harvested, a 32 point increase from the previous week.

As far as our spring crops are concerned- "Row crop planting continued to progress steadily. Corn emerged reached 91 percent complete by Sunday. Sorghum seedbed preparation increased to 93 percent complete, while 63 percent was planted and 26 percent of the crop had emerged by week's end. Soybean seedbed preparation was 84 percent complete while 54 percent of the crop was planted and 33 percent had emerged by Sunday. Peanut planting was 84 percent complete by week's end and 56 percent of the crop had emerged. Cotton planted was 55 percent complete and 14 percent of the crop had emerged by Sunday."

Click here to review the entire weekly Crop Weather update for Oklahoma (including pasture ratings)

While there, we saw a single combine rolling through a wheat field on the PCOM land- and caught some pictures of what looked to be some pretty good wheat- especially for this drought stressed year. The combine operator was not sure about the variety, but felt the yields were in the low 30s. The wheat that he was cutting with this Gleaner combine was short, but thick and had not been grazed. Click on the LINK below for a few of the pictures we grabbed from this harvest field on Monday afternoon.

We also have had a producer share with us some details of harvest in northcentral-northwest Oklahoma. This producer writes "In NW Oklahoma a 100 acre field of Duster made over 44 bu/acre. Jackpot yields were in the mid 30's. A half-section NE of Enid made 41- mostly Doans. Wheat after full season milo was very poor- it was too dry, and the plants shut down early with one quarter section making 11 bushels per acre after milo.
"All of these fields were pastured by cattle, so add about 8 bu/acre to get total production for wheat and cattle."

Click here for our latest harvest update- including the pictures from Monday of the 2011 wheat harvest

Measuring the drought impacts is difficult since it is impossible to know for sure what would have happened without the drought. However, analysis of typical slaughter patterns and tendencies suggests a range of impacts that probably captures the drought impact. At a minimum, Region 6 beef cow slaughter at the same rate (relative to the cow herd) as last year (which implies additional herd liquidation) would suggest about 49,000 head less slaughter than last year. This would result in a national slaughter rate that would be down 7.7 percent compared to the observed rate of 4.4 percent for the year to date. Moreover, a Region 6 slaughter rate that is closer to the long term average regional rate would suggest that an additional 100,000 head of cows are added to total beef cow slaughter so far this year due to the drought. Adjusting for this would put the national rate over 11 percent less for the year to date.

Click on the LINK below to read the rest of Dr. Derrell Peel's thoughts on the impact of drought on the cattle market now and in years to come.

Click here for the rest of the story on drought from Dr. Derrell Peel

The three-member dispute panel reportedly found that U.S. COOL requirements do not fulfill the objective of helping inform consumers of the origin of meat, act as a protectionist barrier and as a result, violate the WTO agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT). The WTO dispute three-member panel hearing the case consists of a Swiss diplomat; Pakistan's ambassador to the WTO; and a WTO staffer-turned-trade consultant from Portugal.

Not satisfied with the outcome of two sets of consultations held with U.S. officials about their concerns, both Canada and Mexico requested the establishment of a WTO dispute resolution panel in November 2009 to consider their case. Both the Canadian and Mexican governments asserted before the WTO that COOL is inconsistent with several WTO-related trade commitments, including those providing that imports must be treated no less favorably than products of domestic origin, among other things. U.S. officials argued that the U.S. implementation of COOL provides consumers with information that is consistent with WTO commitments, noting that countries had agreed that COOL was legitimate policy long before the WTO was created, and that other countries also require goods to be labeled with their origin.

Click here to read the USCA President Jon Wooster's comment on the WTO preliminary ruling

While U.S. farmers produce wheat of the highest quality, only about 50 percent of each year's crop is consumed here at home. As a result, developing and growing U.S. wheat exports has a direct impact on farm gate prices. Through MAP and FMD, the federal government shares costs with U.S. farmers to help them compete in a growing global market. Yet even in the face of increasing export investment by foreign competitors, these programs are at risk in the current federal budget debate.

"Without the Foreign Market Development program and the Market Access Program, USW would not be able to continue our work overseas," USW President Alan Tracy says in the presentation. "The result is that our competitors, including Canada, Australia and Russia, would be ready to swoop in and take those markets. And once we lose them, they don't come back very quickly."

Click here for the rest of the story from the U.S. Wheat Associates and to watch the video

We have comments from Robb on both the demand side of the equation, as well as the supply side as he also talks about cattle slaughter in comments we have with him on our Tuesday Beef Buzz.

Robb says the numbers show relatively flat slaughter numbers compared to a year ago- but one encouraging sign is that it appears that beef cow numbers may be down just a bit.

Click on the LINK below for today's Beef Buzz- which is the same program heard on great radio stations across our region that are a part of the Radio Oklahoma Network.

Click here for the Tuesday Beef Buzz with Jim Robb of the LMIC

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.