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 have KIS Futures as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. KIS Futures provides Oklahoma Farmers & Ranchers with futures & options hedging services in the livestock and grain markets- Click here for the free market quote page they provide us for our website or call them at 1-800-256-2555- and their IPHONE App, which provides all electronic futures quotes is available at the App Store- click here for the KIS Futures App for your Iphone.

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 held each December- this year's dates are the 8th through the 10th. Click here for the Midwest Farm Show main website to learn more about their lineup of shows around the country!

We invite you to listen to us on great radio stations across the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network weekdays- if you missed this morning's Farm News - or you are in an area where you can't hear it- click here for this morning's Farm news from Ron Hays on RON.

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 Ohio, Pro Farmer crop tour participants found an immature corn crop which could be helped by late season rains and an extended growing season. In Indiana, the tour found dry weather stress. Test weights will be light. The Illinois corn crop was found to be - typical. In Iowa, much variation was reported. The tour considered Southwest Iowa - a disaster, but better potential was found in eastern and central Iowa. In Minnesota it's been too dry to produce a good corn crop. In Nebraska, good ear length and solid weight don't make up for missing ears. And in South Dakota, the crop looks really similar to last year's.

In the nation's soybean fields, Pro Farmer Crop Scouts found in Ohio, pod counts are up from year ago, but they need time and water to finish strong. In Indiana, disease and bug pressures were limited. Rains are the key to Indiana's soybean future. In Illinois, the northern half of the crop has plenty of moisture to finish with a good yield. Pro Farmer Scouts see a record yield in Iowa, with one more rain. In Minnesota, dry weather stress has taken its toll. Scouts say Nebraska's beans show far fewer problems than excellent beans. And in South Dakota, a lack of disease and one more rain means the bean crop has a chance at a really good finish.

We've got the state by state review of the 2011 soybean and corn crop in these major midwestern states- and you can review them by clicking on the LINK below.

Clcik here for more details from the Pro Farmer corn and soybean crop review of this last week.

"The National Cotton Council believes that sound farm policy is essential to the economic viability of the cotton industry. The combination of the marketing loan, Direct Payments (DP) and Counter-cyclical Payments (CCP), as structured in the 2008 Farm Bill, has served the cotton industry extraordinarily well and, in recent years, has required minimal federal outlays.

"However, it is clear that future deficit reduction efforts will place unprecedented pressure on the existing structure. The Budget Control Act reinforces the severe funding constraints facing not only U.S. cotton, but all of agriculture. Deficit reduction will lower the baseline funds available to upland cotton, and simply downsizing the current program structure would likely undermine the effectiveness of the programs to the extent that alternatives must be evaluated to ensure growers have access to the most effective safety net."

Click here to jump to our website to read the rest of the farm policy statement released by the National Cotton Council on Friday

Queen adds that Eastern Livestock's bank, Fifth Third, did not do their homework as to the amount of business that Eastern claimed they were doing in the final year before checks started bouncing this past October. Eastern claimed they had tripled their business in 2009 and early 2010 compared to just a few months earlier, which earned them a larger line of credit which they quickly utilized. Queen says that Eastern was claiming to Fifth Third that their volume of cattle transactions were greater than the entire universe of cattle trades within the US. Queen contends that Fifth Third carefully chose their time to stop honoring the checks written by Eastern- choosing to stop honoring those checks at the peak of the fall cattle run, when Eastern would have a maximum amount of money running through their account.

John Queen is our guest on this Beef Buzz- our Beef Buzz shows are heard on great radio stations across the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network. And- we have Beef Buzz shows on our website- jump to our website and click on the Beef Buzz button on the left hand side of any page. Click on the LINK below for this Beef Buzz featuring our conversation with John Queen.

Click here for our Beef Buzz with John Queen with an update on the Eastern Livestock bankruptcy from last fall.

"Modern agriculture needs more ambassadors to spread the news of the accomplishments farmers and ranchers have made in producing the nation's food, fiber and fuel using the crop protection products and modern agricultural techniques that are now available," Vroom said. "Even more importantly, we must communicate these messages to legislators and regulatory agencies so that agriculture may flourish in a regulatory system based on the best available science."

Vroom says that his organization is very hopeful that the US Senate will be willing to take up H.R. 872, "Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act of 2011": This bill will amend an erroneous court ruling requiring growers to acquire an NPDES permit starting October 31, 2011, for certain pesticide applications to, over or near bodies of water. This redundant regulatory burden increases liability and cost with no added environmental benefit. H.R. 872 has been passed by the House and is currently awaiting action on the Senate floor.

Click here for other issues that Jay Vroom says are critical to agriculture and need to be addressed to stop overregulation.

As a reminder, the MILC program provides cash payments to dairy farmers when the milk price drops below specific thresholds. There is no indication that the milk price will be low enough to trigger a payment under the MILC program in the near future. However, given the volatility in dairy markets, we simply don't know whether the program will trigger in for any of the months between October 1, 2011 and September 30, 2012.

The Milk Producers Council reminds producers to review their "start month" regarding the MILC- click on the LINK below for further details why- you can contact your local FSA office to help walk you through your options as well.

Click here for more on the dairy industry's MILC options

This extension applies to all Monsanto products with Genuity cotton traits regardless of the brand of cottonseed, according to John C. Combest, Monsanto spokesman.

"We are extending this date at the request of cotton growers to allow crop insurance adjusters additional time to verify their loss before the farmers destroy the field. The Sept. 30, 2011, date is the last date possible for claims to be filed and considered for crop loss reimbursement," he said.

Farmers must have purchased Monsanto Trait technologies from an authorized dealer and must meet all requirements for Roundup Rewards. The acres claiming crop loss must be destroyed for the crop loss to be paid and is subject to verification.

Click here for more details of the offer being made by Monsanto to help cotton farmers who planted cotton at the beginning of the season- and are facing a total crop failure.

The Risk Management Agency (RMA) will determine the qualification based on your history of the 3 previous wheat crops or similar crops. Your window of planting winter canola is Sept.10- Oct. 10. If canola is becoming part of your rotation on your farm make sure to check with your crop insurance company to get your crop insurance information.

Finally- the Oklahoma Farm Bureau's Drought Summit is set for Tuesday at the state headquarters building of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau- starting at 9:30 AM. Click here for the schedule of the event- featuring a variety of folks to address drought issues and farmers and ranchers can cope with all the problems that drought brings.

Our thanks to Midwest Farms Shows, PCOM, P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind Energy, Johnston Enterprises, American Farmers & Ranchers and KIS Futures for their support of our daily Farm News Update. For your convenience, we have our sponsors' websites linked here- just click on their name to jump to their website- check their sites out and let these folks know you appreciate the support of this daily email, as their sponsorship helps us keep this arriving in your inbox on a regular basis- FREE!

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.