The nation's sorghum crop continues to show improvement, soybeans are holding steady, while corn and cotton conditions fell over last week's report. That's according to the latest crop progress report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The nation's sorghum crop continues to look much better than last year's crop. USDA has 68 percent of the crop in good to excellent condition. That's up one point from last week and nine points better than last year's crop this week. Maturity was running eight points ahead of the five year average with 83 percent of the crop headed.

The nation's cotton crop lost one point from the excellent category over last week. In the 15 main cotton producing states, USDA reported 55 percent of the crop rated in good to excellent condition. That's five points higher than the 2014 crop this week. USDA reported 73 percent of the crop was setting bolls, behind the five-year average of 88.

The corn and soybean numbers showed little change in the latest week- and so taking center stage for those commodities is this week's ProFarmer Midwest Crop Tour- which is really all about corn and soybeans in a limited number of important production states. 

They start with a couple of fringe states- South Dakota and Ohio- South Dakota looks as promising as what USDA predicted last week in the August Crop Production Report- but Ohio in the east saw disappointing numbers for both the corn and soybean crops.  Click here for some of the comments offered by scouts on both the eastern and western legs of the tour.

In addition, we have posted on our website in our Ag Perspectives Podcast an audio conversation with Chip Flory that fellow farm broadcaster Jesse Harding conducted last night after the first day of touring. Click here to go and take a listen to Chip's review of the day.


ONE MORE NOTE- please check out our special look at the Pasture and Range ratings in the latest CROP Progress report- it is further down in today's email!!!!

Oklahoma's corn crop showed some improvement in condition, but maturity continues to lag. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Monday reported the state's corn crop rated 64 percent good to excellent condition, up one point from last week. Sixty-three percent of corn reached the dough stage, down 13 points from the previous year and down 24 points from normal. Soybeans rated 55 percent good to excellent, down one point from last week. The state's cotton crop rated 77 percent good to excellent, unchanged from last week. Cotton setting bolls reached 68 percent, unchanged from average. Sorghum rated 79 percent good to excellent, unchanged from last week. Sorghum headed reached 77 percent with coloring reaching 32 percent. The peanut crop rated 83 percent good to excellent. Pasture and range conditions rated 79 percent good to fair. Click here for the full Oklahoma report.


The corn and sorghum harvest in Texas was progressing with high temperatures and dry conditions. USDA reports 39 percent of the sorghum crop has been harvested. That remains behind last year's 52 and five-year average of 50. Corn harvest progressed to 40 percent complete. That's ahead of last year and in line with average. USDA reports 56 percent of the state's corn crop was in good to excellent condition. The state's soybean crop dropped five points since last week with 40 percent of the crop in good to excellent condition. Cotton rated 46 percent good to excellent, down two points from last week. Pasture and range conditions are deteriorating rapidly with 35 percent in good to excellent condition. That's down seven points from last week and down 17 points in the past two weeks. Click here for the full Texas report.


The Kansas soybean and cotton crop showed improvement since last week. In the latest crop progress report, the Kansas corn crop rated 58 percent good to excellent, down one point from last week. Dough was at 77 percent, equal to last year and near the five-year average. The state's soybean crop rated 55 percent good to excellent, up three points from last week. Blooming was at 86 percent and setting pods was at 61 percent. Sorghum rated 68 percent good to excellent, unchanged from last week. Sorghum headed reached 78 percent. Cotton rated 63 percent good to excellent, up one point from last week. Squaring was at 89 percent and setting bolls was at 52 percent. Pasture and range conditions rated 61 percent good to excellent. Click here for the full Kansas report.

When U.S. crop production numbers come in higher or lower than expectations that often brings criticism by farmers and traders on how the U.S. Department of Agriculture came up with those estimates. There are a lot of calculations and considerations that goes on that the public never sees- but  last week, Tom Leffler of Leffler Commodities was one of the nine Kansas Farm Bureau members that went to Washington to see how USDA calculates crop yields and the process in releasing monthly crop production estimates. 

The whole learning experience began in a corn and soybean field outside of Kansas City. There the group met with National Agricultural Statistics Service officials and field enumerators, where Leffler said they saw the crop sampling process. This allowed the group of farmers to see how the goal of the sampling was not to estimate the yield potential of that individual field, county or state, but rather to collect a sample or data point for the whole U.S. crop. Out of all of the corn in the US, Leffler said less than five acres was used to determine yield potential of the nation's crop and for soybeans it amounts to less than one acre.


"It seems very hard to understand how they come up with yield like that, but that gives them the big picture of the whole United States," Leffler said.


Next, the delegation traveled to Washington D.C. to participate in the lockup for the monthly grain production report that came out on Wednesday, August 12th.   Upon arriving at USDA, their credentials and photo identification were checked and verified. Participants also had to hand over their cell phones and other electronic devices. Leffler said they experienced firsthand the tightness of security, multiple times.   Radio Oklahoma Network's Leslie Smith interviewed Leffler about the whole process.  Click or tap here to listen to the full interview.

Mondays, Dr. Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist, offers his economic analysis of the beef cattle industry- both the livestock sector as well as the wholesale and retail beef trade. This analysis is a part of the weekly series known as the "Cow Calf Corner" published electronically by Dr. Peel and Dr. Glenn Selk. In this week's analysis- Peel talks current feeder cattle and calf prices and what we may see develop, price wise, this fall.


"Feeder cattle prices have bounced off the recent summer lows. For the week ending August 14, 2015, the Oklahoma seven-market average price of 450-500 pound, Medium/Large, number one steers was $283.81/cwt., up from recent summer lows and $7-$8/cwt higher than this time last year. The price of 500-550 pound steers is currently $259.26/cwt., also up the past two weeks but roughly $4/cwt lower than one year ago. For 550-600 pound steers, the current price is $244.08/cwt., about $7/cwt. lower than last year.

"We are at the point where prices this year, which have been above year ago levels so far, will cross and likely be below year ago levels for the remainder of the year.


"Last year, 400-500 pound steer prices increased 12 percent from August to November and, in fact, these calf prices have averaged a 9 percent price increase from August to November for the last five years. The 10-15 year average is an increase of 3 percent from August to November. However, the larger 2014 calf crop, indicated by the 1.8 percent increase in July estimated feeder supplies, means that more price pressure will build over the next two to four years.

"Given continued strong heifer retention, it's not clear how much of that pressure hits this fall. During herd expansion it is typical to see Oklahoma 400-500 pound steer prices drop by roughly 3 percent from August to November. I expect the most likely price range for 400-500 pound steers in November is 97 to 103 percent of current prices. There is probably a better chance of being in the lower part of that range."

Click here to read more of today's analysis on fall prices from Dr. Peel.

Animal agriculture has made remarkable progress in producing more protein with less resources. Cameron Bruett is the head of Corporate Affairs for JBS-USA, one of the major meat processors in the US and globally. He said one of the challenges is convincing those that have plenty to eat, that it's alright to produce food with the latest technology. He believes Americans lack a realistic view of food production, because they spend a small portion of their income on food and they have never been without food.


"So, they have a much different reality when it comes to their relationship with food and because of that, we don't necessarily always take a holistic view of what global food production, scarcity, affordability challenges are in front of us," Bruett said.


There is a group of very active, passionate, ideological people that have views on how food should be grown. Brutt said some of their approaches to food sustainability actually further exacerbate our ability to meet this challenge of feeding the world. He believes it's all about balance.


"I'm for all food and agriculture systems," Bruett said. "I think too often in agriculture we vilify one another in order to sell our own products. I think we should promote the attributes of what we do and the good things about what we do and not vilify our neighbors in the process. And that means that everybody, no matter what type of agricultural system you practice, you need to be improving, whether that's an economic, social, or environmental practices. We all need to do better if we're going to have any shot of feeding the world."

Click or tap here to read more or to listen to this Beef Buzz feature.

This past week- drought officially edged back into Oklahoma- being reported in southern parts of McCurtain County along the Red River in the southeastern corner of Oklahoma.

There were also several counties in southeastern and south central Oklahoma with an abnormally dry rating in the Drought Monitor that was released last Thursday morning.

With that report in mind- it should not be a surprise to see the National Pasture and Range Conditions take a dip in the latest report released yesterday afternoon within the National Crop Progress numbers that we talked about in an earlier story.

Nationally, the pasture and range ratings slipped three percentage points from just a week ago- now standing at 52% good to excellent.  The two states that took the biggest beating were Oklahoma and Texas- in both cases parts of each state suffering from about a month of dry and very hot conditions- helping pull the ratings down.

The Texas Pasture rating dipped seven percentage points to 35% good to excellent- the fair rating was up 2 points and the poor to very poor ratings moved five points up to 25% poor to very poor.

Oklahoma also had a significant downturn in pasture conditions- off 5 percentage points for the good to excellent ratings, which still stand at 58%.  The Oklahoma decline was pushed mostly to the Fair category, which increased four points from a week ago to 31%- the poor to very poor number is now 11% for Oklahoma.

New Mexico suffered a three point drop- while other states in our area dropped one point in the good to excellent categories or stayed stable.

The near term good news is that Little Dixie will be included in the rain of this week- with places like Hugo and Broken Bow having a 70% chance of rain on Wednesday- and chances of rain in the forecast in southeastern Oklahoma for much of this week.

Click here for the Mesonet numbers and forecast for Broken Bow- and from this point- you can change Mesonet sites easily and check on rainfall chances in other parts of the state.

As we write this- it is raining in northwest and north central Oklahoma- and arriving into the OKC metro as well- a nice drink of water for crops and pasture in mid August.