Citing a substantial possibility of success on the merits of their claims and casting suspicion on the rulemaking process, the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Cincinnati,   ordered that the EPA and Army Corps' "Waters of the United States" rule be stayed nationwide until the Court can determine jurisdiction over the many pending lawsuits.

A three judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Judicial Circuit voted 2-1 to stay implementation over concern that burden to state and federal government, as well as private parties and the public in general, from the implementation of the WOTUS rule outweighed any harm to the agencies in keeping the status quo.

Reaction to this ruling that became public this past Friday morning was immediate- as most agricultural groups and many public officials cheered the decision.  One of those public officials was Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt who offered in a statement:  "The WOTUS rule is a devastating blow to private property rights and is an unlawful power grab by the EPA over virtually all bodies of water in the United States. Oklahoma and other states, as well as several private-sector groups, are challenging this unlawful rule. Until those legal challenges are settled, it's entirely appropriate that the federal courts block implementation of the WOTUS rule. This is certainly a win for Oklahoma, but the legal fight moves forward as we work diligently to roll back WOTUS."

Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe, the Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee- with oversight of EPA as part of his responsibilities- also calls the stay a win for everyone that could be impacted by WOTUS.  Inhofe says that EPA doubled down on their power grip during the rule making process- saying "The EPA and Army Corps admitted in February before Congress that the proposed rule was flawed and ambiguous, yet the agencies continued forward and finalized the rule in May. Instead of fixing the overreach, EPA made it broader." Click here for the complete release from his office.

The first group that offered comments on the ruling was the National Cattlemen's Beef Association- we have audio comments with their environmental Counsel Scott Yager on our website- who talked about the ruling raising the prospect that the plantiffs have a good chance of beating EPA and the Army Corps on the merits of their lawsuits- click here to take a listen.

Other reaction that we have posted on Oklahoma Farm Report includes (click on the name to see these comments):

Oklahoma Farm Bureau
American Farm Bureau- (there is a link to the court order here)
National Corn Growers Association
National Pork Producers
TSCRA


One group not happy with the halt in implementation is the Natural Resource Defense Council.  In a release that is available here, Jon Devine, senior attorney in the Water Program for the group says "Every major rule delivered by the EPA is guaranteed to face legal challenges, so today's preliminary decision is disappointing but not a surprise. We look forward to making the case in court about the critical public interests at stake. The Clean Water Rule is key to ensuring clean drinking water for one-in-three Americans and protecting essential buffers against flooding. We are confident the courts will find that these are needed safeguards and reject claims that the rule protects too many water bodies from pollution."

The USDA October Crop Production report offers important information for Oklahoma crop producers- as it provides an official review of the winter canola crop that was harvested back in June of this year. And, the 2015 harvest provided a major rebound for canola production in the state, after the drought devastated harvest of 2014.


USDA reports that 125,000 acres of canola was harvested this year, compared to 155,000 acres in 2014. The yield per acre jumped 241% in 2015 compared to 2014- as the yield per acre improved to 1,500 pounds per acre this season- from 620 pounds in 2014. Total Oklahoma canola production rebounded to 187.5 million pounds compared to 96.1 million pounds in 2014. The 2013 canola crop in Oklahoma totaled 208.6 million pounds.


The October Crop Production Report primarily focuses on spring planted crops- and for Oklahoma producers, it shows that 2015 has been a good year in producing cotton and milo. With the rains in the spring and early summer, Oklahoma cotton production is pegged at 285 thousand bales, same as was reported in September and six percent above production in 2014.

The grain sorghum crop nationally is predicted to be 32% bigger than in 2014- and that's based on 1.2 million more acres planted this year versus last. Oklahoma farmers participated in that plantings uptick for 2015- increasing milo acres from 310,000 to 400,000 this season- and the total production of grain sorghum in the state is rising 27% to 22 million bushels.

Click here to read more about the summer crops produced in Oklahoma and reported in this October Crop Production report from USDA- we have the numbers for Peanuts, Pecans, Soybeans, Corn and Alfalfa in addition to what we have already mentioned.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued its latest World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) and crop production reports Friday morning, and the agency forecast U.S. corn production would reach 13.56 billion bushels in 2015, well ahead of analysts' estimates for 13.46 billion bushels. For the crop year ending in August 2016, the USDA forecasts a U.S. corn stockpile of 1.56 billion bushels, down from a stockpile of 1.73 billion bushels this past August.


Alan Brugler, who operates his own marketing and consulting firm, told AgWeb that incorporating the Farm Service Agency's data on acreage, which was released last month, was the main adjustment in this report. "The FSA acreage is the main influence here," Brugler said. "They did about what we expected. They cut the corn acreage by 400,000 acres."


USDA upped the average bushels per acre to 168 bushels- and that surprised many analysts- and the half bushel per acre increase from the September report offset some of production that was lost because of the acreage being trimmed.


Radio Oklahoma Ag Network's Leslie Smith talked with Tom Leffler after the report was issued- and he says that he felt the reduction in soybean acres was the most surprising number of the Crop Production report- as USDA trimmed the number of soybean acres to be harvested by 1.1 million acres. He agrees with Brugler that the acres dropped in the US corn crop was more in line with what was being expected.


You can hear Leffler's comments- and read lots more details about both the Crop Production numbers released and the WASDE report as well- click or tap here for the complete story. Details we feature include the grain sorghum crop, cotton crop and the WASDE details on beef and pork production.

By the way- in looking at other ag web sites- virtually no one ever bothers to give you the actual links to the reports from Uncle Sam- we do regularly in the reports that we publish on the Oklahoma Farm Report website.

The 33nd annual School Land Trust lease auctions will begin October 19, 2015 in Beaver County and conclude November 2, 2015 in Stillwater. This year's fall lease auctions will include a total of 464 tracts in 33 counties.

"Each October, state school land is leased for agricultural farming and grazing, as well as for recreational use" said Harry Birdwell, Secretary of the Commissioners of the Land Office. "Some leases are suitable for agricultural use and others are ideal for hunting, fishing or other personal enjoyment uses."

This past Friday- we talked with Birdwell about the legacy of the School Land Commission that stretches back to statehood- with the land that the Commissioners oversee found in what was Oklahoma Territory. He told us his desire since becoming the Secretary has been to make sure the land is adequately maintained so that it will be a valuable resource to generate money for education a century from now and more.

We have details of all the auctions coming up on our website story- and the audio of the conversation that we had with Harry about the School Land Commission and the land and resources they manage.  Click here to read and to listen. 

We are continuing a mini series of Beef Buzz reports today that are spotlighting Dr. Don Coover, a veterinarian from Southeastern Kansas that runs SEK Genetics- he was a seminar speaker at the recent Heart of America Farm Show- and spent some time with us in explaining one of his passions in working with beef cattle producer clients- making sure they understand how to make sure their beef cows are carrying a calf out of every breeding season.

"If you don't have a calf on the ground, that somebody feels is desirable to buy, you're not getting anywhere with it," Coover said.

Dr. Coover spends a lot of time working with producers on their herd genetics, but equally important is time spent on pregnancy management. He often evaluates what producers are doing to get their cattle bred. This involves making sure each cow is bred, stays pregnant, and making sure there is no pregnancy wastage. Coover also looks for diseases in the herd that need to be eradicated or controlled. This results in a lot of testing for diseases like Bovine Viral Diarrhea (BVD) and Neosporosis. These diseases can be very destructive to a herd. By testing for those conditions, he said that can help producers become a lot more profitable.

Click here to be able to hear and read more from our Beef Buzz report- our Beef Buzz series is heard on great radio stations across the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and we have a full archive of previous Beef Buzzes on our Oklahoma Farm Report website- lots of great beef industry information is housed right there for your 24/7 listening pleasure.

American Farmers & Ranchers sponsored the Tulsa State Fair Commercial Cattle Grading Contest last week. AFR continued their long standing involvement in the contest- once again providing scholarships and plaque awards for the event in 2015.

To excel in the contest, participants must employ their knowledge of high-quality cattle traits to choose breeding and market animals that will prove profitable in real-life production situations. The contestants rank animals by structural soundness of replacement heifers, profitability of cull cows, market steer yield potential and more.

"Contestants' ability to identify the best animals within their herd and in purchasing situations ensures their success as future cattle producers," said AFR President Terry Detrick. "We are proud to sponsor a competition that translates to real-life situations and encourages Oklahoma's youth to pursue careers in production agriculture."

High Placing FFA team this year was the Oktaha FFA Chapter (Grace Blackwell, Levi Hill, Mazie Richards, Stetson Richards), while the top 4-H team was Porter 4-H  (Tracy Criner, McKinzie Todd, Garrett Todd, Kailey Guinn).

We have more on the contest and the top teams and individuals listed in the Blue Green Gazette portion of our website- click here for the story on this year's contest.

 

 

Today- Monday, October 12- is being celebrated as Columbus Day and is one of two 'holiday midway points' between Labor Day and Thanksgiving.  It's a day where the federal government  takes the day off, as do most Banks. The State of Oklahoma will be open for business today- their next holiday is Veteran's Day on November 11(a Wednesday).

Up until a couple of years ago- it was also a market holiday- but both the the Equity markets(stock market) and the Futures Markets are open as normal today.  There are only a few interest rate futures contracts that are not trading today within the CME family of futures- and that is because banks are closed.

 

Also open are the auction barns- we do expect to have a report from today's Oklahoma National Stockyards sale as traditionally at least one person from the federal employees that are a part of the Oklahoma City office will work and report on the Columbus Day activities- Tina Colby of the OKC office indicated in her Friday report  that the early estimate for today's sale is for a run of 7,000 head of cattle.  

 

What we won't have that we usually report on a Monday- are the Crop Progress and Crop-Weather Updates this afternoon.  Those reports this week come out on Tuesday afternoon. Other reports that are tied to a particular day of the week may be pushed back by a day this week as well.  

 

The National Weather Service has this to say about the fire danger- "CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS EXPECTED TODAY FOR STRONG NORTH TO NORTHEAST WINDS...LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY...AND WARM TEMPERATURES FOR THE SOUTHWEST HALF OF OKLAHOMA AND ALL OF WESTERN NORTH TEXAS."

Click here to read their full message about fire danger as the wind comes sweeping down the plains.

As we get ready to shoot this email out at 5:30 AM- the northwest winds are howling with gusts 28 to 30 miles per hour in Beaver and Woodward Counties.