Howdy Neighbors!

Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. We salute our longest running email sponsor- Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the annual Tulsa Farm Show scheduled for December 11-13 here in 2008, as well as the springtime Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City. Check out details of both of these exciting shows at the official website of Midwest Farm Shows by clicking here.

It's also great to have the Farm Credit Associations of Oklahoma with us regularly as an Email Sponsor- Financing Oklahoma is their business! Check out their website which shows their locations statewide by clicking here!
And we are 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 are crushing, including sunflowers and canola- and remember they post closing market prices for canola and sunflowers on the PCOM website- go there by clicking here.

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If not blocked, JBS's acquisition of Kansas City, Mo.-based National would make it the largest U.S. beef packer, with an ability to slaughter more than 40,000 head of cattle per day (or more than one third of U.S. fed cattle packing capacity) and annual sales of more than $14 billion.

"The combination of JBS and National will likely lead to grocers, food service companies and ultimately American consumers paying higher prices for beef," said Thomas O. Barnett, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department's Antitrust Division. "It will also lessen the competition among packers in the purchase of cattle that has been critical to ensuring competitive prices to the nation's thousands of producers, ranchers and feedlots."

We have more on the decision of the DOJ to sue JBS Swift over their planned acquisition to acquire National Beef Packing Company. Click on the link below for more on the lawsuit.

Click here for more on the DOJ effort to block JBS from buying National Beef.

He refers to the review that Farm Bureau and others asked the DOJ to perform regarding the buying spree that JBS Swift announced earlier in 2008. The Brazilian owned company announced their intentions to buy the number four and the number five beef packers in the US, Smithfield Beef and National Beef, as well as the largest feedlot company in America, Five Rivers. Putting the Swift facilities they had bought a little more than a year earlier with these purchases would have made JBS Swift the largest beef packer in the country- as well as the global gorilla in beef packing.

We have details of the AFBF reaction as well as the NCBA and R-Calf USA reaction to the move by the DOJ reported in the story above. The thoughts from each of these groups- as well as some audio dug up by our colleague Stewart Doan with R-Calf CEO Bill Bullard give you a feel of the feeling among groups that represent livestock producers. The link to all of that is below.

Click here for the Industry Reaction to the DOJ's Hope to Derail the JBS Purchase of National Beef.

Back to the Crop Weather update- "Last week's rains softened soils enough in several dry areas to allow producers to begin planting small grains. Some producers were replanting wheat acres that had received major damage from armyworms. Crop insect activity decreased slightly from the previous week with 27 percent of the State's cropland having heavy to moderate insect activity. Winter Wheat planted increased seven points from the previous week to reach 82 percent complete, equal to the five-year average. Nearly two-thirds of the State's wheat had emerged by week's end, up 15 points from the previous week and one point ahead of normal."

For the row crops- "Row crop harvest came to a standstill in areas that received abundant rainfall throughout last week. Ninety-four percent of the State's corn was mature, up two points from the previous week. Seventy-nine percent of the corn had been harvested by week's end, up five points from the previous week but 14 points behind the five-year average. Sorghum mature increased three points from the previous week to reach 42 percent, 32 points behind the five-year average. Twenty-seven percent of the State's sorghum had been harvested, 18 points behind normal. Soybeans harvested were up nine points from the previous week to reach 27 percent complete, 21 points behind normal. Ninety-two percent of the State's peanuts were mature by week's end, up nine points from the previous week but one point behind normal. Forty-five percent of peanuts had been dug, up 15 points from the previous week but seven points behind the five-year average. Peanuts combined reached 29 percent, three points behind normal. Cotton harvested reached 13 percent by week's end, up three points from the previous week but six points behind normal."
We have the full report linked below- check it out.

Click here for the latest Oklahoma Crop Weather Update

The cotton harvest remains six percentage points behind normal, while the grain sorghum harvest lags by 11 percentage points.

Pasture and Range Conditions nationally fair to good- with those two categories catching two thirds of the pastureland in the US. The Oklahoma Pasture conditions 57% good to excellent, 34% fair and just 9% poor to very poor. Contrast that to our friends (and some of my relatives) in Kentucky who continue to suffer with drought and a 77% poor to very poor rating on their pastures.

Click here to review the full report on our Crop Progress across the country.

We talked with Sarah as she made final preparations for the National Contest- which begins on Wednesday- and we have that conversation linked below on our website, WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. We are beginning to crank up our coverage of the National FFA Convention that will be heard on the Radio Oklahoma Network and our great radio stations all across the state, as well as on our website.

I am really excited about the Blue-Green Gazette, our web location for coverage of all things 4-H and FFA in Oklahoma. If you go to our front page- you will see on the right hand column a graphic for the Blue-Green Gazette. Click there and you will find our coverage of the FFA convention over the next few days. Our link below is to the Blue-Green Gazette, and the top story this morning is our feature interview with Sarah Reasnor.

Click here for the Blue-Green Gazette found at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

We also have a link in our Beef Buzz story that takes you to the full complaint filed by the Department of Justice on Monday.

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network- and is a regular audio feature found on our website as well. Click on the link below to jump to the Beef Buzz story for today and these additional perspectives on this story.

Listen to our Tuesday Beef Buzz on the DOJ Litigation Against JBS.

Kris Black writes in the sale catalog "there are bulls to fit anyone's budget. We think there are several bulls that can and will be promoted and will sell semen. Many of the bulls in this stout set of fall yearlings will sire highly sought after club calves that will sell for a good premium." Lots of excellent genetics make this offering of ready to work bulls coming out of northwest Oklahoma.

We have a lot of information linked on this sale below- including the full sale catalog, videos of the bulls that you can see online and details of how you can view and bid online the day of the sale if you cannot be there in person. Click below for more on Kris Black Annual Fall Bull Sale as he offers the Cream of the Crop.

Click here for more on the Annual Bull Sale of Kris Black Saturday October 25

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- One Pager From Country Hedging- looks at all three US Wheat Futures Exchanges 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.