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 E-Mail. KIS Futures provides Oklahoma Farmers & Ranchers with futures & options hedging services in the livestock and grain markets- Click here for their website or call them at 1-800-256-2555.

We welcome as our newest regular sponsor on our daily email Johnston Enterprises- proud to have served agriculture across Oklahoma and around the world since 1893. Johnston Grain wishes our wheat producers a safe and prosperous harvest this month- for more on Johnston Enterprises- click here for their website!
And finally, we are glad to have Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma has ten branch offices to serve your farm financing needs and is dedicated to being your first choice for farm credit. Check out their website for more information by clicking here!

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Where the wheels have come off the hard red winter wheat harvest at this point is in Kansas. Because of wet conditions- Kansas was able to move from just 2% harvested a week ago to the current level of 6% harvested- well behind the 15% of 2007 by this date- and the 36% five year average. As this report came out Monday afternoon- more rain was falling in Kansas, suggesting more harvest delays.

Meanwhile, Wheat Quality Numbers Show Lots of Positives and One Big Negative for the 2008 Oklahoma Wheat Harvest. According to Mark Hodges, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, there are several very positive things that end users will like about the quality of the 2008 wheat crop from the southern one third of the state of Oklahoma. The positives include high test weights, the one thousand kernel weights, and the uniformity of the size of the kernels. The one big negative is the lack of protein in the crop- with the average in the southern one third of the state at 10.9%- well below the average protein levels for an Oklahoma HRW crop of 12% or slightly better.
We have Mark's audio recap of the quality number from the southern one third of the state- plus some some harvest updates that have come in on our wheat harvest webpage- click below to jump there.

Click here for the Wheat Harvest Webpage at WWW.OklahomaFarmreport.Com

Row crop conditions remained mostly in the good to fair range. Corn silking is at 21 percent, 10 points behind last year, and 11 points behind the five-year average. Sorghum seedbed prepared increased only three percentage points from the previous week to reach 92 percent complete, three points behind the five-year average. Sorghum planted is over halfway complete but 20 points behind normal. Sorghum emerged reached 42 percent, up six points from the previous week, but 17 points behind normal. Soybeans seedbed preparation reached 90 percent complete, an increase of two percentage points. Soybeans planted were at 58 percent, 17 points behind normal but 10 points ahead of last year. Just over half of the soybeans were emerged by week's end, 13 points behind normal. Nearly one-third of the peanuts in the State were pegging, an increase of 13 points from the previous week and two points ahead of normal. Nearly all of the State's cotton had emerged by week's end, an increase of nine points. A small percentage of cotton had reached the squaring stage.

When it comes to pasture and range conditions- recent rainfall should improve future pasture growth. Pasture and range conditions were reported mostly in the good to fair range. Panhandle pasture conditions remain poor and many producers are being forced to reduce cattle herd size due to severe dry weather.
We do have the complete report linked below- click and check it out.

Click here for the latest Oklahoma Crop Weather Update.

Pork producers have been feeling the pinch of higher prices for feed, which accounts for 70 percent of the cost of raising a hog. Feed grain prices already were increasing starting in the summer of 2006 because of the rapid rise in ethanol production. Since then, increased global demand for crops, drought conditions in parts of the world and the RFS requirement have fueled even higher grain prices. (A bushel of corn now is selling for around $8 compared with about $2.60 in July 2006.) From September 2007 to April 2008, corn prices rose 124 percent and soybean meal prices went up 94 percent. During that time, pork producers lost an average of $30 on each hog marketed.

Making matters worse are the recent flooding in much of the Heartland and delayed plantings because of a cold, wet spring, which have pushed corn yield forecasts significantly below earlier projections. USDA recently reduced to 149 bushels from 154 bushels its estimated average yield per acre. That expected shortfall along with a mandated 38 percent increase in ethanol production over last year has producers very concerned about having physical access to corn to feed their livestock, NPPC pointed out in its comments to EPA.

"Sorghum has the genetic potential -- because of its yield capacities, adaptation ranges, and germplasm diversity -- to provide superior second-generation biofuels and assist in alleviating dependence on fossil energy sources" said Dr. Fred Miller, senior sorghum breeder and owner of MMR Genetics. "MMR Genetics and Mendel will be able to move our high quality forage and biomass programs to exciting new

Under the terms of the agreement, MMR Genetics will contribute germplasm, breeding know-how and services, and nursery operations; Mendel will provide funding and research and breeding assistance and will have exclusive commercial rights to selected cultivars. Richardson Seeds will provide seed production research and produce commercial quantities of selected cultivars.

Here's the link to the Mendel Biotech Website- and specifically to their New Products Page which explains their Biotech Focus.

Some state NASS offices may have already conducted preliminary surveys. Reacting to a request from Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, the Indiana NASS office found that 9 percent of the state's corn and soybean acreage and 5 percent of its wheat acreage was flooded. The Indiana NASS office reports the southwestern part of the state was most affected. There 16 percent of the corn and soybean acreage and 6 percent of the wheat acreage was flooded.

While no official numbers are out for Iowa- the Iowa Farm Bureau has estimated that 1.1 million acres of corn and 2.0 million acres of soybeans may be lost in Iowa this year because of the flooding from this once in 500 year event.

Here's USDA's release on their intentions on assessing the acreage impact of the flooding of 2008.

That meeting is set to start at 10:00 AM at the Oklahoma Cotton Cooperative Association in Altus. The sessions across the Cotton Belt are designed to give producers specific information about the nuts and bolts of the Commodity TItle of the 2008 Farm Law- and all are invited to attend.

We have this event listed- as well as a host of other important meetings and convention ahead in the days to come- so we invite you to take a look at our calendar at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. It's linked for you below. PLEASE remember to let us hear from you about events that we need to be listing on our calendar page on the web- we will make sure it gets added immediately!

Click here for the Calendar page at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

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.