Howdy Neighbors!

Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. We are pleased to have American Farmers & Ranchers Mutual Insurance Company as a regular sponsor of our daily update- click here to go to their AFR web site to learn more about their efforts to serve rural America!

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The report may cause some bearish views but should be interpreted in the context of last month's low placements. June and July placements taken together are up 2.5 percent over the previous year in the same two months. Much of the increase in placements was in lighter weight feeders, indicative of two factors; feedlot costs of gain have decreased with cheaper corn, which makes lighter weight feedlot placements more feasible; and the relatively tight supply of feeder cattle.

On our website, we also have comments from Tom Leffler talking with our own Ed Richards about the Friday afternoon report. And we have a link to the complete report if you care to review it.

Click here for more on the Friday Cattle on Feed Report from USDA

After his comments, we caught the Third District lawmaker for a few moments as he headed for Alva and one of three Town Hall meetings he had planned this past Friday. Our conversation with the top Republican on the House Ag Committee is a Ag Perspectives Podcast on our website- and you can use the link below to jump to that conversation on our website.

Click here for our quick visit with Congressman Frank Lucas on some of the key ag issues still ahead of the House Ag Committee this fall.

"FDA currently, does not permit corn containing aflatoxin to be blended with uncontaminated corn to reduce the aflatoxin content of the resulting mixture to levels acceptable for use as human food or animal food.

FDA technically does not consider mixing of corn containing a level of aflatoxin up to the action level considered to be "acceptable" for a given species to be a violation of its "no-blending policy".

For example, since corn containing aflatoxin up to 300 ppb that is intended to be fed to mature beef cattle does not violate FDA's action level, technically any corn containing less than 300 ppb can be mixed and fed to that species without violating the "no-blending" policy.

But mixing corn containing up to 200 ppb with uncontaminated corn (< 20 ppb) so as to reduce the level of aflatoxin in the resulting mixture to 50 ppb so it could be fed to breeding beef cattle constitutes a violation of the "no-blending" policy. This is a violation since the 200 pbb is above the 100 ppb in the guidelines.

And Dr. Godsey offers these "take home messages."
"Corn containing aflatoxin > 300 ppb cannot be blended.

Aflatoxin losses are an insurable cause of loss as long as the grain is tested before being moved into commercial or on‐farm storage, or the producer has arranged with the insurance provider to leave representative areas of un‐harvested crop from which the adjuster can obtain samples for aflatoxin testing.

TEST YOUR CORN!

The corn production numbers were weakest in South Dakota where yield was set at 141 bushels per acre. Yield in the six other corn producing states included: 162 bushels in Ohio and Indiana, 170 bushels in Minnesota. 172 bushels in Illinois and Nebraska, and 185 bushels in Iowa.

South Dakota also led the nation with the weakest soybean crop. There, 38 bushels per acre was the Pro Farmer estimate. Yield in the six other soybean producing states included: 40 bushels in Minnesota, 41 bushels in Illinois, 42 bushels in Indiana, 45 bushels in Ohio and 51 bushels in Iowa and Nebraska.

The researchers established single-row continuous swaths of miscanthus, a tall perennial grass, across the lower ends of 72-foot-long plots with a 5 percent slope. The hedges eventually became a yard wide and were clipped two to three times every year after the grass was 5 to 6.5 feet tall. The scientists found that the ability of the hedges to trap sediment increased as the hedges matured.

The hedges were more effective at intercepting sediments that washed out of conventionally tilled fields, possibly because the eroded materials from no-till fields were composed of smaller particles. The hedges captured approximately 90 percent of eroded sediment from ultra-narrow-row conventionally tilled fields, and only about 50 percent of sediment from no-till fields. The team also found that hedge effectiveness was enhanced when clippings were allowed to accumulate uphill of the hedges. But even if all the clippings from grass hedges over 1.5 feet tall are removed for livestock feed or bioenergy production, the hedges can still help protect against field erosion.

Click here for more from the ARS website on this recently released research

There seems to be a very low number of the pests around in central Oklahoma- based on the informal survey I conducted. OSU Extension Specialist Greg Highfill told us that he had noticed some grasshoppers out around Woodward a few days back- but nothing of any real concern at this time.

It apparently is a major concern well north of us- and below is a link to the grasshopper story- but our urban friends hear this type of story- hear a local newscaster mention Oklahoma in the same breath with these huge problems in the north- and they assume the same problems around here.

Click here for more on the grasshoppers devouring pastureland and more up north

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.