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 top five corn producing states- Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska and Minnesota- are running from 32 to 63 percentage points behind the five year average. More rain is in the forecast for later this week- which means more delays are likely to be built into the next week before we get another report from USDA next Monday. DTN Analyst John Sanow says that while the slow pace has been built into the market- the latest crop weather update reminds us how far behind corn harvest is and remains an underlying bullish factor.

Soybean harvest stands 31 points behind 2008 and 36 percentage points behind the five year average- but there seems to be less worry about the soybean crop as it is expected that those farmers that have both crops will likely use every harvest window on soybeans before corn, so leaving too many bushels behind is not as large a worry for this oilseed crop.

Cotton harvest is also a worry in the southern states- with just 19% of the crop harvested versus the five year average of 43% done by this point. The midsouth is the worry here, with Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi barely started and some 60 to 74 percentage points behind the average.

With harvest so far behind- there may be fewer acres of soft red winter wheat in the midwest this winter, with Illinois and Indiana from 40 to 49 percentage points behind normal in seeding the 2010 crop.
Here in the southern plains, we are fairly well along in being planted, with Kansas now 80% planted, 9 points behind average, Texas 75% planted, five points behind average and Oklahoma at 76% planted- 11 points behind the five year average.

Click here for the full US summary of Crop Conditions from the Monday afternoon report.

Some small grain planting continued despite wet field conditions across the State. Wheat planted reached 76 percent, a two point increase from the previous week, but 11 points behind the five-year average. Wheat emerged increased to 66 percent complete, six points ahead of the prior week, but four points behind normal.

For our spring planted crops- Only isolated row crop harvesting continued throughout the week due to excess moisture in the fields. Row crop conditions continued to rate mostly in the good to fair range. Virtually all the corn was mature Sunday, two points up from the previous week, but two points behind the five-year average. Corn harvest was 80 percent complete by week's end, a three point jump from the previous week but 16 points behind the five-year average. There were some reports of aphlatoxin across the State. All sorghum coloring was virtually complete by week's end, while 60 percent had reached maturity, 17 points behind normal. Sorghum harvested reached 27 percent complete, up eight points from the prior week, but still 17 points behind normal. Sixty-five percent of soybeans reached maturity, up ten points from the previous week, but 12 points behind normal. Soybeans harvested reached 27 percent complete, up seven points from the prior week, but 22 points behind the five-year average. Peanuts at maturity reached 87 percent complete, up eight points from the previous week. Fifty-six percent of peanuts had been dug while 36 percent had been combined, eleven points behind the five-year average. Ninety-six percent of cotton bolls had opened, up four points from the previous week and in line with the five-year average. Cotton harvested had reached 12 percent by week's end, up five points from the prior week, but still 14 points behind normal.

To review the entire report from USDA's NASS, click on the link below for the latest Oklahoma Crop Weather Update.

Click here for the latest Oklahoma Crop Weather Update as released on Monday afternoon from NASS

However, the Boxer Committee, of which Oklahoma Lawmaker Jim Inhofe is the ranking Minority member, has little interest in hearing from agricultural and rural interests. The ONLY farm group that will testify is American Farm Bureau- AFBF President Bob Stallman will speak in the first panel on Thursday, day three of the hearings. Barry Hart, Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives will testify on Wednesday.

Senator Boxer is armed with an EPA report that talks of lots of income potentially from Cap and Trade for agriculture, but seems to be short on specifics on rising costs that much of agriculture is very concerned about that could bury many family sized farm and ranch operations.
EPA relies on data pulled together by Dr. Bruce McCarl, Department of Agricultural Economics, Texas A&M University. They claim that the study "analyze results for crop and livestock producers across ten regions under three pricing levels, for a total of 120 combinations, and find all but 6 combinations yield net income increases. Summing the impacts to producers, processors, and consumers, the U.S. agriculture sector receives net annualized benefits of $1.2 billion - $18.8 billion."

Click here for the direct link to the PDF file on the EPA website of this study of Senate Bill 1733

On Wednesday, OSU Extension is holding a Summer Crop Tour in the Lahoma area focusing on grain sorghum. Then on Thursday, it's another OSU Extension event- the Central Oklahoma Cattle Conference in Chandler- we will be emceeing that gathering of cattle producers and hope to see several of you there. Also on Thursday, a series of three field meetings are planned in southwest Oklahoma by PCOM talking Winter Canola production practices- stops will be made in Tillman, Cotton and Caddo Counties.

We have linked our calendar page details of each of these events above- just click on the name of the event to see more- or click on the link below and you will be taken to our Calendar page as found on www.OklahomaFarmReport.Com.
If you notice we don't have an item listed- be sure and drop us an email and let us know- we'll be glad to get it included.

Click here for more on the Calendar this week and into November as found on WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

One fresh update we have for you out of Indy is more info on how several of our judging teams did, beyond the winning Equine Evaluation team from Locust Grove FFA. We have that- plus more info on several of the high honors that Oklahoma achieved in 2009 is linked at the bottom of this story.

Click on the link below and enjoy reviewing the exploits of the Oklahoma FFA members who rose to the top, not just here in our state, but at the national level. And, I might say thanks to Kent Boggs for including a few of our Monday Email remarks about this being a truly special year that does not come along very often.

Click here for the recap assembled by the Oklahoma FFA Association Office.

The third of the three auctions planned for this week will be held in Stillwater. The auction will also begin at 10 AM at the Payne County Fairgrounds, with leases in Pawnee, Payne, Logan and Noble Counties to be offered.

Next week, two more auctions are also planned in Enid and Shawnee. We have the master list by counties of the tracts of land that will be offered for lease by the Commission at these auctions- click on the link below and then scroll down to the county you have interest in.
You can also call the School Land Commission state office in Oklahoma City if you have questions- that number is 1-888-355-2637.

Click here for the full list of Counties that have School Land Lease Auctions here in 2009.

The Green Tie Gala is almost upon us- and a final reminder about tickets- if you want to go- you gotta have one for this celebration of the 100th anniversary of Oklahoma 4-H. The event is November 6 in downtown OKC- some of you headed for the Oklahoma Farm Bureau meeting may want to spend one of your evenings in OKC with the 4-H folks. Call the State 4-H office for last minute ticket requests- 405-744-5390.

Finally, the National Sorghum folks have their annual Yield Contest- and they tell us last minute entries are welcome. If your grain sorghum looks good- you are still about 10 days away from harvest- you could still enter. Click here to jump to the NSP website for more poop on this contest.

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.