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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Illinois corn harvest remains alarmingly far behind normal with just 31% of their crop now harvested, versus 92%, which is the five year average. Minnesota is 60 percentage points behind the norm, Iowa, Indiana and Nebraska remain around 45 percentage points behind that five year average- and that probably does not tell the story on quality. We talked with Mark Gold of Top Third this past weekend about that at the OFB meeting- and he says that the Crop Production and Supply Demand reports of THIS morning will be close to meaningless- as it will talk about quantity but not quality. By the way- we will have analysis of those reports on our website on the front page before nine am this Tuesday morning.

Soybean harvest remains behind normal, but we did harvest almost one fourth of the total crop this past week alone. Key midwest states are 13 to 27 percentage points behind normal when it comes to soybean harvest.

Cotton harvest moved 16 percentage points this past week- but will be slowed in at least some of the mid south and southeast this week because of Ida and her dumping of heavy rains in the region. Mississippi and Louisiana both made huge jumps forward on harvest this past week, and Texas is actually ahead of normal on cotton harvest- now 44% done versus the five year average of 38%. Oklahoma is 22 points behind the norm- with 26% of the crop now harvested- and the report I got yesterday from the southwestern corner of our state is that tractors and harvest equipment were running everywhere as things have finally dried out enough to get rolling.

Click here for the USDA Crop Progress Report as Issued on Monday afternoon.

"Producers around Oklahoma welcomed the dry and warm weather as they were able to get back into the fields. Progress was made across the State this week as wheat planted increased by four points to 88 percent complete, but still seven points behind normal. Wheat emerged increased to 79 percent complete, up five points from the prior week, but five points behind the five-year average. Ninety percent of oat seedbed preparation was completed by week's end, while half of oats had been planted, up eight points from the previous week, but 11 points behind the five-year average. Forty-two percent of oats had emerged by week's end, eight points behind the five-year average.

"Although harvest of all row crops is running well behind average this year, producers were able to make some headway this past week as a result of the favorable weather conditions. Corn harvested reached 91 percent complete by week's end, up six points from the prior week but eight points behind the five-year average. Seventy-six percent of sorghum had matured by Sunday, while 42 percent was harvested, up 12 points from the previous week, but still 16 points behind the five-year average. Soybeans at maturity reached 88 percent, up 16 points from the prior week, but five points behind normal. Harvested soybeans reached 46 percent by week's end, up 12 points from last week, but still 22 points behind the five-year average. Virtually all peanuts were mature by week's end, 81 percent had been dug, up ten points from the previous week, but ten points behind normal. Sixty percent of peanuts had been combined, up ten points from the previous week, but 16 points behind normal."
To review the full Oklahoma Crop Weather Update- click on the link we have for you below.

Click here for the Oklahoma Crop Weather Update

"I encourage everyone to attend and participate in these town halls. These settings give me an important opportunity to hear directly from the Oklahomans I am representing, and they provide a chance for Oklahomans to hear my views on current legislation in Congress," said Dr. Coburn.

On Thursday, the Coburn Town Hall meetings are planned for Altus and Lawton, while Friday will find Dr. Coburn in Ardmore and Duncan. Click on the link below for more information on all four sites- including exact times and locations.

Click here for more on Town Hall Meetings Planned by Dr. Tom Coburn this week in southwest Oklahoma.

In a conversation that we had with her after her presentation last Friday afternoon at the Oklahoma Farm Bureau convention, Thatcher says that the millions spent in Ohio is just a drop in the bucket in the battle over the next years. The Humane Society of the US has more members than American Farm Bureau and a budget that is multiple times that of Farm Bureau and several other animal agriculture groups combined.

She expects the HSUS will continue to spend big bucks in the 27 ballot initiative states(Oklahoma included) where they can conduct their campaign in a carefully controlled media campaign playing on the heartstrings of people who do not understand anything about production agriculture and how humane agriculture is not always the way that the HSUS dictates.
Click on the link below for our Beef Buzz with Thatcher, one of the most respected lobbyists in our nation's capitol.

Click here for more on the Money Pit that is otherwise known as the battle over Animal Well Being

The market is hosting 36 contestants in the last quarterfinal qualifying contest for next summer's WLAC, which will be held June 19 at the Oklahoma National Stockyards in Oklahoma City. The sale here will start at noon. Three winners - champion, reserve champion and runner-up champion - will be named after the contest here. These three, and the next five highest scorers, then move on to the Oklahoma contest, often called the "Super Bowl" and the "World Series" of the profession. At this point in the regional competition, only one Oklahoma auctioneer has qualified to be a part of the finals next June. Brian Little of Wann, Oklahoma won the Billings, Montana regional qualifier in September of this year.

LMA President Bobby Smith of Fairview, Oklahoma said LMA conducts the WLAC - and the qualifying contests - to spotlight the competitive livestock marketing system and the continuing importance of the auctioneer in that system.
To see who will be competing in Parsons, Ks. early next month- including those from Oklahoma who hope to make the cut and be a part of the Oklahoma City World Finals- click on the link below.

Click here for more on the chase for the final eight spots in the World Finals of the World Livestock Auctioneer Championship.

New board members from Oklahoma for the organization include Scott Anderson of Guymon and Bill Roser of Watonga each elected for a one year term- and Chris Hitch of Guymon elected for a three year term.

In his convention address, Outgoing TCFA Chairman Monte Cluck described being "inspired by the attitudes of the members" that he met with during his visits to more than 60 member feedyards over the previous twelve months. "Here we are in one of the toughest times ever for our business, and yet no one was ready to quit the fight," Cluck said. "The strength and the will to survive and continue in the beef business are what differentiate us from any other industry, especially from non-agricultural industries."

You can read more of Monte Cluck's remarks from last week in Amarillo- click on the link below.

Click here for more on the TCFA annual meeting held in 2009 in Amarillo.

It was good to visit at the Green Tie Gala with numerous folks, but especially with Pete Williams who served many years as the Oklahoma 4-H state leader- and in his final years before retirement, was the Director of the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program. Pete did a marvelous job of helping define the OALP program during its early years- and has been followed since that time by two other outstanding OSU faculty in that Directorship, Dr. Robert Terry and now current director Dr. Joe Williams.

Click here for the photos now up online at the OSU Division of Ag Website Spotlighting Oklahoma 4-H.

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.