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 email update. KIS Futures provides Oklahoma Farmers & Ranchers with futures & options hedging services in the livestock and grain markets- Click here for the free market quote page they provide us for our website or call them at 1-800-256-2555.

We are also 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 handle, including sunflowers and canola- and remember they post closing market prices for canola and sunflowers on the PCOM website- go there by clicking here.

And we salute our longest running email sponsor- Midwest Farm Shows, producer of the springtime Southern Plains Farm Show, as well as the December 2009 Tulsa Farm Show. Click here for more information on the Tulsa Show, coming up December 10,11 and 12, 2009.

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USDA reports that Cattle and calves on feed for slaughter market in the United States for feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head totaled 11.1 million head on November 1, 2009. The inventory was 1 percent above November 1, 2008.

Placements in feedlots during October totaled 2.47 million, 1 percent above 2008. Net placements were 2.42 million head. During October, placements of cattle and calves weighing less than 600 pounds were 615,000, 600-699 pounds were 645,000, 700-799 pounds were 579,000, and 800 pounds and greater were 635,000.
Marketings of fed cattle during October totaled 1.76 million, 3 percent below 2008.

We have comments with Tom Leffler, as well as more details of the report- including getting into some of the state by state numbers- just click on our link below to jump to our webpage on our website, www.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

Click here for the Friday Cattle on Feed Numbers from USDA

This recent study comes just as Oklahoma prepares for the 2009 Wind Energy Conference coming to downtown Oklahoma City on December 2nd and 3rd. "Oklahoma is ideal for wind development," said Robert Wegener, Oklahoma Secretary of Energy. "Oklahoma's traditional energy industry is the perfect complement to wind. We have an abundance of natural gas, which is a great partner for wind generation and development - together they offer a clean, renewable energy solution for the United States. For the last century Oklahoma has been a leader in the development and delivery of energy - wind is the 21st century complement to our existing energy industry."

The early December statewide confernece will feature nationally recognized experts, including Marc Spitzer, commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; Denise Bode, chief executive officer of American Wind Energy Association; and R. James Woolsey, venture partner and senior advisor at VantagePoint Venture Partners and former director, U.S. Central Intelligence (1993-1995).

Click here for more on this Wind Energy Study- and Wind Energy Conference Coming December 2 and 3 in Oklahoma City

One of the worries that has been brought to the attention of Dr. Edwards is the yellowing being seen in some wheat fields. He believes there are three reasons for this yellowing. In a few cases, we have fall leaf rust showing up. We are also seeing in a few cases where farmers simply did not apply adequate nitrogen before or as they planted. The most common scenario is probably the available nitrogen has been moved lower in the soil profile because of the heavy rains in October- and the roots of the wheat plant have not yet caught up with the nitrogen.
The advice from Dr. Edwards for any of these situations is to do nothing now- and plan on doing a late winter early spring top dressing at about the point where most farmers try to get this done. The yellowing at this stage of growth is not robbing yield and does not have to be addressed at this point.

You can hear our full conversation with Jeff Edwards by clicking on the link below- Jeff is especially pleased with the continuing wheat seed planting decisions being made by Oklahoma producers- as a lot more Oklahoma producers are now trusting the varieties that have been developed by the wheat breeding efforts of Dr. Brett Carver at OSU.

Click here for our conversation with Dr. Jeff Edwards of OSU

Many political observers say it will be very hard to pass Climate Change next year, with so many key players facing reelection fights next November.

Now back to the top Republican on the EPW Committee, Oklahoma's senior Senator Inhofe. We have the YouTube link below of his comments to Senator Boxer- and they are a hoot! Take a look as Jim Inhofe seems to be as satisfied as the cat that swallowed at least two canaries.

Click here for the comments from Senator Jim Inhofe to Barbara Boxer on the demise of Climate Change Legislation for 2009 consideration.

The Democratic caucus remains bitterly divided over a government-run insurance option. The 848-billion dollar Senate version represents the work of two committees and hundreds of hours of hearings and deliberations. Democrats admit their victory represents just the end of the beginning. The debate on Health Care will get underway after the Thanksgiving holiday break.

The Senate bill would provide coverage to 31 million uninsured Americans by vastly expanding Medicaid and creating insurance "exchanges" for individuals who do not have access to affordable coverage through their employers. For the first time, it would require most people to carry health coverage, although families with incomes up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level would receive subsidies to buy policies.

With a significant acreage of late planted winter wheat in Oklahoma, many producers are only now buying stockers for winter grazing. The available time period is dwindling and there may be only 80-90 days of grazing before First Hollow Stem (FHS) dictates removal of the cattle in order to harvest the grain crop. If producers are in a position to decide now about grazing out the wheat then another 75 or so days of grazing are available. With average relationships between stocker purchase prices and feeder selling prices, 80-90 days is barely enough or sometimes not enough time for a stocker enterprise to become profitable. The time required to make a stocker enterprise feasible is determined by the amount of rollback between the purchase price and selling price as well as cattle quality as reflected in average daily gain and health.

So what's the answer here in 2009? Click on the link below for the rest of this article by Derrell Peel, as he tries to sort out the pros and cons of lighter calves versus heaver cattle here in 2009 on wheat pasture.

Click here for the considerations to look at as you add wheat pasture cattle here late in the season.

For those of you trying to sell cattle, most markets that operate on Wednesday through Friday are taking a holiday as well- check with that market before you round up any bovines to head to town with.

The Ag Futures markets will be closed on Thursday and will likely have a very light trading day on Friday, and that day will see an early close of open outcry trade.

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.