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!

It is also great to have as an annual sponsor on our daily email Johnston Enterprises- proud to be serving agriculture across Oklahoma and around the world since 1893. For more on Johnston Enterprises- click here for their website!

And we are proud to have P & K Equipment/ P & K Wind Energy as one of our regular sponsors of our daily email update. P & K is the premiere John Deere dealer in Oklahoma, with nine locations to serve you, and the P & K team are excited about their new Wind Power program, as they offer Endurance Wind Power wind turbines. Click here for more from the P&K website.

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Cotton acres are also increasing in the US, with USDA projecting 10.505 million acres, 15% more acres than that of a year ago and in line with traders expectations. Growers intend to increase planted area in all States except Arkansas, Kansas, and Louisiana. The largest acreage increase is in Texas where producers intend to plant 600,000 acres more acres of upland cotton than in 2009.

Our Oklahoma Planting Estimates reflect some of the national trend- except when it comes to corn. Farmers told NASS that they will plant 15% fewer acres to corn in Oklahoma this year versus last. The last couple of growing seasons have been tough on corn, with aflatoxin problems dampening interest in the crop. In contrast, there will be more acres in Oklahoma going into soybeans and cotton. Soybean acres are expected to jump to 460,000 acres this spring, up from 405,000 acres planted last year, while the cotton acreage is expected to total 240,000 acres, up from 205,000 acres planted in 2009.

Oklahoma wheat acres planted last fall total 5.2 million acres, down 9% from year to year while canola, also planted last fall, jumps from 42,000 acres planted in the fall of 2008 to 80,000 acres planted this past fall. Click here for the Oklahoma Prospective Plantings one pager- and you can click on the link below for our overview of he national picture on what farmers are going to be doing- that story on our website.

Click here for more on the national expected crop plantings

Amendments were offered, with two of them of significance. The first was advanced based on a call by several of the Veterinary related groups who fear that unless animal husbandry is better defined by the state, that anyone can do anything to an animal and call it animal husbandry. Click here to read more about what the Vet groups were looking for in this amendment. After considerable debate and the claim that State Representative Don Armes had offered to include that language and then had pulled it out when the bill was ready for a vote on the House Floor- this amendment failed on a voice vote.

An amendment that was accepted came from Senator Schulz specifying that no dangerous controlled substances would be used by non vet teeth floaters- that passed on a voice vote. Then the bill as amended was okayed by the full Senate, which means the bill now returns to the House where they will have to accept the amendments added to the bill in the Senate.

We have seen a seasonal move higher in recent weeks, which has been fueled by fewer pounds of beef produced this winter due to weather that slowed performance in parts of our southern plains feedlot region as well as tighter supplies of available cattle that has been predicted for quite some time by the cattle inventory numbers. With a rising boxed beef price, that move higher could also have a demand factor imbedded in it as well.

Read more about where we are on the cattle market, as well as to have the chance to hear from Dr. Derrell Peel on the current cattle market- click on the link below to jump to our Beef Buzz as heard on great radio stations around the state.

Click here for more with Derrell Peel on beef demand and Boxed beef prices.

Some of the items in the auction will be:
A steak dinner for 10 donated by the Oklahoma CattleWomen, Inc.,
20 bags of 14% horse feed donated by Mannsville Ag Center
Live animals donated by Oklahoma Producers
Earl Kuhn numbered print "One for the ground crew" donated by the High Plains Journal
and a Jacket donated by Wrangler. You are invited to donate items for the auction and be there to actively bid to support cancer research.

In addition, chances to win an Arctic Cat ATV donated by Artic Cat will be sold throughout the show by volunteers and Farm Show Staff.
So borrow you one of your wife's pink shirts or cowboy up and get your own, whatever you do don't miss out on helping a great cause and helping make breast cancer a disease of the past!

In addition, Johnston's is continuing to adapt facilities to be able to accept and handle spring planted crops like corn, soybeans and milo in their service area. Miebergen says that they applaud farmers who are rotating acres out of continuous wheat and adding other crops which may help them be more profitable, as well as offering the benefit of being better ground for wheat in future years as weed cycles are broken. He adds that Johnston's has been very concerned about the quality of the last couple of wheat crops- and finding ways to reduce weeds like cheat and Italian wild oats when we grow wheat is essential to lowering dockage and improving cleanliness of the wheat coming to storage.

Click on the link below for more on this story- and to hear our conversation with Joey Miebergen of Johnston's on their plans for the 2010 harvest season.

Click here for more on Johnston's plans for harvest storage for the 2010 wheat crop

Planned crossbreeding systems have been shown to increase lifetime kilogram of calf weight weaned by 25 percent compared to purebred cows. Nevertheless, breed association registration records suggest that the use of planned crossbreeding systems in the United States has declined in recent years. "Industry trends suggest that standard genetic prediction tools such as Expected Progeny Differences and selection indexes have been embraced by producers, leading to substantial change in the past 15 to 20 years," Lalman said.

Read more on this story- just click on the link below to get to the full story in the Cattle Industry Insight Section of our website, www.OklahomaFarmReport.Com.

Click here for more on matching up your cow herd with the forage available to you.

The ag economists' study found that average yields could range from 135.5 bushels per acre with bad weather to 172.5 bushels per acre in peak growing conditions, compared with a trend yield of 156.7 bushels per acre forecast for 2010. According to the report, if weather turns sour in 2010 the nation would harvest about 10.9 billion bushels of corn, down more than 2.1 billion bushels from last year's record crop.

Dr. Good adds that livestock and poultry producers would bear the brunt of the shortfall because ethanol producers have no wiggle room under federal mandates, and export markets are historically unfazed by short-term price spikes. Professor Irwin says we believe everybody will be better off with a reasoned, well thought-out response if a crisis would occur rather than rushed, short-term solutions as the crop is burning up.

Click here for the marketing brief that these Illinois folks have worked up on 2010 corn crop scenarios

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.