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An early wheat harvest was progressing mid-week, but rain over the weekend stopped the combines in southwestern Oklahoma. An early canola harvest was also underway.

Conditions continued to be rated mostly good for all small grains. A small portion of wheat and rye had been harvested by the end of the week. Eighty percent of wheat heading was in soft dough stage of development, 44 points ahead of the five-year average.

The canola crop was 84 percent mature by Sunday, and 12 percent was harvested by week's end.

Fifty-five percent of the wheat crop was in good condition, 21 percent was excellent, 19 percent was listed in fair condition, and only five percent was poor or very poor.

Canola finished the week in similar good shape with 50 percent listed as good, 24 percent was excellent, 22 percent was fair, and only four percent was in poor or very poor shape.

Click here for the complete Oklahoma Crop Weather Update, as released by the NASS folks in Oklahoma City. 

The Texas 39 percent of the wheat crop was in poor or very poor condition, 27 percent was fair, 26 percent was listed as good and only eight percent was reported as excellent.

In Kansas 41 percent of the winter wheat crop looked good, 32 percent was fair, 16 was poor or very poor, and 11 percent was excellent.  

National Crop Progress Outstripping Historical Averages 

Crop progress continues to gallop along, well ahead of last year and the five-year average, according to USDA's weekly report.

Corn is 87% planted and 56% emerged, compared to 56% and 16% last year and 66% and 28% averages, respectively. The planting figure was in line with pre-report expectations, according to DTN Analyst John Sanow.

"The big five Illinois (95% vs. 65%), Indiana (93% vs. 53%), Iowa (90% vs. 79%), Minnesota (88% vs. 70%) and Nebraska (91% vs. 71%) are all running well ahead of the average pace, and should be all but wrapped up next week at this time," Sanow said. "The fast pace of planting and emergence coupled with a mostly benign weather pattern should be considered bearish."

Soybean progress is also moving along at a rapid clip. Forty-six percent of the crop is planted, compared to 17% last year and a 24% average. Pre-report expectations were for 50% of the crop to be planted, Sanow said. Sixteen percent of the nation's soybeans are emerged, compared to 3% last year and a 5% average.

"This report should be considered bearish, particularly with corn planting nearing the finish line, allowing producers to focus almost strictly on bean planting," Sanow said.

Click here for more on this week's Crop Progress Report, including a link to the ful report. 

OSU's Derrell Peel Advises Short Run Adjustments to Changing Cattle Market Conditions

In this week's Cow/Calf Newsletter, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Extenstion Marketing Specialist Derrell Peel, examines making optimal decisions for maximizing profits in fluctuating market conditions.

Economic principles provide guidance on how cattle producers should adjust production in response to wildly fluctuating output and input values. Most production decisions are issues of allocating resources and revolve around the following questions: What to produce? How much to produce? How to produce it? Though the question of what to produce and the general production system that determines how to produce may be largely fixed in the short run, changing market values for outputs and inputs mean that adjustments are necessary to maximize profits.

Taking the decision about what to produce as a given in the short run, the question of how much to produce depends on the value of the output. Most production processes are subject to diminishing returns, which mean that at some point additional inputs will result in less additional output than before. This means, for example, that cow-calf producers need to determine the optimal weaning weight of calves (or better yet, the optimal number of pounds of calf produced per cow exposed to bulls), which may not be the same as the maximum level of production. An obvious example is using creep feed to increase weaning weight. The question is whether the additional pounds are worth more than the cost of the creep feed. The same is true for genetics, nutrition, and health inputs. This principle also implies than when the value of the output increases, the optimal level of production also increases, all else being equal, and vice versa for decreased output value. 

You can read more from Derrell Peel by clicking here. 

President Issues Proclamation On 150th Anniversary of USDA's Creation

President Barack Obama issued a proclamation recognizing the 150th anniversary of the creation of the United States Department of Agriculture.

On May 15, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation to create the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Two and one-half years after establishing the Department, in what would be his final annual message to the Congress, Lincoln called USDA "The People's Department."

At that time, about half of all Americans lived on farms, compared with about 2 percent today. But through our work on food, agriculture, economic development, science, natural resource conservation and a host of issues, USDA still fulfills Lincoln's vision - touching the lives of every American, every day. 

President Obama's proclamation highlighted the service of USDA employees.

"As we commemorate this historic milestone, we pay tribute to the men and women of USDA, past and present, who have faithfully served our Nation for 150 years. For their commitment, our fields grow richer, our abundance grows greater, and our country stands stronger."

You can read the President's full proclamation by clicking here. 

Firewise Communities Put Oklahoma In Top Ten Nationwide

Twenty communities were recognized May 10 at the 2nd Annual "Firewise at the Crossroads" Conference in Norman. Representatives from the following communities received placards designating them as Firewise Communities: Antlers, Blair, Canute, Cashion, Clinton, Colbert, Daisy, Dillard, Dover, Falconhead, Harmony, Hennessey, Hitchcock, Hochatown, Hollis, Iowa Tribe, Kingfisher, Mangum, Roberta and Willis-Powell.

The national Firewise Communities/USA program is a multi-agency effort designed to reach beyond the fire service by involving homeowners, community leaders, planners, developers and others in the effort to protect people, property and natural resources from the risk of wildland fire before a fire starts.

Oklahoma Forestry Services, a division of the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, coordinates the program in Oklahoma and was recently notified by the Firewise Communities/USA Program that Oklahoma is now in the "Top 10" nationwide for its number of Firewise Communities.

Click here for more on the Firewise Communities program.

Choice Boxed Beef Prices Slide, Finished Cattle Mostly Steady Last Week - Audio with Ed Czerwien 

In this week's beef report, Ed Czerwien of the USDA Market News Office in Amarillo, Texas, says we saw the choice cut market end the week at $189.10 /cwt last Friday which was a little over $1.00 lower than the previous week and about $2.50 lower than the midweek high. Howerver, trimmings lost neartly $24.00 over the previous ten days.

The general trend in the finished cattle trade was steady to $2.00 lower than the previous week with live sales mostly at $120.00 cwt in Texas and Kansas.

Dressed sales were at $192.00 to$194.00 cwt.

The average live weight from the Texas Panhandle was 1,227, one pound lower from the previous week.

Ed Czerwien's complete weekly audio report is available by clicking here. 

Lucas and Peterson Reminded of Importance of Crop Insurance

As the House Agriculture Committee continues farm bill hearings this week, a dozen farm groups sent a letter on Monday to House Ag Chairman Frank Lucas and Ranking Member Collin Peterson on the importance of crop insurance.


"Federal crop insurance provides an effective risk management tool to farmers and ranchers when they are facing losses beyond their control," the letter stated. "It reduces taxpayer risk exposure; it makes hedging possible to help mitigate market volatility; and it provides lenders with greater certainty that loans made to producers will be repaid."

Most of the commodity groups that represent crops that are considered "program crops" were a part of this letter- except for those who represent rice and peanut growers.  The two major general farm groups, American Farm Bureau and the National Farmers Union, did add their signatures to this letter.  

Click here for our story online- including the full text of this letter sent on Monday.

This N That- Stewart Doan Remembered, Okies in Israel and Canola Harvest Update

Stewart- "Along with the rest of the agriculture community, I was saddened to learn of the sudden passing of our friend, Stewart Doan.  Beyond being a talented journalist and broadcaster, Stewart was just a quality person. 

"His passing is a tremendous loss to all of us who appreciated and respected his fair storytelling and analysis.  His brand of reporting on farm policy and his role in our community will be missed."  We will be heading over to Little Rock today to a be part of the Memorial services for Stewart that are planned this afternoon.

We have several Oklahoma agricultural leaders that are in Israel this week- including Mike Spradling, President of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau- who posted a not early this morning on his Facebook page- "Shalom, arrived in Tel Aviv, Israel yesterday to attend an Agritech Conference where some of the worlds most advanced agriculture technology will be on display. Will have a chance over this ten day trip to see it in use as we travel through this country seeing how the farmers carve out a living and feed their people in a desert type landscape. It's all about WATER and how we manage it in a arid climate."  

Finally, from the world of Twitter-expect wheat and canola harvest to be rolling in the Walters area again today- that the word from Jimmy Kinder of Walters- meanwhile,  OSU Oilseed Specialist Chad Godsey checks in and says late Monday afternoon they "just finished harvesting Ft. Cobb winter canola performance trial.  A Few individual small plots were in excess of 4000 pounds per acre! Test weights were high as well- according to the word from Chad.