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 National Livestock Credit Corporation as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. National Livestock Credit Corporation works diligently to provide unsurpassed service to their customers in the area of livestock financing. Check out the National Livestock Family of Services website by clicking here.

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Here in the cotton belt, traders will also digest the predicted size of the 2008 cotton crop- guesses ahead of the report average 14.04 million bales, slightly above the 14.0 million bale crop estimated earlier. Within the supply-demand numbers- analysts believe that USDA will up the size of cotton exports from 14.00 million bales that had been predicted in the July data to 14.52 million bales this month.

At our link below- you will see what we call our "Top Story." In advance of the report- it's a preview of the crop numbers with some audio comments from Tom Leffler of Leffler Commodities. ONCE the report is issued, we will have some of the most pertinent crop production and supply demand numbers for Oklahoma- and will have commentary as well from Leffler and others as this is digested by the trade.

Click here for the Top Story of this Tuesday from OklahomaFarmReport.Com

State conservation leaders today unveiled the first projects resulting from the Conservation Bond passed in the closing week of the 2008 legislative session. The Conservation Commission has committed $3 million dollars from the $25 million bond to match Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds to repair flood damage to the conservation infrastructure in the Sugar Creek Watershed in the county and to match United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) dollars for a Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) initiative in the Sugar Creek Watershed and the Cobb Creek Watersheds.

The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) is a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that encourages the establishment of vegetative buffers in watersheds to reduce sedimentation, stabilize stream banks and improve water quality. Funds committed by a state for this program are matched 4 to 1 by the Federal Government. In addition to this match, FEMA will match state funds at a rate of 75% to 25%. Taken together the FEMA and CREP projects may bring over $25 million worth of conservation work to Caddo County.

We have the full story linked on our web site- click below for the rest of this story.

Click here for more on CREP Monies Headed for Oklahoma.

Checking our row crops- "In many areas, row crops received a break from the hot, dry weather during the end of last week. Corn silking continued to wind down at 94 percent, an increase of four percentage points from the week earlier but still four points behind normal. Seventy-nine percent of the State's corn had reached the dough stage, up 12 points from the previous week and two points ahead of the five-year average. Twenty-two percent of the corn had reached maturity by week's end. Most row crop conditions were in the good to fair range, with the exception of sorghum. Sorghum emerged was at 90 percent, up four points from the previous week but 10 points behind normal. Thirty-seven percent of the State's sorghum had headed, an increase of seven points from the previous week. Sorghum coloring was at 19 percent by week's end, up six points from the previous week but two points behind normal. A small percentage of the State's sorghum had reached maturity. Soybeans blooming were at 63 percent, an increase of two points from the previous week but eight points behind the five-year average. One-third of the State's soybeans were setting pods, an increase of 13 points from the previous week but 15 points behind normal. Peanuts pegging increased two points from the previous week to reach 94 percent, four points behind the five-year average. Peanuts setting pods were at 63 percent, 18 points behind normal. Cotton squaring increased 15 points to reach 94 percent, equal to the five-year average. Half of the State's cotton acreage was setting bolls, 17 points behind normal."

Pasture and grasses, in areas that received rainfall, quickly showed signs of improvement. Pasture and range conditions remained mostly in the good to fair range. According to the report- 67% of the state's pasture and range is rated in fair to good condition. 26% of our pasture conditions remain in the poor to very poor category. You can view the entire report by clicking below.

Click here for the latest Oklahoma Crop Weather Update Issued Monday Afternoon.

Soybeans are the same as a week ago at 63% in good to excellent shape, grain sorghum is also at the same rating as a week ago at 50% good to excellent nationally (versus 64% a year ago) while peanuts slipped three points this week to 57% good to excellent and cotton was off by 2 points to 45% good to excellent versus last week- and down substantially from the 53% good to excellent rating at this point in 2007.

Oklahoma Pasture and Range conditions are in the middle of the pack here in 2008, with 38% in the good to excellent rating and 26% in the poor to very poor category. The best good to excellent ratings seen across the country for pasture is seen in the hills of West Virginia at 81%- just ahead of Illinois at 80% good to excellent. California remains plain awful- 100% in the poor to very poor ratings with 80% of that very poor.

In fact, Woods says that it looks like the current price of fertilizer could end up costing $300 per mama cow on an annual basis- if you are applying N,P and K for optimum production.

Woods is our guest today on our regular Beef Buzz- as heard daily on great radio stations around the state on the Radio Oklahoma Network- and also a part of our website, www.OklahomaFarmReport.Com. We have today's report linked below for your consideration- and remember- you can also subscribe and receive your dose of the Buzz via Itunes! (for free!)

Click here for the latest Beef Buzz- featuring Ron with Bob Woods of OSU

Because this law was enacted after the application periods had closed for those programs, a waiver was authorized that allows producers to pay a fee, called a "buy-in" fee, to be eligible for this new disaster assistance. The "buy-in" fees will allow growers to be eligible for benefits for losses under Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program Payments and the Livestock Forage Disaster Program, among others.

Please note also that September 30 is the deadline for growers to sign up for the 2008 Direct and Counter- cyclical Payment Program, which helps deliver certainty for the crop year and the option of a timely advance payment.
For those that have questions about getting "signed up" and eligible for the disaster program- you might check with your local FSA office for direction on what you need to be doing to qualify.

Click here for the Calendar of Events at WWW.OklahomaFarmReport.Com

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- One Pager From Country Hedging- looks at all three US Wheat Futures Exchanges 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.