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.

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Heavy rains continued to delay small grain planting activities. By week's end, wheat seedbed preparation progressed to 81 percent complete. Wheat planted increased to 17 percent complete, eight percentage points behind the fiveyear average and two percentage points behind the planting progress of last fall. Eighty-two percent of the State's rye seedbeds were prepared, while rye planted was at 39 percent complete. Oat seedbed preparation jumped to 65 percent complete, while oats planted increased to six percent complete.

Field work was hampered for the second consecutive week due to rainfall. Conditions for all row crops improved with over half of all condition reports in the good to excellent range. Nearly all of the State's corn acreage had reached the dent stage, while 66 percent of the crop was mature, an increase of eight points from last week but ten percentage point behind the five-year average. Although battling adverse weather conditions corn producers were able to harvest 31 percent of the corn by week's end, two points ahead of the previous year but 21 points behind of the five-year average. All sorghum was headed by week's end. Eighty-two percent of the sorghum was coloring, a 20 percentage point jump from last week. Twenty-three percent of sorghum had reached maturity by week's end, ten points behind the five-year average. Sorghum producers were able to harvest a small percent of the crop during the previous week. The State's soybean crop in the mature stage reached 21 percent, 14 points behind normal. Peanuts setting pods was virtually completed at 99 percent complete, while peanuts in the mature stage of development reached 47 percent complete, seven percentage points behind the five-year average. As of Sunday, 42 percent of cotton was opening bolls, 11 points behind normal.

While the folks at NASS don't officially follow the planting of winter canola- the wet conditions come at a very bad time for those wheat farmers who have decided to put some of their acres of traditional wheat into canola this fall. The window of opportunity is now open on canola- but will shut after the first week of October.
You can review the complete weekly crop weather update for Oklahoma as issued on Monday afternoon- click on the link below and take a look.

Click here for the latest Oklahoma Crop Weather Update from NASS at USDA

Ruppert also shares with us on today's Beef Buzz the need to certify producers with BQA skills, saying that it's critical to the beef industry to be able to communicate the care and concern that cattlemen have for their animals with consumers. He believes that if consumers understand the level of care that beef cattle producers show their animals- that will take a lot of the wind out of the sails of anti animal agriculture groups as they push for unneeded laws to dictate animal care.

Click on the link below and you can listen to this portion of our conversation with Ryan about BQA- and why it's important that cattle producers in Oklahoma and around the country buy in.

Click here for another look at BQA with Ryan Ruppert of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association

The proclamation continues - as the fall harvest season approaches, I encourage farm and ranch families and workers to participate in farm safety and health programs. I also encourage them to follow optimal farm safety and health practices. Businesses and communities, and organizations and neighbors, can encourage one another to understand the risks of this work so that we can prevent accidents, prevent exposure to potential hazards, and save lives.

The proclamation saluted agriculture. It states" Our Nation's prosperity has been built on the skill and productivity of our farmers and ranchers. Two centuries ago, many American families toiled in fields and grasslands so that they might feed themselves. Today, those in the agricultural sector provide food, fiber, biofuels, and many other life necessities for millions across our Nation and around the world. The hard work and talent of those in the agricultural industry, and continued advances in technology and efficiency, have provided great security to the United States.

Stallman emphasized the importance of competition to reduce health insurance costs and said an exchange where individuals and small businesses can easily compare coverage would be positive for the marketplace. In addition, any health reform legislation passed by Congress must address the critical shortage of health care facilities and qualified health care professionals in rural areas.

Farm Bureau opposes a public option and instead supports voluntary regional health insurance cooperatives. Also, Farm Bureau supports provisions in the bill that increase Medicare reimbursement rates to rural doctors and health care facilities and recommends that proposed programs designed to increase the number of primary care doctors and general surgeons be targeted to underserved areas.

The parent company of Kauai Coffee is Alexander and Baldwin, who decided in the mid 1980s that they needed to shift a substantial amount of the acreage they owned on Kauai from sugar cane to coffee trees. A total of 3,100 acres has been committed to this effort, and the result is a company that is now producing 60% of the coffee in the state of Hawaii. Kauai Coffee Company began production in 1987, and now is a fully integrated bean to beverage company.

They begin by growing a total of five varieties of coffee, and have developed a production cycle that relies on drop irrigation to every single tree on their estate- making them the largest coffee plantation in the world fully drip irrigated. With this extensive system- they deliver water that comes from the wettest place on an annual basis in the United States, the slopes of Mount Waialeale, and they also feed each coffee tree with liquid fertilizer through the drip system.
Frank Kiger, President of the Kauai Coffee Company, tells us that a tree goes fully into production in its fourth year- and will continue to grow until it is about 10 to 11 years of age. At that point, they have a special pruner that knocks back the growth of the tree and takes it out of production for one year- this process then has to be repeated every seven years to keep the trees managable.

One of the reasons they have to keep the size of the trees managable is that they have a unique mechanical harvest system in place which means no manual labor in picking coffee beans from the trees. Click on our story link below to learn more about that system- and to see some of the pictures from this integrated ag enterprise that seems to be flourishing very well.

Click here for more on how that cup of coffee comes to be- at least if you're drinking Kauai Coffee

Kit Pharo has a most interesting story about how he has figured out the wrong way to approach ranching- and that has helped him get better along the way- he writes on his website "With the help of my dad and a couple of friends, I learned that increasing production wasn't nearly as important as increasing profits. I also learned that there is a very poor correlation between production and profit. In fact, the more I increased my weaning weights, the harder it was to make a profit because with every increase in production we had a resulting increase in expenses. My goal suddenly changed. My new goal was twofold. I would do whatever I could to increase production without increasing expenses, as well as doing whatever I could to reduce expenses without reducing production."

There will be a meal that evening at 5:30 with Kit's presentation staring at 6. For More Information or to RSVP: contact Lynda Lucas, Roger Mills Co. Cattlemen's Assn. at 580.497.7366.
In case you want to learn a little more and Kit Pharo- he's got a lot of information about his ranching history and philosophy at the link we are providing below.

Click here to learn more about Kit Pharo who is appearing in Cheyenne on October 5th

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.