Day three of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour found crop scouts in the mud and sampling fields in western Iowa and across Illinois. Both legs of the tour reported seeing a really good crop- but maybe not quite at record levels as has been suggested in the USDA August Crop Production report from earlier in the month.


The eastern leg scouts came up with an estimated Illinois corn crop of 193.5 bushels per acre- short of the 200 bushels per acre predicted by USDA- it is a much bigger Illinois crop than in 2015, when the state average ended up being 171.64 bushels per acre.


There will not be a total for all of Iowa until this evening- but the scouts saw an "ok" crop in northwest and west central Iowa- but did find a much better corn crop in southwest Iowa versus 2015. Chris Clayton with DTN tweeted on southwest Iowa "SW Iowa results are impressive. SW Iowa pulled an average 191.87 in district that tour averaged 169 over last 3 years." Again, the western leg, led by Chip Flory, reported seeing a really good crop- but likely not quite as good as what USDA was projecting in their 2016 August Crop Production Report

Click here for our webstory that features a couple of audio reports from farm broadcast colleagues on the tour- and links to the actual numbers as compiled by the scouts from Day Three.

Click here for a link to more information about ordering electronic ear tags.

Lots of concerns are being raised by beef producers these days over the volatility being observed in recent market activity. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group has met with members of the cattle industry to discuss possible solutions to this situation that has producers at a disadvantage. In response, the CME has announced some changes being implemented for live cattle contracts in an effort to offset the volatility. K-State Extension Beef Specialist Dr. Glynn Tonsor believes these changes will have a positive impact for cattle producers.


Three changes to live cattle futures contracts have been announced - two of which Tonsor says address important technicalities in futures trading. The first change, is CME's intention to place a "seasonal discount" of $1.50 on the October contract only for deliveries to Worthing, South Dakota, according to Tonsor. The second he says is to create equality in the specifications of deliveries. Instead of a 55/45 split, the delivery mix will change to 60 percent Choice and 40 percent Select. This is scheduled to start with the October 2017 contract.


"Basically, the stated goal here is to better align delivery values with cash market prices - keep regional differences a little more in line with what we'd expect," Tonsor said, adding also, "Effectively, that's basically just trying to get the specs in line with what we actually observe in live cattle."


The third change, calls for a short-term pause in deferred live contracts beyond the fall of 2017. Tonsor says, for now, the CME has stated that they do not plan to list or make available any of the contracts after October 2017. He says this is due to concerns about the inner workings of the cash market. Tonsor asserts that the CME is working with several segments of the industry in an effort to try and understand all the aspects of liquidity transparency of the fed cattle market; an issue markets have wrestled with for a long time. 


"There's a lot of things on the table here," Tonsor said. "A lot more unanswered questions than there are answers at the moment, I think can be a fair statement.


"I think it's an effort to get this contract, which is basically a price risk management tool, to get them better in line with what we think real value of animals are...And I think that's good."


Listen to Dr. Tonsor explain CME's changes to live cattle futures trading in further detail during the latest Beef Buzz.

The Oklahoma Beef Council recently announced the winners of the 2016 Oklahoma Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) Awards. Bill Clark of the Clark Ranch of Ada, Oklahoma was named Producer of the Year and Dr. Robert Wells of the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation was named Educator of the Year. The Oklahoma Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program is a program designed to help maximize consumer confidence and acceptance of beef by focusing producers' attention to daily production practices that influence the safety, wholesomeness, and quality of beef and beef products. Every year the Oklahoma Beef Council recognizes those that demonstrate outstanding BQA principles on their farms and ranches or those have dedicated their time and effort to ensure the success of the state's BQA program. 


The 2016 winner of the BQA Educator of the Year, Dr. Robert Wells of the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation. According to Tom Fanning, chairman of the Oklahoma Beef Council and a feedyard manager from May, Oklahoma, "BQA training would not happen without the initiative and dedication of Oklahoma trainers such as Dr. Wells.   We are fortunate to have him and his leadership as part of our BQA team." 


The winner of the Oklahoma BQA Producer of the Year, Bill Clark of Clark Ranch in Ada, Oklahoma which is predominately a commercial cow-calf ranch consisting of commercial angus cows. The Clark Ranch leads by example with BQA principles and practices woven into nearly everything they do. According to Bill, "We manage our ranch based upon BQA principles because it is the right thing to do for our cattle, it is the right thing to do for the ranch and ultimately it is the right to do for the consumer of the beef we produce."



Click here for a link to lo learn more about the Oklahoma Beef Quality Assurance program.

 
It's hard to believe- but we have been with Griffin Communications for ten years- and for that entire time- we have been doing a daily email update of the latest farm and ranch news.

For those of you that have been along for the ride most of that time- I suspect that you understand that this is a daily dose of what I see across the farm and ranch scene as being interesting- especially for our part of the agricultural world- and what I think might matter to you.

It has never been intended to be a dry, totally impartial update of information delivered in a third party sense. In the early days, I did the whole thing- kept the templates up to date to rotate our sponsors- wrote the news stories or took news releases and posted those to our website- and then rewrote and or edited for space the various releases and news stories from our web into this email.

These days- thank goodness- I have some really good help with some of that- but I still do the story selection and lineup- and I add the final stories and add my insights early in the morning before we do a final save and hit the send button- going out to almost 5,000 email addresses and then being posted on our website and on our App.

Know and Understand- I have through the years expressed my viewpoint of news stories- have offered analysis of how a story may impact Oklahoma agriculture and I will from time to time get on my soapbox about a story or subject or event.

You don't have to agree with me- and you can get mad if you want.  If I moved your cheese on a subject- let me know by emailing me- I am always interested in what you are thinking about on issues or things we report on. If you want to offer an attaboy- that's okay, too.

We have great management- starting at the top with David Griffin- and we have wonderful sponsors who make this daily update available to you.  BUT- my opinions are mine- and don't reflect the position of those sponsors or of our staff and management of Griffin Communications.

My intention is to offer you information and insights that I hope and pray will help you be more successful now and in the future.

With that said- two observations this morning- yesterday, I mentioned AFR Board member Terry Peach as one of the current leaders of that organization that might be someone that ends up being President of that group with the current President Terry Detrick saying he will step down next February to run for a newly created board seat on their Board of Directors.  Mr. Peach has let me know that he appreciates my confidence in him- but he has no interest in being President- he does plan on running for reelection to the AFR board in 2017. 

There are several really good leaders within that group that could do a great job as President- they will have big shoes to fill as Terry Detrick has done a really good job- and I suspect that the 2017 AFR meeting may rival some of the old barn burner kind of meetings held by the Oklahoma Farmers Union when they had contested elections in years gone by.

One other observation on this Thursday before I hit the SEND button- I noticed a certain candidate for senate in north central Oklahoma lost his interest in agriculture after losing in the RUNOFF on Tuesday to a wheat farmer from Burlington- that unsuccessful candidate unsubscribed from our newsletter on Wednesday. Hopefully in the time that he did read our daily updates- he learned about why agriculture is an important part of that Senate District- and the rest of Oklahoma as well. I would daresay you might call it a CORE part of who and what Oklahoma is.