Fund Sell-Off Fuels Lower Grain Prices, Kim Anderson Says 

In the preview of his market analysis on this week's SUNUP program, OSU Grain Marketing Specialist Kim Anderson says a lot of producers have been scratching their heads lately wondering why with worsening crop conditions, grain prices are dropping.

"The market has fallen off over a dollar in the last several weeks. A lot of people are saying 'Why are prices going down with crop conditions so bad?' What we've seen is that we came into early December with the funds holding a lot of long positions in both corn and wheat and they started liquidating those long positions and they liquidated them throughout the December time period. So, with very little change in the supply and demand situation for corn and wheat, the funds were selling their contracts. There were very few buyers. You know, we talked about the holiday time period, a very thin market and therefore prices fell."

Anderson says those who want to blame the funds for dropping prices might do well to remember it was the funds that kept wheat prices up in the $8.50 to $9 range allowing producers the opportunity to sell at those prices.

He says that farmers looking at their fields and not seeing much at this point in the way of a crop for next spring are wondering why futures prices still seem so low. In looking at July contracts trading in the $7.60 range currently, Anderson says that figure is still more than a dollar above the average June price over the last five years.

"If you can forward contract for $7.60, $7.70, that's a $1.30 to $1.40 above the average price, that's still relatively high. And it's above that relative high and they're offering $7.60 because of fields like this." 

You can read more or listen to more from Kim Anderson and see the whole lineup for tomorrow's SUNUP program by clicking here.

Astute Buyers Take Advantage of the Marketing Year's Lowest U.S. Wheat Prices 

U.S. wheat customers are moving aggressively to snap up high-quality U.S. wheat at significantly lower prices than just a few weeks ago according to a report by U.S. Wheat Associates.

As of Nov. 29, 2012, U.S. wheat commercial export sales for 2012/13 were 10 percent lower than 2011/12 sales to date with every wheat class running behind last year's pace. However, competitive U.S. wheat prices prompted the strongest sales numbers so far this marketing year in December. After adding nearly 2.6 million metric tons (MMT) in exports, total 2012/13 U.S. commercial sales of 19.1 MMT are now just 3 percent below last year to date. In addition, soft red winter (SRW) is now 17 percent ahead of last year's sales pace and durum sales are 3 percent higher.

The world wheat market pays close attention to buying decisions by Egypt and, in December, its government buying agency turned to the United States for the bulk of its imports. In one month, Egypt purchased 707,000 MT of U.S. SRW, hard red winter (HRW) and white wheat. The country had purchased a total of 150,400 MT from the U.S. in the first six months of the marketing year. 

Click here for more. 

Governor Mary Fallin Announces Conservation Commission, Water Policy Council Appointments

Governor Mary Fallin announced the following appointments to the Oklahoma Conservation Commission and the Water Policy for 2060 Advisory Council:

Oklahoma Conservation Commission
Scotty Herriman of South Coffeyville is owner of Herriman Farms. He also serves as a board member of the Cherokee Hills Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Council and is past president of the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts. Herriman will serve a five year term and is replacing George Stunkard and represents State Area Number Three. Senate confirmation is required for this appointment.

Water Policy for 2060 Advisory Council
Bob Drake of Davis is the owner of Drake Farms in Ardmore. Drake is chairman of the National Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative and is a past president of both the National Cattlemen's Association and the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association. He has served on both the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality Board and the Oklahoma Water Resources Board. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Oklahoma. Drake is filling a new position on the board and serves as a member well-versed in rural residential water use.

Tom Buchanan of Altus is a manager at Lugert-Altus Irrigation. He has worked in cotton irrigation since 1980. Buchanan earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Oklahoma. He is filling a new position on the board and serves as a member well-versed in agriculture water use. Senate confirmation is required for his appointment.  

Northstar Continues Efforts to Build New Canola Crushing Plant in Enid

Neil Juhnke, president and chief operating officer of Northstar Agri-Industries, spoke to business leaders in Enid Thursday about the canola crushing plant his company is in the process of building in Enid. I spoke with him about the genesis of the company, its plans, and its progress so far.

The company was founded in 2006 to grow along with the canola industry in the United States. Juhnke was one of the six founding members and investors of the company which built its first plant in northwestern Minnesota.

The plant in Kittson County draws canola from as far away as 150 miles to the west, Juhnke said. Canadian farmers from as far north as Winnipeg also make use of his facility. With the typical yield of canola at between three-quarters and one ton per acre, the Kittson County plant can serve 500,000 acres.

Juhnke told us about why move south- "The potential is there if canola is adopted at the levels that OSU recommends for a 1.6-million-acre potential." 

The plant they hope to build on the east side of Enid will have twice the capacity of their northwest Minnesota plant. Juhnke thinks they will need the production of up to 800,000 acres annually to keep them at full capacity.  They are pinning their business plan on the expectation that Oklahoma wheat farmers will continue to turn to canola as the rotational crop of choice for their wheat acres. Their timeline is to break ground this fall- and be ready for to crush canola from the 2015 harvest.  

Juhnke says there are several factors that make Enid the ideal location for a large crush facility.  You can read more or listen to our conversation by clicking here. 

Oklahoma Conservation Districts Applaud USDA Drought Disaster Declaration

The recent action by the United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) to declare 76 of Oklahoma's 77 counties as agriculture disasters areas due to the ongoing drought is a good start but more needs to be done according to Joe Parker, President of the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts (OACD). Parker said that while any action to provide assistance to Oklahoma's farmers and ranchers during this record dry weather is good news, the drought continues to deepen and the potential for crisis continues to grow.

"Any help for Oklahoma agriculture producers during this time of record drought is definitely appreciated," Parker said. "I'm concerned though that this drought is going to hang on through the spring and summer. It's critical that our farmers and ranchers have all the tools necessary to get through this record dry weather. This declaration is a step in the right direction but we also need Congress and our State Legislature to step up to the plate to help get us through this critical time. We may have gotten a little bit of rain this week, but nowhere near what we need to break the drought. We need help."

You'll find more of this story on our webpage. Click here to go there.

Oklahoma Lawmaker Wants Non-partisan Elections

Oklahoma State Rep. Josh Cockroft announced he will file two pieces of legislation that would make county elections non-partisan in Oklahoma.

The first bill will focus solely on sheriff elections. The second bill would make all county elections non-partisan.

"Making these non-legislative positions non-partisan is an important step to simply putting the right people in the right office, no matter their party," said Cockroft, R-Tecumseh. "Constituents are always telling me about the frustration they have with the current system, where they can't always vote for the candidate they want because of his or her party designation. While I believe legislative positions should be partisan, I don't think most of us see a need for partisan county elections."

The Oklahoma Sheriff's Association has voted unanimously for the first time to support legislation to make sheriff elections non-partisan, Cockroft said. Non-partisan elections would allow all voters to participate, even if candidates that file belong to only one party.

You can read more by clicking here.

This N That-  In the Field, Nashville Bound and Precipitation Update

This Saturday morning- we are pleased to have scheduled to be with us for our In the Field segment Susan Allen with Dairymax.  Susan will be visiting with us about how dairy products are a great part of helping consumers watch their weight while getting all the nutrients their bodies need. Susan works for wonderful Dairy producers across the western two thirds of Oklahoma, as well as parts of New Mexico and Texas. Our In the Field segment is seen at approximately 6:40 AM Saturday mornings during the two hour news block seen on KWTV News9 in Oklahoma City.

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Over the weekend- we will be heading for the 2013 American Farm Bureau Convention in Music City- Nashville. Be watching our website and our Twitter feed- especially on Sunday- as the largest general farm organization in the country gathers for their annual meeting.  Oklahoma Farm Bureau President Mike Spradling will be leading a good sized delegation of Oklahoma Farm Bureau members- and the Oklahoma Wheat Commission has hauled their oven eastward on I-40 to be a part of the annual Farm Bureau trade show. We'll have lots in our email Monday from the AFBF meeting- as well as on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.

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The rains of Wednesday night and Thursday are now gone- but wanted to point you to a quick update on total rainfall amounts in the northern half of the state. Drizzle hung around for a lot of yesterday- and the rainfall totals edged up as a result.  Only the Red Rock and Pawnee mesonet stations showed less than two tenths across the body of the state- Cimarron County's Kenton reported just .09 of an inch.  Meanwhile- the southern half of the state saw 23 Mesonet stations end up with an inch or more- including seven of those reporting locations in southwestern Oklahoma above the inch mark.  Click here for the updated map of this week's rainfall- and the five day outlook for the nation as it relates to potential rainfall.