Grain Markets Crash on Quarterly Stocks Report Ahead of Holiday Weekend 

The USDA released its Quarterly Stocks and Prospective Plantings Reports Thursday and grain markets reacted immediately to the news said Tom Leffler of Leffler Commodities.

"Well, we knew they would have an impact. We were hoping it would have a positive impact as most thought we would see positive news from the USDA. They completely fooled us with everything being negative."

All quarterly stocks were substantially higher than traders expected, and grain prices tumbled. Corn traded limit down at the close and wheat and soybeans were both off more than 40 cents.

Traders had expected wheat stocks of 1.18 billion bushels, but the actual figure was 1.25 billion bushels. Corn stocks were expected to post 5 billion bushels. The actual number was 5.4 billion bushels. Soybeans came in at one billion on an expectation of 940 million bushels.

"We did not see the feed usage of feeding wheat and corn as what the trade had expected or what we were led to believe back in early March from the monthly supply and demand report," Leffler said.

Click here to listen to Tom Leffler's analysis of the markets' reaction to the Quarterly Stocks report.
 

OCA Says Good Bye to Scott Dewald After Seventeen Years of Service as Executive Vice President 

After serving the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association for seventeen years, the Executive Vice President of the organization, Scott Dewald, has announced he is leaving OCA to become the President of REI- the Rural Enterprises Incorporated, based in Durant, Oklahoma.

Scott and his family were honored by the OCA and Oklahoma Agriculture on Thursday evening, March 28th for his many years of serving the OCA, the Oklahoma Cattle Industry, Oklahoma Animal Agriculture and really all of Oklahoma Agriculture.


Presentations were made to Scott by Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture Jim Reese, Oklahoma Pork Council Executive Roy Lee Lindsay, the Reed Center and by Mike Frey, President of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association.

After the presentations- we talked for a few moments with Scott about his time at OCA- you can hear that conversation as well as see some of the pictures we took last night at the reception by clicking here.

Scott concludes his tenure with OCA this week and begins his new challenge with REI on April first.

Grain Stocks Report Causes Market Some Indigestion, Kim Anderson Says 

Grain markets tumbled Thursday following the USDA's release of its Quarterly Stocks and Prospective Plantings reports. In his weekly preview to this Saturday's SUNUP show, Kim Anderson, Oklahoma State University Grain Marketing Specialist, said the planted acreage was in line with pre-release estimates and did not have a big effect on markets. The effect of the Quarterly Stocks report, however, was another story.

"There's where the negative prices came in. The stocks were a big surprise. They came in above expectations."

Anderson said traders were expecting wheat to come in at 1.18 billion bushels. The actual number was 1.25 billion bushels. Corn stocks were expected to post 5 billion bushels. The actual number was 5.4 billion bushels. Soybeans came in at one billion on an expectation of 940 million bushels.

"All were significantly higher than the market expected and that's why you saw corn limit down, wheat down 44 or 45 cents, soybeans down 40 to 45 cents. We've got more product, more commodity in the bin than we thought we did." 

You can hear more from Kim Anderson and this week's SUNUP lineup by clicking here. 

2013 Canola Crop Remains on the Edge and in Need of a Drink of Water- Josh Bushong of OSU

As we approach the first of April, there is still a lot of uncertainty about the 2013 winter canola crop across Oklahoma, southern Kansas and northern Texas. Oklahoma State University Extension Canola Specialist Josh Bushong calls it a "hit or miss" crop as spring weather is starting to push the crop into a growth mode.

Bushong talked with us between class sessions at Canola College held on Thursday in Enid- with close to 300 canola and wheat producers in attendance. There were producers present who have grown canola for a decade- like Jeff Scott, who was helping present an advanced course on working as a repeat canola producer to reach the next level in canola production- shooting for that next ten bushels per acre higher. At the other end of the spectrum were farmers like Rodney Cowan from Blaine County- who has yet to put the first canola seed in the ground on his farm- preferring to stay with wheat and stocker cattle to this point. Cowan told us that it was his first Canola educational event- and he was staring to think more about how canola could be a benefit to him on his farm- especially if it gets too hard to make stocker cattle pencil out.

As for the conditions found here in the spring of 2013- Bushong says that farmers who got some timely rains in the fall and were able to get the 2013 crop established before winter are well ahead of the curve versus the farmers who got little rain last fall and only a moderate amount of establishment. A lot of fields will need rains very soon in order to react postively to warmer temperatures and sunshine. Bushong says that while many fields are in poor shape- and some have already been zeroed out and the producers are getting an insurance check- a lot of fields he was seen in recent days actually are greening up and have good growth potential- if they get moisture.

Click here to listen to our full conversation.  

 

Conservation Districts Praise Sub-Committee Passage of Emergency Drought Package

Efforts to prepare Oklahoma for a continuing drought continued to move through the Oklahoma Legislature with the passage of House Bill 1923 by the Senate Budget Sub-Committee on Natural Resources and Regulatory services on March 27 according to Clay Pope, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts (OACD).

"We are very pleased that the Oklahoma Legislature is continuing to move this issue through the process," Pope said. "It's easy to lose sight of the fact that we are still in a drought and that there is a still a better than average chance that it will deepen this summer. We're glad our legislators are continuing to work on this."

Authored by Senator Ron Justice (R-Chickasha) and Representative Dale DeWitt (R-Braman), HB 1923 is designed to provide funding to help agriculture producers, municipalities and fire departments deal with issues surrounding water availability, soil and water conservation and fire danger, while creating a drought advisory task force. The bill will now advance to the full Senate Appropriations Committee for consideration. A companion measure, Senate Bill 996 by Senator Justice and Representative Don Armes (R-Faxon) is currently awaiting consideration in the House Budget Sub-Committee on Natural Resources and Regulatory Services.

 

CEI Claims Activists Falsely Sow Seeds of Doubt on Farmer Assurance Provision

During negotiations on the continuing budget resolution last weekend, farm state senators inserted a rider they call the "Farmer Assurance Provision," which critics have derided as the "Monsanto Protection Act." The provision codifies existing USDA practices and elements of a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that lower courts should not automatically prohibit the planting of biotech crop varieties, or the harvest and sale of biotech crops already planted, when their commercial approval is revoked for procedural reasons. Activists have mischaracterized the rider's actual effect and have called on Congress to repeal it. Gregory Conko, a Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, issued the following statement:

For close to a decade, activists have used nuisance litigation to overturn the approval of biotech crops on the grounds that the U.S. Department of Agriculture improperly documented its evaluation of potentially negative "environmental" effects. Because the National Environmental Policy Act requires agencies to consider and fully document not only ecological impacts, but also any possible economic, social, cultural, historic and aesthetic effects, it offers fertile ground for bad-faith, obstructionist lawsuits for what amounts to mere paperwork violations.

In the five NEPA lawsuits against biotech crop approvals filed to date, not a single harm to consumers or the environment were even alleged, let alone proved. So, activist claims that the rider lets USDA ignore a court finding of environmental harm are patently false. In fact, the rider only authorizes USDA to grant "temporary" permission for biotech crops to be planted, and only "subject to necessary and appropriate conditions ... and requirements, including measures designed to mitigate or minimize potential adverse environmental effects, if any," until the USDA's paperwork irregularities have been corrected.

You can read more by clicking here.

 

How well do we do what we are told to do?  (or- No Sitting Around the Campfire Singing Kum Ba Ya)

It's Good Friday- and this weekend- the most uniquely Christian holiday there is- Easter Sunday- is approaching. Perhaps you know the story of the first encounter that is told about by John of anyone with the risen Jesus- it's the conversation that He had with Mary. 

Mary thought she was talking to the gardener as she was afraid someone had stolen the dead body of Jesus- she asked if he knew where the body had been taken- and then her eyes were opened when Jesus spoke simply her name- Mary. 

Jesus told her not to cling to Him- but it was not about actually touching his resurrected body.  Certainly later Jesus would ask Thomas to touch His hands and His side so that He could believe it was Jesus. Jesus was not preventing actual touch but was asking her not to stay there and cling to Him. She had a job to do before Jesus ascended to His Father.

She had to go and tell the disciples that she had seen the risen Lord. A woman became the first person to encounter the risen Lord and to share personally the good news of Jesus with others. The verbs tell the urgency of Jesus for Mary to share the news: don't cling, go, and tell. We too are tempted to keep the message to ourselves, but we have been given a similar commission as the one Mary received. We have to go and tell that we have had an encounter with the risen Jesus. Mary fulfilled her commission well, telling the disciples, I have seen the Lord! If you are a believer- how are you doing in following the marching orders we have been given in the "Great Commission"?

If you're like me- you probably need to practice the going and the telling a little more and spend a little less time sitting around the camp fire sharing variations of the story among ourselves.

It's something to think about for this Easter 2013- as we consider what the priorities of this life are to us.