Farmers were busy harvesting Oats and Wheat last week(6-5 to 6-11) with 6 straight days of sunshine. They were rutting fields up the first couple days of the week, left boggy from all the rain the weeks before. Rain received on Saturday and Sunday evening this past weekend has shut them down again for a few days. The Southwestern quadrant of the county received most of the rain with totals from .5 to 2 inches, with the two inches around the Hood area. The Oats so far are making 80 to 90 bushels/acre and the Wheat is yielding 70 to 85 bushels/acre so far with test weights from 50-55. Forecast calls for more sunny skies after Wednesday with a slight chance of a stray thunderstorm each day. The Corn and Milo are looking good with reports that this is the best that Corn has looked in years, and the majority of the corn is silking. Milo looks ok with some yellowing of leaves occurring on the bottom third of the plant due to excessive moisture and some Milo started heading this past week. Farmers continue to scout for aphids and worms, but no reports of any so far. There is quite a bit of Haygrazer and Sudan in the county and it is looking good. With most folks finished with the cool season hay crop they will be getting ready to start on the warm season hay crop before too long. Cattle are looking exceptionally well and spring calves are growing vigorously. Ranchers were busy last week shipping cattle off winter pastures as most of them have played out by now. It has rained a lot but the first half of 2016 has been pretty dang good.

Last Week’s Markets—-July 16 Corn was up 5 cents on the week closing at $4.23. Sept 16 corn settled at $4.27. Jul 16 Wheat was down 2-5 cents on the week and settled at $4.95 on the Chicago board and $4.69 on the KC board. July 16 Soybeans were up 46 cents on the week at $11.78. JUN 16 live cattle were up 45 cents on the week settling at $122.45 and Aug 16 Lives settled at $117.35 Aug 16 Feeders were down $1.13 on the week settling around $145, with the Sept 16 feeder’s settling at $144. Feeder Steers & Heifers traded $1-3 higher at major auctions, while calves were steady. Six weight feeder steers $162-168 with heifers at $150-153. Six weight steer & heifer calves not well tested. All classes of Cows sold $2-4 higher with 1250# boner & lean cows averaging 79-83 cents/pound, and Bulls sold $2 higher, 1800# bulls averaging a $1-1.05/lb. Slaughter estimates last week at 590,000 head, up 70,000 from the previous week, and beef production estimates at 470 million pounds for the week, also up considerably.
Marty Morgan, Ag Agent