crisis here in the western corn belt what are the prospects for a repeat with a bumper harvest? we'll find out today on agday. in agribusiness... what has the equity market told us in 2015. it's told us that you better be careful! feedyards struggle under the weight of lower cattle prices. and we'll see how a tennssee extension program is helping low income families buy fresh produce at local farmers markets. agday-brought to you by the dependable, long lasting chevy silverado. and by mycogen seeds. visit acres of possibility.com to discover the potential of mycogen seeds.> good morning i'm clinton griffiths. many farmers are harvesting a bumper crop in the western corn belt this fall. but can they get it to market? they're quick to remember the disaster they faced in 2014 as the shortage of railcars, locomotives and personnel resulted in severely depressed cash grain prices with a

widening of basis levels. a year later, are railroads prepared to handle another big crop in the region? agday's michelle rook has the answer. last year's rail crisis in the western corn belt hit farmers hard, costing them millions of dollars. however, a lot has changed in a year... "you know there certainly hasn't been the delays that there was the previous year, so much improved on that, much better service." "they don't have to wait any time to get cars and actually the rates are a little bit cheaper. so it's a pretty good deal because the cost per car is down." so what helped break the logjam? part of it was the railroads caught up with a milder winter and a drop in demand for railcars. "the lesser shipments coming out of bakken oil fields up there have helped alleviate some of the rail congestion." "that demand has slowed by way of the falling prices on oil, but that's really shifted some of the assets and the concerns of the past year or two." and the demand for cars to move grain has also been softer, even with the record crop in

haven't been able to take and move out a lot of inventory so i don't think there's a lot of pressure on the railroads." -another reason the rail crisis has eased here in the western corn belt is the investment railroads companies have made in infrastructureo.. "the railroads have invested heavilyomore crews, more locomotives, more cars, made some investment in track and things like that." they're doing better." plus congress stepped in with legislative action. "the work that senator thune and the commerce committee have done to try and hold the railroads accountable for any of the delays that they've had has been beneficial. you know just the fact that they have to report and kind of talk about their turn times." the good news now is the railroads don't expect a repeat of last year's crisis, even with a bumper crop in the western corn belt. "they were very bold and said we do not anticipate any problem this fall. we think we've stepped up, we've stepped up our service and so we're looking for a normal

is are the rail problems permanently solved? "its not there where we need to be and again this is about making sure our markets are free, we have access to it and we have a little bit of competition and right now there's not. so i think there work to go there because i think we're always on the verge of problems with that." that means lawmakers and the industry must continue to work on a long term fix. i'm michelle rook reporting for agday. the commerce committee has been working on a surface transportation board reform bill to provide more transparency in the rail industry and reform rail rates. senator thune says he hopes the changes will help avoid another melt down like 2014. sorghum harvest reached the half-way mark. usda's crop progress report shows it hit 51percent this week. that's seven points ahead of average. kansas leads the nation in planted acres with three-point-three-million acres. nearly 40percent is cut, running ahead of average. texas is second in acreage with

harvested. both of those states saw big jumps in acreage this year. texas added 850-thousand acres from last year. strong demand -especially from china encouraged farmers to plant more sorghum. u-s sorghum growers are on pace to harvest one of the biggest sorghum crops in about a decade. and growers in the texas panhandle had good growing conditions right out of the chute. we head excellent moisture and got off to a great start. rains kept coming all the way to the first of august, then they turned off. dry the rest of august and september. record heat in september taht we hadn't had all summer. got into 100's. but still this crop held on, thrived and is going to be what looks like -for the county -a record sorghum crop in the wheat

front, that market seeing new action lately as buyers begin sourcing grain. bloomberg reports major importing countries including egypt, algeria and saudi arabia have all bought wheat in international tenders in the past week. part of the reason--prices--now roughly 15 percent less than when the year started. the other driver of demand--dry weather looming in russia. that part of the world getting 40 percent its normal amount of rain over the past 30 days. in cropwatch this morning we hear from a couple farmers enjoying at least parts of the fall weather. mike hoffman has that from the agday weather center. good morning clinton. crop watch takes us to stearns county, minnesota. a farmer posted on agweb that he finished soybean harvest. he averaged 66 bushels an acre this year. corn is about a third completed and yields are strong. he farms on dryland sandy loam to loam soils in northern stearns county. he reminds everyone to be safe this harvest. and now to washington county, colorado. that's in the

over the weekend. he says 'it's the driest and warmest fall i've ever seen in my almost 40 years of farming.' they said it's too dry for wheat to germinate. and taking a look at the weather map that next cold front doesn't have much moisture but it will bring cold temperatures for this time of the year from the plains states into the ohio valley. i'll have my forecast coming up in a few minutes. thanks mike. the u-s dairy industry slowly rolling out its response to the trans pacific partnership. leaders appearing to be neutral on the final language of the trade agreement. national milk producers federation president jim mulhern says quote based on the information available--it appears that our industry has successfully avoided the type of disproportionate one way street that we were deeply concerned could have resulted under the agreement. adding new zealand did not get the unfettered access to the u.s. it long sought, but japan and canada did not open their markets to the

awarded the contract to provide avian flu vaccine to the usda. the 6 million dollar contract covers 2 years and 48-million doses--about half of which are due in the next 45 days. harris says the contract to make the vaccines doesn't mean usda has decided to vaccinate birds for high path avian flu. up next we'll head over the agribusiness desk. today taking a look at the overall equity market and where money is moving in a volatile year. plus, america's feedyards are feeling the financial strain brought on by a dip in cattle prices. we talk to an owner in texas about the challenges he's facing in the pen. and later, we're off to tennssee to see how a new extension program is helping snap recipients buy healthy food at the local farmers market. winfield is your trusted agronomic and business partner with the expertise, products and insights to help you make the right decisions, from planning to harvest, in

kevin duling, kd investors our guest here at the agribusiness desk today. kevin, let's talk about the financial markets as we kind of start top rap up 2015. it's october, we have got a couple more months here. what has the equity market told us this year?> uh, it's told us that you better be careful. i mean i told the group last winter, i said guys get your money out of the stock market for a while this takes a year off and let's re-asses january 2016.> yeah it's been volatile.> it's been volatile. it's going to continue that way. you know you have got the fed they were supposed to raise rates in september and that was just basically job holding the market--it didn't happen. and then now they say that they are going to raise it in december, i still don't think it can happen. you have got caterpillar laying off 10,000 folks. i mean it's just not strong and to me it's just going to be a slow grind. and so that brings me to where

you going to put it? i want to put it somewhere that has demand that's given that's going to grow and to me agriculture is the only sector that does that. i mean the energy sector doesn't.> we still have to feed people.> still got to feed people. we are still at 225,000 people a day on a net basis. so yeah, i think money needs to stay out of the equities for a little while longer.> what about the dollar? do you see the dollar having a big impact in ag? > absolutely, i wish that i could tell you where it's headed. you know i look at it ...the question is do we do a qe-4, do we not? i don't know. i mean you have good arguments for both. if we don't we run the risk of becoming a currency island and then we are not going to be able to export anything and that's going to be negative for ags and you name it, but on the other hand if they decide they have to ease to keep pace with everybody else then--boom, we are going to shoot the value of the dollar and up we go. so

big global puzzle though, right? > it's a puzzle. it's probably more chaotic than it has ever been. > all right, kevin. we appreciate that perspective. we will be back with more agday in just a minute. to talk to kevin one-on-one, or to receive a free one month sample, call today at 541-9804554 agday -brought to one month sample, call today at 541-9804554 agday -brought to you by basf. grow smart with basf and get the most acre after

welcome back to agday. meteorologist mike hoffman here. mike we're kinda watching the coldest weather of the season

coming from the north. but out on the west coast, maybe some rain? yea, in fact, perhaps some decent amounts in places. but not widespread at this point. and it's being caused by that area of low pressure sitting off the southwest coast over the past couple of days. it's going to finally start to move inland a little bit and it'll increase moisture over southern cali, central cali into arizona and other parts of the 4 corner region. farther east, the area of low pressure movi9ng thru the upper great lakes will cause some decent areas of showers , but you'll notice a strong cold front has almost no moisture along it. it's following an air mass that's already very dry which is probably the reason. and you can see far south florida still getting that front slipping on thru which will cause a couple spots of showers or thunderstorms perhaps as well. there's tomorrow morning, showers from the northern great lakes into new england, just spotty activity in the southwest but as we head thru the afternoon hours it' really does increase out there.esp over southern california and northern arizona. scattered showers over the great lakes and northeast.

areas -the northeast and southwest. as you can see not a whole lot the past 36 hrs or so, but as we add on the next 36 hrs we'll see some light amounts across in places the great lakes and northeast. and mainly light amounts out west. but any rain is good rain out there. and a few spots may actually ge a half inch or more. so hopefully we can expand that as we head thru the next few weeks and start to see a little more rain. high temps today 80s and 90s in southern plains, south miss valley but still pretty cool from the appalachians thru great lakes into northern rockies, northern plains with lots of highs in the 50s there. low temps tonite going to drop off into the freezing category in some of the far northern plains. and that cold air will just continue to settle into the rest of the cold belt. you can see comfortable temps overnight in the southeast, southern plains, with 60s there. high temps

computer models are going 42 for the high in minneapolis that's pretty cold air for this time of year. all being caused by a trough all though you may notice this little ripple here. that's a secondary piece of energy that dives in and increases that trough for a little while there as we head thru the weekend and into early next week. then the ridge builds back in for a while and another trough comes in out west and settles into the middle of the country and eventually the great lakes, by the latter parts of next week. that's a look across the country now let's look at some local forecasts. first of all spokane washington mostly sunny and nice high around72. taking a look at coleman, texas, lots of sunshine and hot, high of 92 and finally erie, pa, increasing clouds maybe a shower late in the day, high of 62 degrees. we've been reporting about the financial pinch at america's feedyards...up next we talk to an owner who says things are worse than they've been in decades. and later, for folks on food assistance a tennessee

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in beef today report, last week the sterling profit tracker showing feedyards losing 550 dollars on every aninil. when just a year ago...it was 200 dollars in profits per head. the catastrophic turn around a reality for hartley feeders in the panhandle of texas. ryan moorehouse says the first two quarters of the year were good--but the drop s sce this summer is really squeezing profs. his dad compares it to the days of 1973-moorehouse says its not that prices are necessarily bad, it's that they fell so hard so fast. we're

reasonalble level somewhere that's good for everybody. good for the packer good for the stocker and good for the feeder. the margins pass back and forth up and down the line all the time in the beef business. it's very segmented and when it's your turn in the barrell you're going to get beat up pretty bad a lot ananit was a time for us. in usda's latest supply-and-demand report, the agency lowered its expectations for cattle prices for 2015 and 16. that reduction is based on current large supplies of market-ready cattle, weaker demand and competition from otheheforms of meat. the ag department is also forecasting increased beef production from last months estimates. usda analysts expect high slaughter of fed cattle and heavier carcasses. up next take a walk through a tennssee farmer's market where a new extension program is hoping to make fresh produce available to people

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in the country brought to you by the all new kubota ssv series skid steers. you asked for a quality skid steer a a we delivered. visit your local kubota dealer to test drive one today we've heard a lot in recent years about getting american's to eat healthier--regardless of their socio-economic status. research has shown a family on limited income may not always be able to afford or eat the most healthful foods. in tennessee --ut extension is trying a new program where fresh fruits and vegetables are made available to some people on financial assistance. chuck denney--wiwi the ut institute of ag- a fall morning, and the rutherford county farmer's market is packed. and why not? look at all the beautiful produce you can buy here. this is where you'll

government assistance to help pay their food bill, and can now use those benefits here. "we use most of our benefits at the farmer's market. we get all our fresh produce here, our meat, milk. you get a lot better prices here too. you can get more produce for what you're paying, so we really enjoy it." this murfreesboro location is part of a ut extension program called "farmer's marart fresh." here peoeoe who receive aid frfr the supplemental nutrition assistance program or have an electronic benefits transfer card can shop here. in the past, many recipients could mostly only purchase preserved foods, but now they can also use benefits for just- picked, much healthier frfrts and vegetables. "increasing the fruit and vegetable consumption of everyone, at least five fruits and vegetables, maybe even shoot for eight. but fresh fruits and vegetables from you farmer's markrk grown locally is

"tennessee was number one in the nation f f farmer's market growth in 2014. we now have more than 154 registered markets statewide. leaders of this ut extension program say it just makes sense to connect snap and ebt consumers with these tlets." "farmer's mamaet fresh" also includes cooking demonstrations by ut extension, as well as information about food selection and storage. experts say a farmer's market can be a classroom. "a lot of our r rticipants tell us t tt one of the barriers that they experience to increasing their fruit and vegetable consumption is that preparation piece. they just don't know what to do with that fruit or vegetable when they get it home. so what we're doing with the 'farmer's market fresh' program is we're giving them a hands-on food demonstration." most farmer's markets will be shutting down

the coming winter months. and whether produce is paid for with money or benefits, you can find a good and healthy value for your food dollar here. this is cd repepting. the 'farmer's market fresh' program is currently in 12 tennessee counties. across the nation, more than six thousand markets accept snap benefits. that's all the time we have this morning. we're glad you tuned in. for mike hoffman, and all of us at agday, i'm clinton griffiths. have a great day in farm country. high strength steel for high strength dependability, the

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