like in northwest ohio in early may as we conducted our spring planting tour of the midwest. the crop progress report at the time showing just two percent of ohio's corn was planted. the five year average for that week is 20percent. but fast forward to this week -and "nass" says overall, ohio farmers had ideal weather for grain harvest. and farmers were able to capitalize on the crop conditions. 55-percent of corn is harvested, 21 points ahead of the five year average. (the i80 harvest tour -spnosored by enlist weed control system from dow agrosciences. combining the proven control of a new 2,4-d and glyphosate. take control of tough weeds like never before)

this growing season. for farmers, that brought on variable crops, replant and even prevent plant acres this year. national reporter betsy jibben caught up with farmers in the north, who may have received the 'brunt' of the storm seen throughout the clinton, prevent plant acres are not an uncommon sight to see in northwestern ohio. this area got pelted with rain throughout the growing season, but the farmers in this area say the weather in august and september really helped dry things up. as farmers spend harvest in the combineomike hannewald tends to acres left bare. "once we got into that second week of june and the rains didn't let up, that's when we started to realize, this is a different year." a different year that brought over 28 inches of rain to his area. a wet june and july did not leave much of a window to plant soybeans, or re-plant what was damaged. "we struggled getting them in the ground in the spring. about 40 percent of our bean crop was

prevent plant," but this harvest isn't just time deep tilling.. " i think this has the potential to yield 60. i hope we can do that," mike and his dad keith are busy in the fields they did plant too. "i usually do all of the truck driving. when he's able to slip away, he's in the combine for the most part." since this, the father-son duo finished up soybeans with a yield slighly below their aph and are halfway through with corn. that crop is more variable. one neighbor had a field with 230 bushel corn we had one field that went 120. we will probably have 100 bushel range with corn and we've already seen a 40 bushel range in beans 34 "overall with the way things are shapping up, we've been in some cases, we've seen what we expected and in other cases, pleasantly surprised." just a half an hour west at kevin thierry's field, combines are continuing to roll. "we had a pretty wet spring and

early summer but now it's dried off and we had a good fall so far," thierry also fought the struggles that came with the rain. but was fortunate enough to get the crop in the ground and side-dress. "most of our crops i thought was going to end up like this singular hole. luckily enough the beans and corn started early enough that we didn't get a ton of drowned out," thierry says because of the rain, this year was all about soil type and drainage. but it still resulted in some variable yields. "beans, guys are stunned they are doing as well as they are. it's nothign spectucular, don't get me wrong, but it's about average for beans," as each continue on in the field...

despite yield swings and unplanted acres.. resilliance and eternal optimism carries them on from one years challanges to the next. "between the fact that our yields are better than we anticipated and the fact that have the support of cropinsurance, you know, we'll be ok." now both told agday pockets to the south and west are worse off. some farmers didn't even get planted. but there areas in the state making up some for the loss. mike hoffman joins us from the agday weather center with a look at some other crops in today's cropwatch. good morning clinton. as betsy showed us northwest ohio has had abundance of moisture this year. the drought monitor shows that corner of ohio remains free and clear of drought. but it 'is' starting to creep back into the picture in north-west ohio and the southern counties. overall about 15percent of the state is abnormally dry. in july it was zero. now to the keystone state, pennsylvania's vital apple

is picked. it looks like growers have had a great season. according to nass, 96-percent is rated good to excellent. and taking a look at the crop moisture you can see the dry areas continue to expand in eastern texas much of louisiana and arkansas weat areas though remain in much of the carolinas i^ll have my forecast coming up in just a few minutes if you fly a drone or uav around the farm, you may need to prepare for some new rules. the federal aviation administration says it plans to move forward with requiring registration for all drones. officials at the faa says uav's continue to violate airspace and interfere with fire and rescue operations. it's appointed a new task force to look into the matter. the group will advise the faa on which aircraft should be exempt from registration--such as toys and other smaller uav. the report is due late november. faa says it thinks registering unmanned

aircraft will help build a culture of accountability and responsibility. up next a closer look at the cattle market and whether it can climb back out of its summer sluand later, silver lining for monarch butterflies. the drought out west is helping rebuild habitat for this struggling beauty. (receive a free trial of the daily market letter and gain knowledge about current market conditions from the professionals at bower trading. view the markets like never

things closed from the floor of the cme. kind of a little bit of a bid going on with the grain market going on. seeing some weakness in a dollar index. the latest crop progress a little bit better than expected. that's why beans shot up to 9 dollars. then it backed off from there. we do have record high-ending

along the road here. corn prices to 3.75 and 3.70 is your que level and 4 dollars is your upside chinese demand is that as well. a lot of bullish action in the grains. wheat we should have that larger crop also hanging on. that may push prices down. looking at the live cattle market, reverse higher building off f a gap that we saw t tt was created hehe friday after the close. prices really firmed up quite a bit. the bulls are in favor. the demand has really picked up. the thing is from now until about the end of the year and the holiday season, we start to see people piling in on that long-side. we're going to see those supplies go down and demand go up. lean hogs that's another market breaking out to the upside as well. the trend is following funds. they are all jumping and are above some of the movement averages like 50 to 200 day movement average. they probably get some e eam there. this is phillip streible with

prices rallying last week with cash markets climbing 8 dollars fifty cents...to just above 134 pepehundred. however sterling profit tracker shows feeders still losing 385 dollars per head. so can the rise continue. tyne morgan asks the question

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welcome back to agday.

weather. mike it looks like many parts of the winter wheat belt are really going to see some in. this is a very s sw moving system sitting over the 4 corner region. it's just going to sit there and spin for 2-3 days which will bring fair amount of rain to many places. and as we puthe maps into motion, you see how slowly this system out west is actually moving. lots of moisture, some of the pacific moisture, some of its gulf moisture getting involved. eastern new mexico, west texas over the next couple of days in some areas will get a ton of rain, probably even causing some flooding in some places, since those areas don't normally get very heavy rains very often. system moving thru the upper great lakes causing rain in northern michigan, a few scattered showers along the front across the central plains. high pressure kekeing most of the southeast dry, a little bit of moisture coming into florida, giving hit or miss activity. as we head towards the am hours

shcwers and tstorms in western texas, and already east of new mexico by that point. as we head into the afternoon, that just continues to slowly move eastward with more and more moisture getting involved. unfortunately at least for the next two days, this activity will be west of those very dry areas that we showed you on the crop moisture, but hopefully they'll head eastward as we head towards the weeke3nd. high pressure dominating the southeast and also the great lakes as we head into afternoon hours tomorrow. there's the precip estimates over the past 24 hrs, just a few hit and miss showers along that front. southern great lakes into the plain states but you can see the activity already starting to moisten up thrhrgh out the 4 corner region but especially eastern new mexico and west texas. and look at the amounts our model puts down, it just continues to show some huge amounts there in some places of west tex and eastern new mexico with several inches of rain in places. amazing situation

southward to the gulf coast stayinindry and most of that area staying on th pleasant side. highs of 70s and 80s for high temps. a bit cool in new england, northern great lakes and cool back into the northern and centntl rockies. nothing real cold at this point though. low temps tonite we'll see lots of 40 and 50s eastern seaboard, 30s and 40s in northern plains but holding in the 60s for central and southern plains. and we continue to be warm south of that frontal system from the southern great lakes southward, but north of there highs in the 40s and 50s for the most part. jet stream as we head thru the rest of the week, you can see why that system is just gointo sit there awhile and cut off area of low pressure for a while then it kind of comes east. a big trough develops for a couple of days late this week and early next week in the east/ and then we kinda go more zonal by the middle of next week.that's a look across the country, now let's look at some local forecasts. we head to twin falls,s,daho first off all l ls

and afternoon thunderstorm in some areas high of 75. and saginaw, michigan cloudy and windy with a bit of wind around, high of 66. up next, two agribusiness giants unveil their latest technology innovation---and the results may mean bigger yields for corn growers. and later we'll find out why this drought tolerant plant is helping sustain the monarch butterfly in california. (this is machinery pete inviting you to check out my new website -machinery pete.com -offering farmers tens of thousands of used equipment listings to search. let machinery pete help you find and value your next

monsanto and basf working on a new variety that increases the

percent longer--or an extra inch or two. we asked monsanto about it. they say its very early in the research. the team is still in the data testing mode. they if everything works, it wouldn't hit the market until 2020 at the earliest. in other news, one of the nation's largest supermarkets could squeeze suppliers for price cuts...including food. reuters reporting wal-mart earnings suggest more price cuts and reduced cost-sharing deals. last week, wal-mart stunned wall street by forecasting earnings would decline by as much as 12 percent in its next fiscal year. officials for a top recruiting firm for wal-mart suppliers said "suppliers are going to have to help wal-mart get back on track." walmart now accounts for more the 10 percent of the total retail market. at the grocery store, u.s. retail costs setting records for some foods in september. eggs and boneless sirloin both hitting new highs.

dozen--up 15 percent over the last month. boneless sirloin steak up near 8-86 a pound. a new record...for the higher priced cuts. ground beef actually fell last month--to 4 dollars 12 cents a pound. chicken dropping to its lowest point in nearly 2 years. while the california drought is causing problems for farmers and gardeners, the struggling monarch butterfly is actually benefitting. find out why as we head in the country. agday-brought to you by yamaha, makers of viking side by sides.

(in the country brought to you by the all new kubota ssv series skid steers. you asked for a quality skid steer and we delivered. visit your local kubota dealer to test drive one today) the struggling monarch butterfly is getting help from an unlikely source: the california drought. the female

growing number of gardeners are buying the drought-tolerant plants. gillian flaccus has our story. "come on, come on out! here, grab a hold of my finger." the monarch -a beloved butterfly species whose population has been in decline. now getting a boost for the most unlikely of reasons -the california drought. numbers of the majestic orange-and-black butterflies are in free fall as development chews up fields of milkweed -the only plant where the female monarch will lay her eggs. but in california, drought-tolerant milkweed species are gaining popularity as homeowners rip up lawns and plant desert gardens instead. outside san diego, tom merriman has seen first-hand how interest in saving water and saving monarchs has surged. "more milkweed, more milkweed, more milkweed." four years ago, merriman didn't even offer milkweed for sale at his nursery. this season, he sold more than 14,000 milkweeds and

a very adaptable plant, it's co-evolved with the monarch. it's a survivor plant." anya shortridge bought a few milkweeds last year after seeing how they attracted monarchs. upsound (english): "ooh! he says, 'yummy! fresh milkweed!'" now, she spends hours collecting the pinpointsized eggs -feeding the caterpillars -she released more than 100 butterflies into the wild this summer alone. "ok, how about you? you ready?" but some experts worry well-meaning drought gardeners like shortridge could be doing harm by trying to do good. many are planting non-native -or so-called 'exotic' --milkweeds because they are more colorful. a choice that could affect the monarchs' life cycle and make them more vulnerable. soundbite (english), hei-ock kim, california native plants society "you're going to change chemistry, climate, biology. you're changing all their habits." for now, the monarchs don't seem to be complaining. milkweed popping up in backyards

press, san diego) that's all the time we have this morning. we're glad you tuned in. for mike hoffman, tyne morgan and betsy

good morning. thanks for joining us on this wednesday october 21st. coming up in this half hour of news 4 today... nbc's political director chuck todd made a stop in sioux city. he talked about the political climate during this presidential election cycle... and ktiv's matt breen sat down with him to pick his brain on the hot button issues. also.. the prairie hills jail is up for debate again. woodbury county supervisors talk about the future of the facility and what it would take to maintain it. and.. the end of an era for a siouxland grocery store. in business for more than a century, the family that runs it is moving on... but not without leaving a hole in the wakefield, nebraska community. and a touch down on a new life. a plane full of dogs finds a new home in utah after one woman worked tirelessly to save the pound puppies and fly them to their forever homes. that heartwarming story is on

the way. but first, here's ben.