[ music ] . >> today on us farm report. the usda confirms a big crop waiting to be harvested. pro-farmer crop participants get ready to hit the road and check the field. >> and pork producers find the usda short when seeking aid. >> u.s. farm report brought to you by chevy, an american revolution. [ music ] . >> good morning. and welcome to u.s. farm report. i'm john fipps. the much anticipated august crop report was released this week and either market players are anticipated it accurately or we were all completely confused because the price action wasn't as furious as most of us expected. we will have our experts sort it out later.

in what is becoming standard procedure problematic weather earlier in the season seems to be overcome by great effort and technology. the remaining risk is largely one of late planted crops racing the first frost. having driven around the midwest recently i have seen good crops and not so good but none that seem to be at the right staying for mid-august. my guess is farmers are not going to be great company for the next six weeks or. so let's get started with the news now and al . >> thank you, and good morning everyone. it appears farmers in the cool belt have overcome the cool july and foggy spring that threatened the crop. the usda released their august crop production this week. they expect farmer also produce a 3.2 of soy beans up 8% are from a year ago. an average of 27.8 an acre. up 5% from last year. the ag department expects

average yields of 159.5-bushels per acre up more than five bushels from last year. chip flory was struck by the nation's top two corn producing states. >> iowa had 185-bushels per acre, four bushels better than the 181 that the state saw in 2004. now, in 2004 the iowa corn crop looked like fresh laid carpet. it was consistent from -- across the field. it was consistent from field to field. there were a few holes in that 2004 crop but not many. and certainly not as many as we've got in the 2009 corn crop. pushing all the way two 185 is going to take a record ear count which usda says we are going to see. but also take a good solid finish for this crop because we are behind on development. another number illinois at 175- bushels per acre just off four bushes per acre from last year something from the start of the season when we were planting corn in early june or even mid-

june nobody thought we were going to be able to get to 175- bushels per acre. chip and his team will conduct the pro-farmer midwest crop from ohio to nebraska will step out to gauge this year's corn crops. the official estimates right here next week on u.s. farm report. nine governors from big pork producing have asked the usda to help the struggling industry. buildup they say the fund is running dry. last week the governors asked the usda to spend $50 million on pork products to be used in the federal food programs. but they told radio iowa that there has been such a big demand to purchase commodities that they are running low on available fund. the money may become available in october when the new fiscal year begins. that's it for the headlines, now back to john for crop watch. [ music ] .

let's check out the field conditions coming into agweb.com. for the first time this season, asian sob bean rice has been found in arkansas in the southeast corner of the state near mississippi and louisiana. so far, this is the farthest asr has crept northward. in south dakota in the northeast region, a grower says this far into august hardly anyone has gotten a start on spring wheat. and farm journal crops editor pam smith sent us this photo of a sunflower crop south of illinois. the farm is owned by steve spray. he told us the sunflowers will be harvested and mixed in with birdseed he sells to the public. when u.s. farm report returns, al talks markets with gregg hunt and mike north. the discussion begins in just two minutes. please stay with us. -0-0-0-0-0- i visited with dairy

. >> u.s. farm report foundtable guest this week greg hunt, nf global and mike. i will go to you first. didn't seem like the markets even noticed that the report was out there. looks like we will have more corn and beans that we even dreamed we would. >> well, there is a lot of history about the markets, the whisper numbers were kind of there. >> okay. and, you know, it was the typical take in the fact type of thing. i mean, i've seen, you know, like in '95 the biggest bull markets we ever had every bull was for pork we closed lower. so, i mean, you know, that type of thing doesn't surprise me. you know, i think you have got this hot money that, you know, keep thinking of hyper inflation on top of anything else and they will buy anything. that wasn't abnormal. the next day, though, you know,

we give it back. >> yes. >> and then they crush it here today with putting out the deliveries in august beans last night. and, you know, it went off the board at noon. so the weather pattern, you know, you got a rain coming up over the weekend. one in this week. and more importantly, though, and that's for what it's worth, if that hurricane or whatever they want to call it tropical depression two, whatever it is, as long as it doesn't go up the east coast, that -- that keeps that cold -- that doesn't draw that cold air out of canada that would pocket up there when that dissipates. so now they have got it going into mississippi. and probably tomorrow they got it going wherever. >> well, we have been watching the weather closely and if that could come down here we could really be in trouble that cold air. >> yes. >> in someplaces like saskatchewan had 33 degrees or whatnot. >> right. >> but it is not in the united states at this point in time.

on the markets friday looks a little different. >> absolutely. friday closes out with kind of a fizzle really of all of that excitement that greg was talking about in the soy bean market. they sold -- they sold it off. and, you know, ultimately if you are a technician and you didn't like what you saw in the charts upside down week, you know, we are creating a nice pictures for the bears as we go into next week. and after sitting kind of sideways and consolidated for so long this could be what everybody was waiting for. you know, which direction do we go next after sitting here going sideways? >> well, the downside looks like more of a reality than the upside. >> i talk to formers every day. and they are not technicians except for technicians on their own farm. but they are now beginning to wonder what is the market going to to do? they should have already made the season a lot of them are saying. but is there any opportunity to make money out of this market going into the future? either one of you or both of

you? >> yes, absolutely. since when is $10 beans a bad thing? >> well. >> really. there is decent bases countrywide. >> price versus improved a bit. >> that provides some good opportunities to get some bean sales made right here. if you are nervous about the prices going to $12 to $13 then buy some calls. we have moved in crop development that time is cheap right now. we can stop in and buy some calls and make some quality sales. corn is really not that different. >> corn is not that different except i know some guys are getting up there corn they already got 3.5 tied up per acre or i mean per bushel. >> that's true. and you have to look at that as far as how it reflects on your cost of production. but if you are in a situation where you don't have storage and you know you are going to have to price it, is 3.30 better for you or 2.50? >> sorry, giving the ultimatum. >> i guess that's really it when you get down to the bottom line, isn't it, gregg take the

best of what's there, even though it might not be the best for you? >> yes, i agree with everything you said there on the fact that, you know, you are better off moving it and taking a shot at buying some calls instead of doing the put thing. the economics of the put thing i just never agreed with people who do that. but with that said, you know, you are probably most likely will get some sort of a freeze scare that maybe lasts a day and a half. but that will give you an opportunity -- >> yes, but i mean, what can i say? i mean, we've had $8 corn here. so, i mean, if you are down here now -- but if you are talking about extra bushels that you probably, realistically wouldn't have priced anyway then i think some guys are in that situation. i mean, you are better to just go ahead and move it. because you are going to see a lot more corn coming to market here. i think a lot of guys were holding on and holding on. this report you saw the spread

coming in and widening off. the august beans now are off the board. >> when we come back put your binoculars on and look down through harvest season and next spring and the prices. return in just a moment.

. >> farm report round it table guests greg00 and mark. but i would like to go into maybe a little -- get our binoculars on and see what this year might do for corn. and i will start with you, mike, what do you think prices do could do? >> well, i think the focal price in your corn, wheat and beans will be beans. there seems to be worldwide to be a scarceer supply of protein than there is of carbs and energy. >> china is still buying beans. >> yes, exactly. you of course have got the india situation. >> yes. >> and the drought over there affecting their crop. >> the yes. >> the bottom line is once we work our way into harvest it

will be really tough with the kind of numbers we have for wheat and corn to put any upward mobility on price. a stopping bias to the downside. it will be really tough to overcome that on the corn and wheat side for right now. you know, beans are kind of, you know, they are that crop that could make some upward headway under the right circumstances. >> certainly the volatile crop. >> well, yes, very volatile, of course. that's their history. but their situation is the best of all. >> i want to go to gregg and get his comments on that, too. he is sitting there listening to you and not smiling and nodding at everything that you said. >> no. no. [ laughter ] >> well, we do have this poor monsoon going on right now. but there is -- it looks like there is a good possibility that could change here over the next week or two, at least for the meteorologist that i use. it is about ten days out but he is really comfortable that we could see a big atmospheric

change in india. you can see mostly going to see a lot more hectares being planted in south america for sure. >> okay. >> and, you know, this one bushel differential between now and, you know, let's get into the second week of september if we get three good rains between now and then and no frost and i think you can add a bushel or you can take a bushel off. i mean that's going to make a dollar one way or the dollar. exactly on target on the wheat. the wheat has been making new lows here about three out of the last five days. you know, it's pathetic. and corn, i am on the page that you could -- you could end up both with about 165 yield on corn. history, you know, it is going to be on my side at least percentage-wise. >> right. >> you know, there was a lot of holes in them fields in 2004. i know it was planted early but only about 15% of that crop was

plant today triple stack versus 85 today. so, i mean, we do not know really what the potential on the high end on this corn really is. >> well, you know if you used 2004 weather in the early planting. >> yes. >> those yields today would have probably been 180. >> another quick question only have a minute and a half to fill. but agriculture. livestock is not good right now. >> we are going through massive lows in the pork now. it is puking. in '98 we saw $8. we saw bellies not trade for eight years in a row. >> but those guys are also into grain. >> that's the real key here. honestly as we go forward. i honestly had to sit and scratch my head when they raised the feed numbers. >> they are out of stop at

least 103 degrees. >> the first report in august to the final numbers is huge on feed and ethanol and marginally on exports. the variability on the demand in that first report is crazy. we haven't seen south slaughter start to spike back up again like we saw last year but that day is coming. the profitability in that sector is horrible. and when the livestock sector is in trouble look out. >> they are not even into the recovery phase yet. so ultimately we are at a spot where the grain side could get really ugly for a while and we need to be ready. >> people still using ethanol. >> still using ethanol. you front-loaded the chinese beans. they are sitting on massive stocks that i don't think they are going to be able -- they are going to have to move something one way or the other if their crop is in corners like it was last year. the government went down to 100 metric tonnes. the government thought what they could do is run that excess through hogs. they could do it through

ethanol. but i don't have any concrete information. i wouldn't be surprised if the chinese end up exporting corn. >> it is very interesting. thank you both for being here. geez, i wish we could spend some more time being here. we will be back with more u.s. farm in just a moment.

[ music ] . >> and welcome back to u.s. farm report. we continue to see the worst drought areas to be southern texas, basically from san antonia towards the coast south of houston and on towards the southern tip of texas. just an extreme drought. very little rain has fallen recently either. we also have a new area of extreme drought in western wisconsin. into the up of michigan has been dry the entire growing season. but appears to have gotten a little bit drier over the past couple of weeks. also spots of western montana

very dry and much of california, western nevada extremely dry. other than that just talking patches here and there of dry conditions. here is the jet stream as we head into this week. one of the things that we are looking at is exactly how this next trough reacts. now, for a while it doesn't look like it does much. and then the computer models seem to dig it into the northern parts of the plains into the great lakes by thursday and friday. and that could bring a direct shot of cool air off the arctic circle. and in this case, it wouldn't be anything like the winter. but nonetheless, you would get rid of all of the heat and humidity that you are seeing this weekend as we head towards next thursday and friday. that's something we will watch exactly how that happens. but the trough is replaced by a ridge out west which means you folks will be heating up. here is the monday forecast. you can see we are going to be pushing a cold front a across the great lakes into central mississippi and central missouri valley. that will push the storms through that area. also hit and miss afternoon variety thunderstorms and other parts of the very humid southeast. as we head towards wednesday

then the first front is falling out but headed towards the eastern seaboard. scattered thunderstorms this is the cold air toward the western lakes towards denver. bring a shot of some pretty cold air. that cool air may go all the way to the gulf coast with scattered showers and thunderstorms along that front. check the longer range forecast coming up on our next half hour. >> trying to locate new or used equipment? my machinery.com has the largest 8 list of classified on the web. whatever you are looking four can find it on mymachinery.com.

[ music ] >> i visited with dairy farmers in the ohio region this week. one of the topics they discussed was the dairy industry reaction to the challenge presented by animal rights campaigns.

i was impressed by their diligent studies of the issues and their efforts to reach out and listen to people on all sides. attitudes in the public have changed slowly as the number of companion animal inside our country increases and livestock on farms consolidate into enormous operations farther from public view. the effect has been to blur the line between companion animals and food animals. unfortunately, farmers could be contributing to this confusion with activities like petting zoos and how they present animals, especially young ones, to visitors on their farms. the message from the dairymen active in this debate was lower. we need to discontinue practices that promote the idea of calves and lambs, for example, as cuddly and cute. not only that, but as school and county fair officials have discovered from their insurance agents, the risk of disease transmission is also a significant threat. petting zoos have played on the instinctive reactions of humans to baby the animals.

but the progression from aaah to "you are going to kill them" is to be expected especially from children. for the sake of our agricultural industry, i think it's time to lose the petting zoos. as always we want to hear from you. we want your comments on farmreport.com or call his voice mail. coming up in our next half hour, an artist works wonder was butter. stay with us. the second half of u.s. farm report is coming right up.

[ music ] >> "u.s. farm report" [ music ] today on "u.s. farm report." the recession is swelling the numbers of people receiving food stamps. specialized equipment to help make ethanol begins to emerge from machinery makers. and a public service icon qualifies for medicare. "u.s. farm report" brought to you by chevy, an american revolution. [ music ] . >> good morning and welcome to "u.s. farm report." i'm john fipps. we have a story this morning about smoky bear and i thought i would take a moment to clear up some confusion. besides the old fourth grade joke what is smoky the bear's middle name it is not the.

his middle name is smoke se bear. the confusion began when the hit song was written and the entrance of "the." we can recite jingles and theme songs from decades ago perfectly. consider the music to gill began's island, for example. you will be humming it all day now. you're welcome. time for the news with al pal. >> thanks, john. and good morning, everyone. the ag department unveil updated crop estimates. if the numbers are on target it will be a bin buster harvest in farm country. the usda called for soy beans to hit a record high. they also raised estimates for corn, wheat and duram and although it was below the ag department did peg cotton production well ahead of last

year's output. read all about the report at agweb.com. also this week, a clear sign of these difficult economic times according to the latest government figures, the number of americans receiving food stamps has reached a new high. for the first time nearly 400 million americans received food stamp inside may, a 2% jump according to roiters. this marks the sixth month in a row that people looking for food stamps increased. to put this into perfect officer sieve 1-9 is now covered by the program. the number of food stamps will not combat the obesity especially for the female population. results of a study done out had a the ohio university say women who use food stamp versus a higher body mass index than those who don't. researchers believe the benefits promote binge eating. on average recipients get $100 a month to buy groceries.

vermeer is the nation's first equipment make to come out with machines specifically designed to harvest corn cobs. we showed you that last fall during a field day hosted by poet energy as part of its effort to produce the ethanol they will pay farmers for the cobs. this machine's separation system has put leaves and huskings back on the soil but leaves the cobs. a limited number will be offered to farmers for this year's harvest. rain in the last couple of weeks has lessened the stress on some crops in texas but the drought is far from over, especially in south texas. the texas agrilife extension says for the first time drought has claimed the entire cotton crop in texas that's about 40,000-acres. 90% of the crop has filed and that's 125-acres. the sorgum crop is much better.

the usda says that that region continues to get hammered. corpus christie, texas we have now seen 34 consecutive die days with temperatures above 95, far above the old record which was the historic drought of 196 3 . it is pretty close to the coast so the heat to be this extreme is very note worth. water supplies are dwindling. any dry land agriculture has been basically nonexistent this year across that part of texas. >> texas agrilife extensions say the crop alone could hit $50 million. the extension says state wide agriculture to the drought could hit $4 billion. that's it for news. now it's time for the forecast from meteorologist mike hoffman. [ music ] >> it looks like the overall pattern across the country is going to change as we head through this coming week. instead of the trough in the west and the ridge in the east we will be flip-flopping there.

by monday we will still see the trough in the north eastern parts of the rockies into the northwestern plain states so pleasant air over that area. out ahead of it, though, see some showers and thunderstorms scattered from the great lakes and the southern planes. also parts of the southwest with basically the monsoon moisture down there. and hit and miss afternoon variety showers and thunderstorms in parts of the southeast. now, by wednesday then the trough starts to dig into the great lakes into parts of the northeast. a ridge builds back out west so you can see the heat starting to move in out. there areas of showers and thunderstorms along a couple of frontal systems from the middle parts of the country to the eastern seaboard. and by friday, look at the trough there, the jet stream expected to dip all the way into dixie. and that will bring some cool air to the great lakes. if this works out exactly like this, and some cooler air into the southeast. now, ahead of that there is going to be some decent areas of showers and thunderstorms. hopefully some of this gets into the really bad drought areas of southern texas. but we will have to wait and

see on that. let's check things out the following week then for august 23rd through the 39th. keep below normal from the southern great lakes all the way to the gulf coast. most of the southeast central planes cooler than normal. above normal in the drought areas of southern texas and most of the western areas expected to be above normal. precipitation for next week below normal for most of the normal and above normal in the eastern seaboard. in the nine-day outlook for the northern planes mainly minnesota and eye a and from texas into the northwest as we look at the precipitation over the next 90 days most of the corn belt continues to be pretty close to normal a tough call at this point. above normal into nebraska into the southwest. below normal for areas of texas and also for the pacific northwest. john? >> thanks, mike. we want to mention a special event coming up in just a few weeks. farm journal is holding a one-

day corn journal on august 1st at the corn campus just outside bloomington, illinois. pre-registration is required. just call this number to take advantage of the early bird rates. still to come, you will meet the artist who slaters butter on a wooden frame to create ohio's annual tribute to the butter industry. the spirit of the heartland is next.

[ music ] . >> what draws you to the state fair, the livestock, the rides, the food? for some people, it's butter in the form of a co. and yes, it's that time of year when a number of state fairs offer their annual tribute to dairymen by skull sculpting a

cow from butter. the ohio state fair. >> reporter: bob king works with butter like other artists works with clay. >> butter is the most challenging certainly of the materials i've used. 1800 pounds of unsalted butter, compliments of dairy farmers of america. >> it's a very, very gappy, gloppy when you first start to put it on. >> reporter: bob has been sculpting the ohio's butter cow for ten years. >> butter presents its own set of challenges that makes it very interesting. >> reporter: with the temperature sitting at a chilly 46 degrees it gets a little tough once you walk inside the cooler. >> it's like sculpting inside of the fridge. when it's in the cooler, it's hard to handle. it's hard to hold on to. that's the reason why this hole in here is so you can get a grip. >> reporter: he and his steam spend 350 hours designing, sculpting the butter into place on the wooden and wire frame.

>> what we are doing right now is just putting on the very initial layer trying to get the butter to grip into our armature covered with cloth. >> reporter: for more than 25 years a cow has been sculpted by butter in the fair. they have added ohio personalities like golfer joke niklaus and john glen and wendy thomas to keep the farm company. >> i think the butter cow at the fair is we keep it a secret and have an official unveiling. a lot of people will begin to have chatter among each other wondering what it is going to be so it helps in keeping with the tradition. >> reporter: it was unveiled just in time for the fair. it is a dairyman and his son marion giving care to the cow.

>> they work with the medical care. >> it only seems fit to go give america's dairy producers a pat back on the back. reporting for "u.s. farm report." in case you are wondering like i was, after the fair is over the butter is turned into biofuel. >> before we go to break we want to mention a special birthday for an american icon. smoky bear turns 60 this month since the launch in 1944 his message has remained the same: only you can prevent forest fires and it has apparently work. back in 1944 the number of forest fires averaged 22 million annually. today that number has dropped to 6.5 million. good job, smoky. when we come back, a sweet crop yields an unexpected surprise. please stay with us. >> enter at

simpleandtruechallenge.com to win a lease of a versatile tractor. versatile, simple, reliable, easy to maintain.

welcome back...a disease . >> welcome back. a disease responsible for the irish potato famine is taking direct aim at tomato crops here in the u.s. just this week, they announced late blithe had been found in several counties across indiana, just one of many in the northeast and mid- atlantic where the disease has taken hold. tell tale signs of blithe include olive green to black on the leaves and white undergrowth on the underside of the plant. gardener who is find the disease should plow under the plot and destroy the infected plants. they will need to apply fungicides to get the job done. while a fungus is not harmful to humans it is a fast-moving and highly destructive disease that prosper inside wet and cool conditions. post links on the home page for more information. you might call her the

sweet surprise. university of tennessee ag researchers were spraying herb sides to keep down weeds in their sweet corn crop and that's when they got their surprise. the herb side actually boosted the nutritional value of the corn. this is provided but the ut institute of agriculture. >> reporter: baby sweet corn section up the hot sun. more weather like this with some timely showers and these plants will shoot up and produce tasty could bees. note also what's missing from this field? weeds. when these stocks were just inches high, they were sprayed with a herb side called nisa tryon. that was given to three varieties of corn that grew here last year and what happened next was a surprise to ut ag researchers. >> the old adage what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. that's what happened to the sensitive varieties that we sprayed it with this and compared to a control inn treated and it was a check, the

plants actually treated had higher crop pools in therapy cornells up to 15% higher. >> higher levels means the corn was made more nutrition after the herb side treatment. dr. dean copsell and dr. greg with us research are now documenting their findings in the field and in the lab where they study the behavior of herb sides and the developments of nut weren'ts in plants. there is an added value to this. the doctor copsell says if you can boost the levels in sweet corn and perhaps other vegetables as well the added nutrient fight eye diseases such as macular degeneration now affecting two million americans. >> as people age they stop eating fresh fruits and vegetables and now you are at risk for those aging eye diseases like cataracts. >> reporter: ut experts point out this is inn biased research. other than critical knowledge

they stand to gain nothing one way or the other from the results. on this project their findings turned out to be the exact opposite of what they expected. >> our original hypothesis was we were going to damage the crop enough that we were going to impact negative the carotinoid levels. but it just happened we had the right timing and the number that we saw the opposite effect. >> reporter: they will also study other heck sides to see if they might enhance the development of nutrients in crops. good garden corn is a good feed and a simple application to make an area weed-free makes it sweeter. this is chuck denny reporting. >> they think the herbicides could impact the levels in other vegetables as well. up next our country salute.

[ music ] . >> tractor tales this week takes us to the loan star state where we meet felix, the owner of a 1947 farmal m. >> i have a farmal 1947 model. i bought this tractor from a cousin, gradey mack cousin was the original owner of the tractor. then gradey used it for several years. and then he sold it to a cousin of mine, angle us heinz, who is now did he did he skied. and it passed to his niece and then i bought it from them. found it sitting out in the pasture t hadn't been used in two or three years when i traded for the tractor.

back in the 40s mcfarlane built terraces and it had a dozer on front of it and they use today to dig slush pits and do leveling and that sort of farm work. i use it for some minor jobs around here on the farm. i use it in the parades. and it is just something to keep me occupied. back when i was a youngster, these were considered to be giant tractors. and if you had one of these, why, you had the ultimate. >> the farmal m was produced between 1939 and 1952. an international harvester stole more than 250,000 of them. it was the largest row crop tractor of its time and it came with five forward gears and one reverse. today on country church salute we are pleased to recognize haven's chapel united

methodist church located 12 miles northeast of carny, nebraska. they began with circuit ride they are sod school houses and homes the congregation built the first church in 1884. it was replace emptied 1938 but that building burned the following year. by 1950, however, the present church was completed. our congratulations and thanks to glen duncan. our second church is the minear in michigan. the congregation began in the grange hall under the leadership of ms. stewart lowe. today the church supports the mission work of one of her descendants. the church is noted for its vacation bible school which has been a long-standing ministry. our thanks to go. retel dean. we would like to learn about your home church as well. salutes can be sent to the address on the scene. please stay with us. the mail bag is next.

[ music ] . >> now for a weekly look inside the old farm report mail bag. the new acre program has just ended but the intricate of this

approach for grain farmers still has some of us wondering. dale hartly sent us this e-mail. dale, you are not the only one scratching your head. i'm guessing you are not in illinois where the tradeoff between lower contract payments and income protection is an even closer call. but you may be missing the larger point. the acre program is not designed to increase your government payment. it's a way to add income protection to counter wild price wings and variable yields. to get this protection, farmers should reasonably expect some sacrifice. for my area acre was a topic of frantic conversations as the deadline loomed last friday. i ended up signing up about a third of my farms just to see what happens. i hope i don't get any payment from acre because that will mean my yields and prices are

better than i fear now. acre is sadly complex. by it also represents a new direction for farm payments that i welcome. short of eliminating them all together, re-working them into income protection is the next best thing. please let us know what you think. feel free to contact us directly. send e-mails to information at "u.s. farm report".com or call us and leave us a voicemail. for al and mike i'm john fipps saying thank you for watching "u.s. farm report." be sure to join us again next week. we will be working to do even better. [ music ]