- Severe weather brings much needed rain to Oklahoma.

How will all the moisture impact the wheat crop and pasture?

Grab your cup of coffee because Sunup starts right now.

Hello everyone.

Welcome to Sunup.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

We're here in the wheat field diving right in this morning with Dr. Amanda Silva, our OSU extension small grain specialist.

And Amanda, everyone is really talking about this rain and, and maybe it will save the wheat crop after all.

- Yes, yes.

It was a very important rain for our small wheat and for the fall season.

So it's gonna really save the crop for that wheat that had emerged is gonna help with the wheat that is about to emerge in hopefully helping some situations that we were not able to plant because it was too dry.

And so hopefully it's gonna help us to finish up planting in some, in some parts of the state as well.

- We talked about drought week after week after week.

So what are you hearing now from producers and what are you telling them depending on whether they planted or whether they have wheat that needs to emerge or some that has already emerged?

What, what's kind of the guidance kind of all over the place?

- It's, it's all over, but what I'm hearing, it's the, it's the amount of rain that we received, which was very high in some, in some places like about, I think up to seven inches of rain.

Even panhandle got a, a little bit as well.

So the guidance now we, we are just watching to see our, like that wheat that established.

So hopefully that will take off and I may not, it may not be enough now for us to have enough forage for fall grazing, but hopefully it's gonna help us with that spring grazing.

And for now we are seeing some uneven stands because in some fields we planted and maybe we hit some spots where we had moisture.

And so this rain will help to even out everything and, and hopefully will help us with our stands as well.

- Now we knew that Oklahoma was several weeks behind schedule planting wheat for, for anyone who hasn't planted yet, is it too late?

- It is later than, than what we, we would like now we are talking about grain only, but it's still fine.

So our research that we, we have discussed here before is showing that we still have some time to, to plant and to produce good yields.

So in, in, in fact that that's what we are doing in the program now.

So the plots that we were not able to plant earlier, so we are planting now and so we are actually planting now just as a for research purposes.

- So Oklahoma, you mentioned the dual purpose a little bit.

Can you, can you expand on that?

Oklahoma's a big dual purpose grazing wheat pasture state.

Maybe, maybe now we could have some hope for maybe after the holidays of being able to graze.

- Yes, that's, that's our hope.

So that drought was really, really is slowing down our forage growth and so it was, it will have a, a hit on on our fall forage production, but hopefully this rain now will save some of our crop, including including our forage crop for dual purpose producers.

- This is a busy time of year for you as well, getting your research organized around the state.

How's that going?

- It's, it's going well and like I said, a lot of the research efforts that we are doing in the program nowadays is with evaluating different wheat varieties at different planting dates.

So we still have quite a bit of plots to not quite a bit, but a few more to, to get planted and to continue that research to understand the impact of planting dates and sitting rate on, on the wheat varieties that we ground the state.

- Last but not least, a few weeks ago we had had talked a little bit about scouting for fall army worms.

What are we seeing now, if anything?

- Nah, we are, we are not seeing anymore, at least not hearing anymore from, from our producers and county extension.

So it, it should, it shouldn't be a problem anymore, but we'll keep, we'll keep our ears out, our eyes out just in case.

Yeah.

- Okay, wonderful.

Amanda, thanks for the update.

It's good to to be able to talk about the rain at long last.

- Yes, it is great.

It was really a saving, saving rain for our wheat crop.

- Alright, we'll see you again soon.

Thanks a lot.

- Good morning everybody.

This is state climatologist Gary McManus with your Mesonet weather report and as it says on my shirt, that's 30 years of collecting data and keeping Oklahoman safe, the Oklahoma Mesonet.

Now we talked last time about just need some rain, we'll have a much different drought picture and that's exactly what happened.

Let's get right to the new drought monitor map and see those improvements.

Well it's pretty simple.

Looking at this map, we still have some areas of severe drought.

We don't have any more of that extreme red drought on the map.

Basically anywhere it rained we improved one category.

Now for the drought monitor process, they really only like to do a one category improvement per week owing to just how long it takes drought to develop.

But we should see some more improvements next week if we get more rainfall and that's certainly in the forecast.

And take a look at this seven day rainfall map, lots of 6, 7, 8 inch amounts there on the Mesonet map, even as much as nine inches.

And this includes that rain at the end of October.

So this is a much different map than what we saw previously.

And if we take a look at the 30 day from departure from normal rainfall, you know, we're going from one of the driest last 30 days on record to now pretty wet last 30 days on record.

In fact, it's top 15 dating back to 1895.

But you can see lots of surpluses over the last 30 days.

And again, that's all due to the rain over the last week.

And we have surpluses of three, four as much as five inches and that's certainly better than where we are were previously and that's why we have those improvements on the drought monitor map.

Just for your memory, take a look at this consecutive days with less than a quarter inch rainfall map from the end of October.

Lots of places that had gone almost 40 days without a significant rain, some places had gone as much as 80 days without a significant rain.

Now look at the one from current and we see, you know, that map is totally reset and that's again one of the reasons why we have a much better drought picture and hope for an improving drought picture next week as well.

One of the things we look for when we have a, a good rain and a drought is how does it improve the impacts?

We'll take a look at this soil moisture map from the Oklahoma Mesonet.

This is down to 10 inches, so that top 10 to 12 inches of soil, those 1.0 is on the map.

That means saturated and much of the state soils, at least that top layer is now saturated, which is certainly good news and a great improvement in one of those worst impacts that we see in Oklahoma droughts.

Okay, so we just need some more rain and hopefully have a better drought picture next week.

I think that's gonna happen.

Come back here next week and I'll show you the new map.

That's it for this time.

I'll see you next time on the Mesonet Weather Report.

- Nothing beats something warm to drink on a cool morning and sometimes a little cup of coffee is all that's needed to bring people from all walks of life together.

Sunups Elizabeth Hokit picks it up from here.

- Coffee and community great by themselves, but even better together, that's what Amelia Winans known by her customers as Millie is all about.

- Millie is, she's just sunshine.

She's just, she's one of those people that when you see her, she just makes your day better.

- I know what you get.

I got you.

- She's so positive about life and just such a sweet person.

Well - Thank you.

I - Like what's so special about this 22-year-old?

Well, for starters, most people this age or any age for that matter aren't up and out the door before sunrise to open up their small businesses.

- I started pulling up here in the spring of 2022 and looking around and being like, okay, like Fairview's a cute little town but there's no place to get coffee.

And the more that I kind of went around it was talking to the community about that it seemed like it was really a need that people wanted here - In a town fueled by farmers and football.

Something was still missing - Coffee.

- So what exactly made Millie decide to open this coffee shop?

- I was living in Phoenix, Arizona and if you know anything about that area, it was a huge city and the city just got to be too much.

So I moved here with my family.

My parents actually found the land and they bought it sight unseen without knowing anything about Oklahoma.

- We started talking about things she would miss back in Phoenix and one of them kept coming up was she was gonna be missing her favorite coffee shop.

- Anyone I would talk to told me to start my own coffee shop.

It got to the point where it was like a, almost like a running gag - That summer we found the trailer, fixed the trailer up and within six months of us being here, she opened the trailer - Six months of blood, sweat and tears.

It may be a little extra sweat - Starting off it was pretty rough.

It was summer, it was hot.

The espresso machine would not go through that narrow door.

I actually had to pull the whole back end of the, the the trailer back and slide it up in there.

And so it's in there permanently - Learning how to make coffee.

I was not a barista before I did this.

- There's been times where she's come home and she's like, who told me I can open a coffee shop?

- For a lot of people, myself included, coffee is an essential part of our everyday lives and it can be a great tool to bring people together and to encourage one another, especially on those days when we need a little extra motivation.

- Every day after I take the kids to school, I usually come by, grab a cup of coffee, have a good conversation with her, get a little boost for the day so I can go home and do my chores at the house.

Being a stay at home mom - Every step of the way, what made it so easy is I had the community kinda just rallying around me.

We kind of just rallied around my dream and kind of made it their dream as well.

- Small businesses are important, they support families, they support the town.

We just, we're just fortunate with what we have here and any of this kind of business that we can support to keep here, we're all in support of that.

So where exactly is Millie's coffee camper?

Not where most people would expect.

- So when Farm and Ranch reached out to me for an event, I kind of used it as like a time to scope if I could be here.

And sure enough, after that event they reached out to me and offered me a permanent parking spot and I just never left their parking lot - Introducing this kind of coffee to the farm and ranch regulars had its challenges.

- Your generational farmers' black coffee, that's it.

This is, they call it a fufu drink, so I get made fun of a little bit - Americano please.

We kind of started with a black cup of coffee for a lot of them and then we've built up to now a few of them will come by and we'll get an ice latte in the, in the hot Oklahoma summers.

I think it's so funny to see these old timers and their beat up farm trucks pull away with their ice lattes.

- You mean my raspberry vanilla mocha with an extra shot and whipped cream.

- I honestly live for that.

- So like a good drink, coffee and community.

Looks like Millie ended up finding both in Fairview for Sunup at Oklahoma State University.

I'm Elizabeth Hokit.

- We are joined by our ag economist, Dr. John Michael Riley to look at the crop markets and I think the, the big thing on everyone's mind is talking about the rain.

We've seen it's, it's been a while, hasn't it?

- It's been a while since we've been able to, to, to have that conversation and yes, a great weekend with, with a lot of storms rolling through the, the state.

If you look at Mesonet maps across, you know, depending on where you're at, anywhere from one and a half to two inches all the way up to possibly six in my little spot in north Central Payne County, we got right at six inches, which is, which is spot on with those maps.

And obviously it's a blessing.

Some of it came down pretty hard at times, which may be a curse in the midst of those that is blessings, but certainly a blessing nonetheless, if you look at, at maybe where we've been prior to that, we have a lot of, of apprehension about where we're at with our wheat crop for sure.

Most of the, most of the corn is, is harvested.

We're still harvesting beans right now, so could possibly put a little bit of damper on on that harvest for or for a few days.

But conditions for, for wheat are pretty poor right now in, in the state.

Pretty poor across the US and that report came out on or was released yesterday on, on Monday and then, you know, obviously through the weekend and Sunday.

So we were in the midst of those rains when that, when those condition ratings were kind of being collected and we'll certainly see how things change moving forward with regard to wheat condition for planting and whatnot.

Planting is, is at 87% across the US behind that schedule here in Oklahoma at 72% certainly behind where we typically are at at this time of year.

- And let's definitely hope for the best.

This will kind of recharge things, but we are kind of getting late in this kind of planting window, aren't we?

- We absolutely are.

And, and, but it's a hardy crop.

Let's, let's keep that in mind.

I think that, that we are behind and, and that is something to be concerned about as it relates to the, the growth and and maturity of the crop throughout the, the winter once it kinda goes dormant and then how it's gonna look as it comes back out in the spring.

- You mentioned harvest, let's dive into that a little bit more.

Some of the, the summer crops are, are trying to kinda wind, wind down.

What are you seeing there?

- So across the US 91% of the crops harvested for corn, 95% here in Oklahoma soybeans, 94% harvested across the US again, we're, we're behind that.

We're 49% here in Oklahoma.

So that's the one I think we're gonna be watching as, as it moves forward here in the state is how soybean harvest, you know, handles the rain and, and, and how the crop looks coming out of it.

- With all this in mind, what are the markets telling you right now?

- Well, the markets have been down, they've stayed down.

You know, we, we kind of got a little bit of reprieve coming into October and a lot of that fell off throughout the month of October.

This rain here in the state, we as we're seeing it right in the immediacy coming outta that rain, we are seeing a little bit of, of pressure on wheat markets probably because of that rain being a little bit of a blessing there possibly being a, a positive bump on how the crop is gonna shape up, but still a little too early to tell.

But markets are largely under pressure across the state are, are our cash prices are, you know, right in line with where we typically are at.

We're about 10 cents below if across all the crops kinda interesting.

Wheat, corn and beans we're about 10 cents off of where we typically are at for cash prices relative to futures market.

So basis is about 10 cents weaker than than normal, but for the most part it's, it's in line where, where we should be.

- Okay, great information.

Thanks a lot and we'll we'll be awaiting the next WASDE report.

Talk about that more when we see you again.

- Yeah, very good.

- Okay, thanks a lot.

- Good morning Oklahoma and welcome to Cow-Calf Corner.

This week's topic addresses a question I've had from a few producers in the past few weeks and we're gonna talk about the fundamental difference between a weight per day of age measurement and an average daily gain measurement.

And what they tell us and, and we will take a look at some anecdotal evidence on some of the pen heifers and potential pen bulls that we're feeding here at the purebred beef cattle center at OSU to potentially exhibit down at Cattleman's Congress in January is just a normal range of what we're seeing.

So first of all, what is weight per day of age?

We basically weigh the animal, we take their birth weight into account relative to how old they are in days right now and we divide those days into their weight.

Average daily gain on the other hand, is actually taking a look during a given amount of time or a given test period, just taking the initial weight that we put cattle on feed, taking their weight when they come off feed and dividing the amount of days that they were actually growing to look at an average daily gain.

Both these measures are gonna be based on the environment that the cattle are growing in, what the weather is like, what kind of plain of nutrition is being provided for them, as well as just their genetic potential to grow.

Average daily gain as opposed to weight per day of age is gonna be influenced more by the pre-weaning or the pre-testing period, plane of nutrition, how much they got fed, which is gonna influence the compensatory gain that they might have during that actual gain test.

So what is normal?

What do we expect to see?

We'll just use an example.

We've got four heifers, four bull calves, they're all born from mid-January through the end of February.

All of these cattle represent fairly strong growth genetics in the Angus breed.

So what are we actually seeing?

Well, those bulls, the forehead of them, they've got an average daily gain of between 3.8 to about 4.1.

The weight per day of age, which would factor back in their birth weight ranges from about 4.1 to 4.4.

The heifers are close to a pound a day behind them.

If we take it the take a look at the average daily gain on the heifers, they're sitting in there at about 2.8 to about 3.1 and then the weight per day of age on those heifers is actually from about 3.2 to about 3.5.

And I know this topic has been of interest to some breeders that have breached out and here in a month or so, as we get a little deeper into wintertime and about December, we will take a look at these again and cover this in a cow calf corner article probably at some point after we capture the weights on those cattle in early December.

Hope this helps and as always, I appreciate you joining us for Cow Calf Corner - On September 30th, the 2018 Farm Bill extension expired.

So that means currently there are farm bill programs that don't have authorizations that are available right now.

Usually in October you start getting some notifications about programs that can be signed up for.

You're not gonna get those right now, so as we wait to see the outcome of the election and whether or not we get a farm bill in this lame duck session of Congress, we'll all be watching to see timelines and when these new deadlines occur.

So keep an eye out on Sunup for more information.

- A new artificial intelligence chat bot with all kinds of useful information is now up and running.

The OSU extension bot answers questions based on more than 400,000 extension publications, articles, and fact sheets, as well as content from different educational programs.

And it's all sourced exclusively from 30 different extension networks and the US Department of Agriculture.

The chat bot gives you unlimited access 24 7 to accurate and practical information in all areas, including agriculture and natural resources, gardening, health, nutrition, and family resilience.

Check out the extension chat bot by scanning the QR code on your screen or going to sunup.OKstate.edu.

Finally, today we're meeting another true champion of OSU agriculture.

Harvey Schroeder video production manager Craig Woods, put together our story.

- Harvey's a great guy, always has cotton agriculture at rural Oklahoma at his heart and all that he's ever done his whole life.

Just, just a good farm boy grew up, wanted to make the place better than what he left it and spent his life trying to do it.

I believe that he did.

- Harvey Schroeder planted his first cotton crop at the age of 14.

Harvey graduated from a small rural school in Tillman County.

- When I graduated from Weaver, I came to OSU because I had seen OSU in 4H.

We came up here to round up a couple of times and I really liked it and I wound up up here for two semesters.

- He was already dating Joyce, whose family was also in cotton production.

As much as he liked OSU, Harvey would not graduate a cowboy.

- Tuition at Oklahoma State was $7 and 50 cents an hour down there where she'd been going.

At Southwestern, it was $5.

So we went to where it was $5, - Both would go on to become educators with Harvey teaching science classes in Tipton and Davidson - Really enjoyed it, but I just really couldn't make enough money to live on it.

So I left there and took up farming.

Well, yeah, you could farm if you had a wife with a good job in town.

- While Harvey became a full-time farmer, he continued to teach, becoming active in educating the public and politicians about cotton.

- I truly believe if you don't go tell your story, nobody else going to do it for you.

- Harvey was elected to the board of the Oklahoma Cotton Council, but his fellow producers wanted him to serve in a larger role.

- We needed a leader.

I resigned my position on the board and put my name in the hat and was elected for the executive director of Oklahoma Cotton Council.

I've been around it about 20 years.

When I retired, 1718 of those was as the director, - Former Senator Mike Schultz.

Served 12 years in the Oklahoma State Senate and now oversees the OSU Southwest Research and Extension Center in Altus, Oklahoma.

- As, as we've gone through the last 15 years, cotton production has spread back across the state.

So Harvey was instrumental in, in carrying cotton's message to those new growers.

There was new producers.

We - Planted probably 600,000 acres, will probably harvest a little less than 300,000.

- Harvey served on several committees with the National Cotton Board and was instrumental in creating the Committee for Advancement of Cotton.

- Probably one of the, the neatest things we did legislatively is the module trucks that all cotton from the field to the gyms, they're a unique animal to, to cotton.

- I got with Senator Mike Schultz and we wrote the bill to make module trucks, farm equipment.

It made a big difference on the tags that and the expense for the farmer when he was hauling his own cotton.

It was difficult to get that in because I had one senator and two representatives that had basically seen a cotton patch.

- Andy brought his experience to OSU serving on the Dean's advisory committee.

- Harvey was one of the very first people to show up to my office when I started in this new role.

And he brought me a cotton bale, which I really appreciated is somebody that spent a lot of summers hoeing cotton weeds in West Texas that he brought that, that connection to my background and brought it here to Oklahoma State University and invited me to partner with the industry here at Oklahoma State.

I'll, I'll always appreciate Harvey being one of those first people to be a bright, sunny welcome here back at Oklahoma State, - Joyce and Harvey now live in Stillwater close to his adopted alma mater.

- I love OSU, even though I didn't graduate here, it's, it has a feel like home - Celebrating Harvey Schroeder 2024 champion for OSU agriculture.

- It is been a while since I've had to walk around a puddle and we sure hope it continues.

And that'll do it for our show this week.

Remember, you can see us anytime on our website and follow us on YouTube and social media.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

Have a great week everyone.

And remember, Oklahoma agriculture starts at Sunup.