(upbeat music) - Hello everyone and welcome to SUNUP.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

We saw our first really cold temperatures and hard freezes of the season this past week, which makes it the perfect time to talk about ways to get your home ready for winter.

We begin with Dr. Scott Frazier, OSU Extension Energy Management Specialist.

(upbeat music) - Well, you want to concentrate on those that are gonna give you the best payback in terms of the money you've spent.

And so we don't concentrate on little things, we concentrate on big things.

And so in the home, that's gonna be the heating system almost entirely.

So any system that's associated with the heating system, including things that aren't part of the heating system, like windows, doors, things like that.

So for instance, windows, we can get a lot of air coming through the windows, especially older windows.

And so there's things you can do.

For instance, putting up sheets of plastic.

You can go to a hardware store and they'll sell little kits that you can put on and you glue it to the frames of the windows.

Then use a hair dryer to basically get the plastic nice and tight.

There's a couple of ways to test for infiltration also.

You can get an incense stick, wait for a windy day and go around to the windows on the inside and the doors and see if the smoke blows.

Sometimes you can feel it on the back of your hand and that's not a good sign.

The reason that this is important is because that infiltration will affect the thermostat sooner or later, and the thermostat is basically gonna start driving the heater.

So in a way, it's actually directly connected to the heater, which is the big money user in this whole scenario.

- Let's talk about the heater specifically.

Maybe some things I can do myself similar to those things you mentioned around the house.

- Sure.

One of the things that you want to take a look at is obviously the filters.

If you don't know where the filters are, that's probably not a good sign unless somebody else is changing them for you.

And in which case that's fine, but we wanna make sure and change the filters, especially if you have pets, things like that.

You probably should be changing the filters every three to four months if you've got pets.

The other thing is a test that you can do with a little thermostat like a food therm, thermometer, excuse me.

If I put the thermometer into an outlet where the warm air is coming out, I measure the temperature, and then I go find the return vent, which is usually a larger vent where the air is going back in.

I measure that temperature and I see what the difference is.

There should be about 15 to 20 degree difference between those two.

Should be warmer, obviously, on the supply vent.

If the temperatures are almost the same, that means that heat is not getting through somehow.

And so that leads to seeing if well, are the filters impacted?

And if that's not the case, it might be time to call a contractor, things like that.

- That leads me to the next question.

When is it time to say, okay, I've done all I can and I need to invest some money in upgrading my system?

- Yeah, well, some of it depends on the age of the system.

For instance, in my house, everything is like 30 years old, and so I know that I'm living right on the edge.

And so if I try these various things like trying to get the air infiltration down, getting new filters in, things like that, putting up some kind of glaze, not glazing, but film on the windows, or even storm windows, something like that.

And if I'm still uncomfortable, if my bills are still high, if the heater is running constantly, it's probably time to call in a contractor.

And if the equipment's old, be ready, because it may be time to switch it out.

These things are just machines.

I mean they're like cars.

People expect them to run forever, but they're gonna wear out.

And so it's not the kind of news we want to get, but it's kind of inevitable I suppose.

- This is just one of many topics that you address on behalf of Extension and you have several fact sheets available.

- Yeah, we sure do.

And they're on the OSU Extension fact sheet website.

You can Google that, but I understand that SUNUP also has links to these.

- That's right.

And we will be talking to you again in the coming weeks.

So thanks a lot, Scott.

- Great.

- And for a link to those fact sheets, just go to sunup.okstate.edu.

(upbeat music) - Good morning everyone.

Wesley is off this week, so you have me flying solo.

And of course we're gonna start with drought, so let's get right to that new better looking drought monitor map and see where we're at.

Well, finally, some great changes for the good on the drought monitor map.

You see much of that area across the southwestern half of the state up into central parts of the state, east central parts of the state, finally relieved of those bad colors.

We do still have drought around in most of that region, but it's certainly shrinking and getting less intense.

And we also lost a lot of that extreme drought up in north central Oklahoma.

And severe drought still there in its place, but that's better than the extreme, that red color.

Still just a little bit left with that long-term drought up in north central Oklahoma and also in far southwest Oklahoma.

But again, a much better looking map.

- A lot more of that map is free of any color, which is certainly good news.

You can see the changes we brought across much of the center part of the United States from that series of storm systems over the course of last weekend to the weekend.

So a lot of big changes down in Central Texas up through Oklahoma and then, of course, up into the Great Lakes region, all from those storm systems.

But we do have drought building in the southeast, but still great changes for a one-week event with all those storm systems moving through.

Another thing that the storm systems brought was a change in the temperature.

So we did have a lot of cooler weather across the state as we went through, you know, a lot of the last week and into the weekend and even into early this week.

So everybody in the state, as you can see from this Mesonet map, below freezing temperatures, everybody's had at least a hard freeze now across all of the Oklahoma region.

So we got that out of the way.

So we have seen that hard freeze.

So as we go forward, a lot fewer of those events will be as shocking, I guess you would say.

Now we're gonna take a look back at October.

First we'll start with the October rainfall.

Again, we see those wonderful rains down in South Central up into East Central Oklahoma and even extending over into Northwest Oklahoma.

Now, it does die down as we get in far Northwest Oklahoma and the eastern Panhandle, but we also got some good rains in the western Panhandle.

So certainly good news for those folks that got the two to three to four-inch amounts across much of the state.

Take a look at that October rainfall departure from normal.

We see those big surpluses down in South Central Oklahoma.

Two, three, four, five, six inches above normal, two to three inches above normal surrounding that region, and then, of course, you have the deficit amounts as we get up into Northwest Oklahoma and also up into parts of Northeastern and North Central Oklahoma.

Now let's take a look ahead to November.

From the Climate Prediction Center, we see the temperature and precipitation outlooks.

We do see an increased odds of above normal temperatures for November as a whole, but not a strong signal.

And for the precipitation we see equal chances of above, below, or near normal.

So the classic weatherman forecast.

We'll just get what we get.

Now, as for the drought outlook, we do see some parts of the state expected to remain with drought, but other areas, especially in South Central and parts of North Central Oklahoma, we do see that drought expected to remain but improve with some drought removal likely.

So at least we don't see any development of drought where it doesn't exist at this point.

Now, the weather has gotten a bit more boring, I guess you could say.

Sometimes that's good.

We do need some more rainfall in parts of the state, so hopefully we'll get a little bit more excitement as we go forward.

But, you know, that remains to be seen, but we'll definitely keep an eye on it for you.

That's it for this time.

We'll see you next time on the Mesonet weather report.

- Talking livestock now and winter feeding management, here's "SUNUP's" Kurtis Hair with Dr. Dave Lalman.

- Well, as we've been discussing in the show, the cold is finally here, and Dave, with that in mind, it's really a good opportunity for producers to really think about their management strategies when it comes to feeding, right?

- Yeah, I mean, the feeding program, if you combine pasture costs and purchase and harvested feed costs, in most cow-calf operations, it winds up being 50 to up to 60% of their total cost for the year.

So it's very important to try to fine-tune on either one of those things where possible.

- And I would imagine that it's pretty easy, a lot of producers think that they know exactly how much they're feeding, but in reality, it could be too much or even too little, right?

- Right, and, you know, we go to a lot of trouble to try to estimate the animal's requirements and then go to a lot of trouble to try to figure out how much of the nutrients are available in the forage source and then try to match, you know, if there's a gap in energy or protein or minerals or whatever, we try to match the gap with a supplement program that fills those gaps, but not overfills the gaps.

And so, you know, that's how we go about trying to minimize feed costs and improve profitability.

But, you know, if you're not certain of the delivery mechanisms being very accurate, then, you know, a lot of that work just kind of goes to waste.

- And I imagine it's really important, you know, in years like this and last year that's just been kind of all over the map in regards to just weather.

- Yeah, I mean, no doubt.

We had extreme cold, some, last winter.

Year before that, even more extreme cold, but certainly extreme heat this last summer.

We had long very dry spells and then we had a little bit of moisture and then turned right back to drought conditions again.

And so without a doubt, and that's gonna affect people's forage supply, their forage quality, feed prices, and so on.

- Well, and the good news is, is that OSU Extension has workshops available to people that they can go to to actually find out exactly how much that they're feeding and really dial that in.

- Yeah, our area livestock specialists and the Extension educators have collaborated over the last two years and again this year to put some of those on.

And if nothing else, it's an opportunity for producers to have a visit with their Extension educator and their area livestock specialist to evaluate their winter feeding program and ask other questions that they might have, but.

- Specifically yeah, that's what those workshops are designed for is to help people fine tune and validate the feeding rate, whether it's a cake feeder or some other product to deliver the right amount of feed.

- And we attended one last year and one of the most surprising things was is you'd have producers come in there pretty sure exactly how much they were feeding and just it was pretty far off actually.

- It can be, and that's exactly what they've observed, the extension educators and the area specialists is that (laughs) some people are feeding a lot more than they thought they were, some people are feeding a lot less than they thought they were, and some folks are right on the money.

- And as you were mentioning, you're dealing with pounds, so how they're calibrating that is by the weight of the feed.

Now, is this something that if producers aren't able to make it to these calibration clinics, is this something that they can do with, you know, maybe a scale at home?

- Oh, sure.

Yeah, I mean, it's just a matter of just kind of coming up with a little protocol, and what our area specialists are doing is measuring, oh, somewhere around 10, if it's let's say it's a Trip Hopper, 10 trips, you know, dump that into a bucket, weigh it on a bathroom scale, you know, and then repeat that a number of times to make sure that the number they're getting is consistent.

And so it's as simple as that.

Anybody could do that at home.

- All right.

Thanks, Dave.

Dr. Dave Lalman, extension beef cattle specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

And if you'd like a link to some upcoming calibration clinics, just go to our website, sunup.okstate.edu.

(upbeat music) - Good morning, Oklahoma, and welcome to "Cow-Calf Corner."

I'm Mark Johnson, and this week's topic is advocacy.

Advocacy for our industry, particularly our beef industry.

And what does that mean to us?

The sharing our story and advocating for the industry that we're a part of.

And so we go through just certain facts and realities of 2023 as we think about production agriculture.

We have in the United States as a result of a free enterprise economy, became so efficient at producing food that as a country, we spend the smallest amount of our disposable income for food of any developed economy on the face of the globe.

And we've reached a point that only 2% of our population actually work in production agriculture, or particularly the production of food.

So what does that mean?

In our communities, 98 of every hundred of us are farther and farther removed from the actual production of the food.

If we think back a generation or two ago, there were many more family farms.

There was a much larger percentage of our population that was actually directly involved day-to-day in the production of and just securing their food for themselves and their family.

And so we've reached a point in time, I encourage beef producers to consider it part of your business model to actually advocate for your industry.

And how do we go about that and what do we mean when we talk about industry advocacy?

Well, three basic things.

One is to be willing to share your story.

It could be something as simple as being in the checkout line at the grocery store or maybe walking through the beef retail display cases in the grocery store and striking up a conversation with somebody else, deciding whether they're gonna buy a chuck roast, or a filet mignon, or a strip steak.

A little bit of information about how long each of those might need to be cooked and how they're best prepared.

Some kind of story about what goes in and where from the beef carcass those cuts actually come from.

And that's a means of advocating for your industry.

You never know where those conversations might lead to.

Other things we can do to get involved is perhaps join our local Cattlemen's Association, maybe our county Cattlemen's Association, maybe the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association.

In each case, it puts us in a group of people that work in the same industry and are working for and about this industry that we're all a part of.

And there's a lot of positive things that come from that.

Interestingly enough, at another website that you see on screen, you can actually earn your masters in beef advocacy by visiting this website that just shares information about beef production, beef producers, and what goes on day-to-day in our industry.

Change is inevitable.

If we think back of the 150-year history of beef production in this country, those folks that were on the trail drives in the 1870s when America acquired a taste for beef, would hardly recognize the modern industry of 2023.

We've all gotta be willing to adapt and change, and sharing our story and finding opportunities to advocate for this great industry we are in is a part of surviving and sustaining and continuing to meet the consuming public's demand for the product.

- That we produce.

If we think about it, we've got a pretty great story to tell.

Beef cattle are a shining example of sustainability.

If we think of the three components of a grazing system, the soil and the plants and the ruminant animals, beef cattle, that can take something that's high in fiber and we can't digest it as humans, and they can actually upgrade that product to a delicious, nutrient dense, highly digestible product that is well-suited for the digestive system of mankind.

It's a pretty interesting story to share and tell.

Thanks for joining us this week on Cow-Calf Corner.

(bright music) - I'm Kim Anderson and this is Tailgate Talk on Sun Up's Market Monitor.

Let's talk about current prices.

Wheat's been on a downtrend since late July.

In July, prices were up around $6.90.

They've been on a downtrend since that time period.

They've been as low as $5.74, and they're up to about 5.80, 5.90 right now.

The marketing year price trend for wheat is normally established in September and October.

That established trend looks like it is a downtrend, and that's probably what we'll see as at wallers slightly lower over the next couple of months.

Corn prices have been on a sideways pattern since late August.

Average price around $4.70, 4.75.

They're around $4.65 cents right now.

Just moving sideways.

Soybeans have been between $12 and $12.50 over the last six or eight weeks.

Sideways pattern there, holding at around $12.30.

Don't expect much change out of beans.

Cotton hit 80 cents this week.

It's showing weakness.

It may have broken through a support level.

I'm concerned about cotton prices right now.

Hopefully it'll hold that 80 cents and come back up, but we'll have to watch this week and see what happens.

Let's go back now to 1949 and look at wheat prices and watch 'em check wheat prices up through the current time period.

You go back to the twenties and thirties, the wheat prices were down around a dollar.

They hit $2, a little above that in the late twenties, early thirties, and producers were saying, "If I could only have $2 wheat again."

When you get up after World War II, you had wheat prices for the 23 years from 1949 to 1972, your average wheat price was $1.78.

The low price was $1.12 and the high price, $2.32.

That's a dollar and 20 cents price range with an average price of 1.78.

When we got through 1972, Russia came in, purchased wheat from the United States.

In '73, China purchased wheat.

From '72 on, we moved into a world market.

Prior to '72 it was basically domestically determined price.

That export market ended up with an increase of prices of about $1.54.

The low price was $1.99, right at $2.

The high price 6.10 with an average of 3.32.

In the early 2000s, USDA and the government implemented the ethanol mandate.

Ethanol prices required that we get another 10 to 15 million acres of corn that bid up the price of corn, that bid up the price of beans, and it bid up the price of wheat.

For the 16 year period from 2000, we've had a $2.64 price above the average of that '72 to '07 price.

Growing wheat is a risky business.

You have a greater opportunity for a profit, but you also have a greater opportunity for a loss.

I'll see you next week on Sun Up's Market Monitor.

(bright music) - Finally, today, some OSU AG research underway that introduces dairy cattle genetics to beef cattle.

Sun Up's Seth Fish brings us this story.

(vehicle rattling) (Ally calling) - So we are at the Marvin Klemme research range out here in Bessie, Oklahoma, where I currently have some cattle on try lot.

The research that I'm interested in right now, and what we're doing out here, is in the last few years, we've had this big increase in dairy-beef calves entering the feedlot system, but there's been little work in their post-weaning management.

So right now out here we have 150 head, 75 of them are dairy-beef crossbred steers, and then 75 are just native straight beef cattle.

- The dairy industry has had a lot of economic issues that have pushed them to adopt some different reproductive technologies so that they can get full blood replacement heifers out of their very best cows.

When we put these beef-on-dairy calves directly on feed at a very light body weight, we're seeing them be on feed for nearly a year, over 300 days, which gives them a lot of.

- Time to have some different digestive problems.

We're seeing issues with liver abscesses.

We are hoping that putting these cattle through a stocker phase on forage based diets will shorten the time on feed and hopefully decrease some of those issues just because they won't be in feed yards for as long a period of time.

They'll be bigger, they'll be more mature, better able to handle the stresses that they see through the production phase.

So we feel, you know, all the advantages of a stocker program in the beef industry should apply to these beef on dairy crosses.

- We're seeing how they do on pasture in their gain, and then we're supplementing them with some DDG cubes and we'll be getting them off here in a couple weeks and seeing how they do.

And then alongside of them, we also have some calves up in Buffalo, Oklahoma, at Buffalo Feeders that we will eventually be able to compare the two together because those calves went straight to feed up in Buffalo where these guys have been grazing the lovely grass that's out here.

- Dairy genetics within these cattle gives us some advantages in carcass quality, but they're very light muscled.

The beef portion or the the beef sires adds both muscularity, increased performance, increased gain, and increased efficiency to those dairy genetics.

You know, we'll have a very good high quality product and that beef cross just increases the efficiency and performance of those animals.

- The dairy beef calves are performing about the same as the native beef calves, maybe just a little bit less.

The beef calves are still gonna outperform them in some aspects, but what we've seen is that these dairy beef crosses are really complimenting that beef side and letting that dairy side behind so that way they're doing better in the feedlot.

I would say that they're pretty even, and I think that we'll get some really cool data from these guys running them alongside.

I'll be interested once they go to slaughter, their carcass data, but I think weight-wise right now, they're looking really great and really similar to each other.

So it would be a better management practice for these dairy calves, they'd have a better quality of life, better carcass data at the end, all of those things.

And so it would also be a great opportunity for these stocker producers and it's a great opportunity for dairy producers as well, because they're able to take those lower genetic females that they have that they still want a new lactation on, but don't wanna keep the calf for replacement females.

And they can get these dairy beef crosses that they then can sell to a calf ranch and the calf ranch can then take to stockers and stockers can then take them to feed lots instead of feeding them like your traditional dairy calf and not having as much use for them or as much value in them, or, you know, they'll have a lot more value at the end in these dairy beef crosses.

(cow moos) (upbeat music) - That'll do it for our show this week.

A reminder, you can see us anytime sunup.okstate.edu and also follow us on YouTube and social media.

I'm Lyndall Stout, have a great week everyone, and remember, Oklahoma agriculture starts at SUNUP.