(lively upbeat music) - Hello everyone and welcome to "Sunup".

I'm Lyndall Stout.

Spring is in full swing around Oklahoma, and with that in mind, we thought it would be a good idea to revisit some spring management topics this week.

First up, Dr. Alex Rocateli talking about ways to identify Bermuda grass.

- All right, so I'm scouting here around the Stillwater.

Some of my pastures, some of my trials, and I see that in some locations, some Bermuda grass already start to green up, but in some locations not.

So right now, we are in that situation.

Well, I still can control some weeds with glyphosate, a non-selective herbicide, or can I?

I would say, first thing that I need to do is to make sure that your Bermuda grass is not greening up.

Keep in mind that to identify Bermuda grass on your pasture, first, most of the Bermuda grasses that we have here in Oklahoma, they are clonal, meaning they don't produce viable seeds.

So, it's very rare you see Bermuda grass coming from seedling.

Most of the time they will just come from rhizomes that was there from last year.

So always, this Bermuda grass that is greening up is gonna be attached to the old growth.

So that's the first clue that you have there.

Now, if that's not enough, the Bermuda grass has their stem flatten in.

So when you roll with your fingers, you can feel that they are flat.

If that clue is still don't make you 100% sure that's Bermuda, look at the leaf.

You won't see any hair in the leaf, but when you look where the leaf blade meets with the leaf sheath that we call the collars, you're gonna find the two puffies of hairs on each corner.

So, those are pretty much some tips on how to identify Bermuda grass.

Right now, I would say that if you didn't have a soil analysis, make sure that you make some soil analysis and see how much phosphorous, potassium you needed to apply in the field.

And if you didn't apply, apply right now.

That's the best time for phosphorous and potassium.

But I would say wait for nitrogen fertilization.

Nitrogen fertilization, it's good when you have the Bermuda grass completely greened up, so the roots are active and they can really absorb the nitrogen.

So I would say that the Bermuda grass will be completely greened up when they are about two inch height and you see that you have runners or stalls that's about three inches.

So that's the best time to apply your nitrogen fertilizer there.

And finally, when you talk about the herbicides.

Again, if you see that your field already start to green up, you stop use any kind of herbicide.

Don't use glyphosate.

And even for the selective herbicides, I recommend that you go and look at the label.

Some of those herbicides, even though they claim that they don't hurt Bermuda grass when they are vegetating, well, when they are break dormant, they can still stunt the Bermuda grass.

So look at the label and see if you can apply during the green up.

For more information on Bermuda grass pastures, please look at the "Sunup" website.

(lively upbeat music) - Hi!

Wes Lee, and welcome to the Mesonet Weather Report.

It seems lately that we get a forecast for significant precipitation, but when the front moves through it only amounts to lackluster amounts.

That was definitely the case earlier this past week when expectations for rainfall far exceeded what actually fell.

The five-day rainfall map from Wednesday shows zero to trace amounts for most sites.

Only Kay County was fortunate enough to get a half inch or more.

It has been quite a while now since parts of the northwest and panhandle have seen much in the way of rain.

Parts of Woods and Woodward Counties have not seen a quarter inch of rain in over three months, as seen on this map.

As we move into some of the critical times of year for agriculture, we are seeing some issues in that area with soil moisture levels.

This two-inch fractional water index map from midweek shows shallow water is limited in much of the northwest.

- Fractional water means the sensor is as wet as it can read at one and as dry as possible at zero.

Our deepest sensor is at 24 inches.

Here there is a little more moisture in the northwest, but it gets drier in the panhandle.

Let's hope the forecast for this weekend actually delivers on the rain expected.

Gary's up next with some longer term rainfall information.

- Thanks, Wes, and good morning everyone.

Well, the word of the day is actually two words, and that is flash drought.

Let's take a look at that new drought monitor map and see where we're at.

Way too much color added to the map this week.

Now across much of north central through at least the eastern part of the panhandle, we have a moderate drought and even a little bit more of severe drought in a few counties up there in northwest Oklahoma.

But also notice across parts of east central Oklahoma, we have more moderate drought as well as up in northeast Oklahoma.

So really across the northern third of the state and the east central portions of the state, we have increased those colors dramatically.

The yellow colors, that stands for abnormally dry conditions, not strictly a drought designation itself, but it does show areas that are in danger of going into drought much more quickly due to this flash drought, if we don't get significant rainfall.

We're really concentrating on the 90 day time period from the Mesonet.

So we look at these 90 day rainfall maps.

We do see, you know, the southeastern two thirds of the state.

The colors look good.

Now, of course, up in the northwestern third of the state, all that green, that signifies less than two inches for the most part.

But when you go to the departure from normal rainfall map for that same 90 day period, then it starts to become more clear.

Those yellows and oranges, those are less than two inches below normal, all the way up to four and a half inches below normal in those areas.

So lots of deficits across the state.

And unfortunately when we look across much of the rest of the state, even though we're not in those yellow or orange colors, we are in deficits of a half inch to nearly two inches.

So there are things to watch over the next couple of weeks.

Will we get targeted rainfall in these areas, or do we start to spread these areas to the south and also to the east from that northwest Oklahoma center part, I guess you would say, of that flash drought?

But also we worry about those areas across east central Oklahoma that are also in danger of going into drought, at least when you look at this deficit map for the last 90 days.

So we're certainly not unfamiliar with flash droughts here in Oklahoma.

We have had a few big ones over the last few years.

Hopefully this doesn't turn into another.

That's it for this time.

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

(lively music) - Spring is the perfect time of year for cattle producers to take a closer look at their operations to make sure every box is checked, especially when it comes to vaccination plans.

Here's SUNUP's Kurtis Hair with our extension beef cattle specialist, Dr. Rosslyn Biggs, to learn more.

(lively music continues) - We're here with our OSU extension beef cattle specialist, Dr. Rosslyn Biggs.

And Rosslyn, if producers out there haven't done vaccinations for their breeding herds, now's probably the time to start doing that, right?

- It's definitely the time to start discussing it.

And the recommendation I have is to set an appointment with your veterinarian, sit down at the desk or across the kitchen table, and figure out what exactly you need.

There's no cookie cutter recipe to breeding herd vaccinations.

There are some fundamentals that we wanna keep in mind, but it's largely based on the type of cattle you have, the age of cattle you have, whether you've vaccinated before or you have a known vaccination history, and then what your purposes are for those cows and ultimately their calves in the future.

- And I imagine timing is part of the fundamentals that you're mentioning.

Why this time of year?

- Yeah, so timing is really critically important, and it has more to do with it being in the spring than when we're choosing to breed.

So, you know, ideally all things being perfect, we wanna get that cow herd or those replacement heifers fully vaccinated at least 45 days prior to breeding.

Now, I'm also realistic and understanding that that doesn't always happen, and there's a number of reasons based on time commitments, off-the-farm jobs, labor availability.

And so we may need to look at other options and using different types of vaccines later in the process of pregnancy in order to get those females covered.

- So let's dive a little bit more into those fundamentals.

What are some things that producers really need to consider when they're, you know, before they contact their veterinarian?

- Right.

I think keeping in mind what their goals are with their operation and.

- Understanding do I have a vaccinated herd to begin with, right?

Do I have known history on both females, as well as bulls in my plan?

We don't wanna forget the bulls in this process too.

We're gonna talk a lot about females, but we wanna make sure the bull is covered as well.

And so, particularly if we don't know the history, we wanna discuss that with our veterinarian because depending upon their pregnancy status and our timing for breeding, we may wanna use a killed vaccine over a modified live vaccine.

I'm a big modified live vaccine fan, but it needs to be used appropriately and making sure that the timing is right so we don't have impacts when it comes to breeding time.

- And then those impacts if you wait a little longer, that's really affecting the bottom line at the end of the day, - Absolutely.

We wanna be using the product that is gonna give us the coverage we need based on the risk at farm or ranch.

And we want to make sure that they're covered, the individual, whether that be the bull or females, we wanna make sure that individual is covered, but particularly on the females, we wanna make sure that we have a long lasting coverage because ideally we want that female to dump all that immunity into her colostrum for her calf at those first nursings.

- And you know, for the most seasoned ranchers, they've been through this before, they know what to expect before those newer to the industry.

You know, a lot of this could probably be pretty overwhelming, I would imagine.

- It absolutely can be overwhelming.

Even for our seasoned ranchers that have been there, done that, it's a really good idea to sit down at least annually with their veterinarian and discuss the particulars of their treatment plan.

And then for our maybe newer or beginning farmers and ranchers, a great place to start is the resources with their county extension office, with their county educator.

Sit down, come up with the list.

That can also save some time.

Get it double checked by the veterinarian and hopefully you're good to go.

- And we also have a lot of useful resources online as well.

- Absolutely.

We've got some tremendous fact sheets.

We've got great chapters in our Beef Cattle Manual to take a look at that really explain the ins and outs of vaccine selection and making sure we get appropriate coverage for the breeding herd.

- All right, thanks Rosslyn.

Dr. Rosslyn Biggs, OSU Extension Beef Cattle Specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

And if you'd like some more information about how to keep your herd healthy this summer, go to our website, sunup.okstate.edu.

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

As important as any management decision that we face in the cattle business now is how to engineer our selection and mating program to add value to our next calf crop.

Pedigreed seed stock animals in 2024 come on every registration paper or with a registration paper documenting their age, their pedigree, and genetic information, estimating their breeding values in the form of EPDs for over 20 different traits.

These EPDs serve as a roadmap to meet our breeding objectives, improve the additive genetic merit of our herd, and thereby, add value to that next calf crop.

That being said, the mating decision of whether or not to cross breed is effectively the decision that cattlemen make as to whether or not they wanna reap the dividends of hybrid vigor or heterosis.

Heterosis is created by gene combination value or non-additive genetic merit, which is the result of cross-breeding.

Now, some of the topics we've covered in the past on Cow-Calf Corner, we know that reproductive traits and fertility respond in a big way to heterosis and hybrid vigor.

These traits are not very high inheritability, but there's plenty of data that shows that a crossbred cow can wean up to 25% more pounds of calves over her lifetime as a result of hybrid vigor or heterosis.

By that same token, growth traits or moderate inheritability can also respond to a moderate degree in response to cross-breeding.

Carcass traits are where it gets interesting.

Carcass traits are highly heritable.

Things like fat thickness, rib eye, and marbling, but they don't respond in a very large way to heterosis.

Marbling in particular, looks to be largely under the influence of additive genetic merit and doesn't show much hybrid vigor or heterosis.

What does this all mean?

Well, as we take into account the intended marketing endpoint for a set of calves, it should have a profound impact on the decisions we make in regard to bull selection and how we decide to mate, as we think about the intended use of a set of calves.

In particular, are bulls gonna be used as rotational sires or maternal sires where a percentage of those daughters are gonna go back into the herd as cows?

That should have a profound impact on our selection and mating decisions.

This is an interesting topic that we'll get into a lot deeper.

- At our Blueprint for the Future Part Two Conference, held in Stillwater, at the Totusek Arena on May 22nd and 23rd, we'll have a great set of panelists that weigh in on this topic.

We'll actually feature an economic simulation that takes into account additive genetic merit as well as heterosis, and how it impacts profit potential if you are retaining daughters to put back in the herd or marketing calves at different endpoints, like weaning, yearling, or potentially as fed cattle.

We hope you can join us for the Blueprint for the Future Conference, and we'll get into the selection and mating topic, relative to your marketing endpoint, in a lot more depth in panel discussions that permits you to interact and feedback with the speakers.

As always, thanks for joining us on Cow-Calf Corner this week.

(upbeat music) - Well, it's a nice spring day out here and I get the privilege of talking to Kim Anderson, our grain marketing specialist.

So Kim, what are the prices doing this week?

- About what they've been doing for about the last month or so, especially corn and wheat.

Wheat prices in northern Oklahoma, about 5.40 for harvest delivery.

Oh, down around 5.10, 5.20, in southern Oklahoma, and about 5.30 in the Texas panhandle.

Remember, your average price in Oklahoma over the harvest period is 5.80.

Corn, about 4.40.

The average price is about 4.80.

It's been moving sideways.

Soybeans is down to $10.80 for harvest delivered soybeans.

And the soybeans have started a downtrend.

Cotton, cotton's lost 6 or 8 cents over the last couple of weeks.

- So it looks like all the wheat here is pretty well headed out.

So when's the best time to sell wheat?

- Well, like we was talking about last week, the June, July and August time period, the average price in that time period, from '09 through '23, was $5.83.

Average June, 5.88.

5.84 for July.

5.83 for August.

So, and it drops off 23 cents to get into September.

So, June, July and August.

- So anytime from June through August is a good time to sell?

- Not necessarily, because if you'll look at the range of prices through that time period, from '09 through '23, that price range has averaged a dollar and 83 cents.

That's plus or minus 90 cents.

So if you've got wheat at 5.40, that means it could be anywhere from 4.60 to 6.40 over that June through August period.

And with that much movement, you just can't sell one time, 'cause you don't know if you're high or low.

So what you wanna do is sell it over the market.

- So we covered when wheat should be sold, but how should the wheat be sold?

- Dollar cost averaging.

When you've got a lot of variability, and it's a given point that you're gonna have variability over that time, then you want to stagger it over time.

Sell it some in June, some in July, and some in August.

And I'd like to talk about this subject over the next two or three weeks on Sunup.

- Yeah, well, we look forward to hearing more from you next week.

Kim Anderson, grain marketing specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

- A quick reminder now about registration for OSU Agriculture's upcoming Wheat Field Days.

The first one is in Chickasha on April 26th, and then we'll be in Lahoma on May 17th.

Be sure to fill out your registration, so we have your RSVP, but attendance is no charge.

We'll see you there!

(upbeat music) - Today, I thought I'd share a few tips for proper cleaning and handling of produce.

There are many different places where fruits and vegetables can become contaminated.

Produce can come in contact with germs or harmful contaminants in the field, when harvested, when processed, at the grocery store, or even in our homes.

Therefore, proper handling and cleaning of fruits and vegetables is necessary to help prevent foodborne illness.

However, produce should not be washed until it's ready to be cooked or eaten, because immediately washing it, and then storing it away for several days, makes it more likely that the food will get moldy.

Additionally, the longer produce sits after washing, the greater the potential for it to become recontaminated.

The following seven recommendations for cleaning fruits and vegetables come from the Food and Drug Administration.

One, wash your hands for 20 seconds with warm water and soap before and after preparing fresh produce.

Two, if damage or bruising occurs before eating or handling, cut away the damaged or bruised areas before preparing or eating.

Three.

- Rinse produce before you peel it so dirt and bacteria aren't transferred from the knife onto the fruit or vegetable.

Four: gently rub produce while holding under plain, running water.

There's no need to use soap or a produce wash. Five: use a clean vegetable brush to scrub firm produce, such as melons and cucumbers.

Six: dry produce with a clean cloth or paper towel to further reduce bacteria that may be present.

Seven: remove the outermost leaves of a head of lettuce or cabbage.

In addition to these recommendations, here are a couple of additional tips to remember.

Keep fruits and vegetables separate from raw meat, poultry, and seafood, when shopping and at home.

Also, refrigerate fruits and vegetables at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or less within two hours of cutting, peeling, or cooking.

Also, if you're soaking your fruits of vegetables, remember, you still need to rinse.

So just a little bit of info about proper produce handling.

For more information, please visit sunup.okstate.edu or food.okstate.edu.

(upbeat country music) - Well, now that the temperatures are starting to warm up and the grass is getting greener, the horses are getting really eager to get access to that new, fresh grass.

But there's a couple things you need to think about before just turning 'em out.

If your horse has been held on a dry lot of kept off of pasture, we actually want to transition them back onto fresh-grown grass gradually to allow their digestive tract and the microbiota that's in there time to adjust.

So in general, we would recommend that you turn the horses out for 15 minutes or so for a couple days, and then keep increasing that 15 minutes at a time until the horse is on pasture for three or four hours.

After that, you can just open the gates and let 'em be.

But besides our horse health, we also wanna think about our pasture health.

Again, if you're on limited acreage and trying to have pasture that actually grows grass, it's very important to allow the grass time to start growing in the spring as well.

Those first blades of grass essentially act as almost like solar panels, and they really need that to get going.

However, if horses are turned out too early, they'll nip that fresh-grown grass down to the ground and really have a weak pasture that doesn't have a chance to really establish itself and let the roots grow.

So in that case, we wanna make sure that those limited pastures are allowed to grow to four to six inches before we turn the horses out to graze.

(upbeat country music) - Finally today, we take you to Oklahoma City for Agriculture Day at the Capitol.

"SUNUP's" Elizabeth Hokit put together this story.

(upbeat country music continues) - As we gather for Agriculture Day at the Capitol, on the 16th day of April, 2024, declare this celebration the establishment of the OSU Extension, as well as significance not only over the past 110 years, but now and into the future.

- Well, today is Ag Day at the Capitol, which we feel like is the best day at the State Capitol.

So we've got lots of our Made in Oklahoma companies and our commodity groups on the second floor, which gives legislators a chance to visit with them and hopefully just bring the importance of ag to all the members here of the legislature.

- Beef gives you energy.

- Agriculture is an important part of the state economy, but people don't always recognize that.

And so it's important for our legislators and people that work in state government to understand the importance of agriculture in the state and understand the importance of what we do at OSU agriculture- - Doin' good, yourself?

- [Jayson] In supporting that part of the industry.

- We have a lot of urban legislators who aren't directly connected with agriculture, so it's an opportunity to highlight the import work that we do in feeding and clothing the world.

- Less than 2% of the population's involved in production agriculture, and they do a great job feeding the other 98%.

But when we talk about policy that's developed at the state level, for those legislators to have a chance to actually talk to our ag commodity group members, and I think that resonates with them the most, when they hear the stories from people that live all across the State of Oklahoma and why ag policy's important and why we need to support production agriculture, no matter what it looks like, across the state.

(crowd applauding) A busy day.

It's always fun to see all of our ag folks gathered here in Oklahoma City.

(upbeat country music) - And that'll do it for our show this week.

As we leave today, I wanna show you a few highlights of a project that's very near and dear to my heart and something I've wanted to do for many years: a clothing drive for Dress for Success for Oklahoma City, which finds suits for low-income women who are looking for new or better jobs.

Thanks so much for joining us this week.

(upbeat rhythmic music) This has been such a special project for me, and I'm so happy with the turnout and all the people who took part.

And I wanna say a very big thank you.

(upbeat country music) (participants conversing) (crowd applauding) (upbeat country music continues) (logo chiming)