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

I'm Lyndall Stout.

You can tell it's full speed ahead toward harvest since we're at the North Central research station at Lahoma for the annual Wheat Field Day.

Lots to talk about with our state specialists from extension and our ag researchers, so let's get started.

(country blues music) (gravel crunches) (speaker words indistinct) Several (indistinct) to really help make that happen.

(speaker words indistinct) (country blues music) (group laughing) (country blues music) (group chattering) - We're joined now at Lahoma by Dr. Amanda Silva, our OSU Extension small grain specialist.

And Amanda, let's talk about, first, before we get into the variety trials, your role on the wheat improvement team, how you help out with the researchers and what you do.

- So my role is called information exchange.

So basically, I develop, gathering information about the varieties that we have; the OSU varieties and also experimental lines.

So testing them around the state, and gathering any information needed for its development, and also doing research to understand the physiology of OSU varieties, and how we can make them more nitrogen-use efficient, and also how we can continue improving yield, and keeping up with the protein in the grain.

- How many varieties do you have planted in these trials here at Lahoma?

- So today, we are testing 52 varieties.

And we have an experiment that you're looking at, the Standard Management Practice, with common practices here from the region.

So we planted a 60 pounds per acre total nitrogen, we applied about 30 pounds of nitrogen here as far as top dressing.

So really, trying to reach a 70 bushel wheat goal.

And then back there, we have our intensive management plots where we do two passes of fungicide application, additional nitrogen, and we plant 1.2 million seeds per acre.

So 52 varieties tested in two different management systems.

- We can't talk about all 52, but we can cover a few.

So which ones can we highlight today and what are you getting some interest from growers out there this year?

- So since we're here, Showdown is one that has done well in our variety trials.

So it's statewide adapted.

This year, we are seeing a lot of pressure from stripe rust, leaf rust that came in earlier in the season.

And so we are really using the trials to learn even more about its resistance.

So Showdown, it's holding up well as far as the stripe rust resistance.

It's an intermedium, medium late variety.

And producers like it because of its ability to recover from grazing and it's high yield ceiling.

- Let's talk about Green Hammer now.

- So Green Hammer is a variety that has a good combination of stripe rust and leaf rust resistance.

It was caught a bit on surprise with the early season of stripe rust, which most of the varieties in the program are susceptible.

But Green Hammer has done well in our forged trials, in our variety trials as a whole, and so growers like it because of its graze ability.

Also, Green Hammer is one of the varieties that is part of our wheat improvement team research where we're really trying to understand the physiology of a variety that is able to reach high yields and also maintain with good amount of protein in the grain.

Another one that we have here in the plots is Uncharted.

So producers may be familiar with a variety Bentley.

So basically, Uncharted is a Bentley improvement.

Has two genes giving resistance to barley yellow dwarf; better leaf rust resistance than Bentley as well.

- What are you seeing with Butler's Gold?

- So Butler's Gold is a very different, I would say a different wheat that we have in the program.

So OSU is the first to release what we say, "Short-season winter wheat."

So Butler's Gold is a variety that producers can plant late, so they're not gonna be planting at a normal time.

All the concepts, they have heard about dual purpose system is the completely opposite.

So it's not a grazing wheat.

It's a wheat that it would fit in in a crop rotation after soybeans or after cotton where they have to delay wheat planting.

So that would be a variety that would be adapted for that system.

So you plant late.

And the reason why it's short-season is that you're not gonna delay harvest as you would if you planted a normal full-season variety.

So you will plant at the same time.

And if you see here today, it's pretty much turned.

So we're just waiting for it to dry down a little bit more, but it could be ready to harvest in a few days.

And because for, to make things easier on us here, at the same time, we planted the rest of the plots, but that would not be the recommendation.

Because if we had a late spring freeze, it could've got caught with the late spring freeze.

So Butler's Gold is our short-season winter wheat with very good agronomics.

So good disease resistance, especially this year, so it's.

- It's holding up well with the stripe rust, leaf rust.

Has a very large kernel, so good seedling vigor and yeah, so producers are really using it in especially in a rotation scenario.

- We could only cover a few and even the ones we talked about today, we just have such a limited amount of time on the TV show.

But you put all this information online so people can really study it in depth and help them make decisions.

- Yes, so people are welcome to walk through our plots.

They are all identified.

We leave plot maps in every location so they can identify what the varieties are.

At harvest, which will probably start soon, I try to post the results within five days from when we cut it.

So we'll see how it goes this year.

It seems to be all, seems like we'll be kind of all over the place, but in general, we are really quick having the results out.

So harvest results out, grain yield, protein, it's all gonna be published in our website.

So wheat.okstate.edu.

- This is the time you all work for all year long.

It's really like this the Super Bowl of wheat research and then that extension information that gets out there.

The excitement's building, - Yes.

right?

- Yes.

We are very excited about cutting.

I think we do have some very good looking plots like we have here today.

We'll be learning a lot this year, especially on leaf rust and stripe rust.

- Okay, great.

Thanks for your time, Amanda.

And for a link to the website that Amanda mentioned, just go to sunup.okstate.edu (cheerful music) - Good morning everyone.

(music ends) Wesley is off this week, so you have me flying solo and we're going to talk about drought, what sort of rains we had since the beginning of the year, and also look into the summer months.

So let's get right to that new drought monitor map.

Well we got a lot less color this week.

A lot of that abnormally dry condition yellow has disappeared from northeast Oklahoma, southeast Oklahoma.

So this week we still just have a small amount of severe moderate drought up in far northwest Oklahoma.

We do have some abnormally dry conditions extending down into southwest Oklahoma.

Hopefully with some more rain we can erase some more of that color as well.

But at least for most of the state, still in pretty good shape with all the rains we've had over the last few months.

And those rains continue to do good things for the pasture and range conditions for Oklahoma.

Took a look at this map from the USDA, Percent Good to Excellent for May 19th, and we do see 57% of the state in at least good to excellent conditions for those pasture and ranges.

So looking good at least on that count.

Now let's take a look at the rainfall since the beginning of the year.

You know, it's hard to tell exactly what we have on this map just with the colors.

Obviously we have a lot of good rains down across the southeastern half of the state.

It's really when you get up there into northwest Oklahoma and the panhandle where you see those amounts less than 10 inches, less than five inches, in some cases, less than three inches in the panhandle.

So, when we take a look at that map on the departure from normal since the beginning of the year from the Oklahoma Mesonet, then we start to see the deficits start to show up a little bit better across the far northwestern corner of the state.

One, two, three, four inches below normal.

Those are areas where that drought has not been alleviated so far, and we saw that on the drought monitor map at the first.

Now let's take a look at the summer outlooks from the climate prediction center.

This accounts for the June through August period.

So for temperatures we do see increased odds of above normal temperatures across the entire state of Oklahoma.

Certainly not good news for Oklahoma during the summer months.

You know, anytime we get above normal temperatures during the summer, it's going to be really hot here in this state.

Now as for the precipitation for that June through August period, we do see increased odds of below normal precipitation, especially across about the western third of the state, but even more enhanced across the panhandle.

So, those are areas to watch out for.

Across the rest of the state, equal chances of a below, above, below, or a near normal precipitation for the summer months.

So you add those two outlooks together and for the drought outlook, we do see drought is expected to either persist where it already exists or develop across much of the western, let's say fifth of the state and the rest of the panhandle.

So certainly not good news for those folks.

However, that doesn't have to happen that way.

If we can get plenty of rainfall over the next month or so, we can alleviate some of those drought concerns and that's certainly possible.

Let's hope for that.

(cheerful music) That's it for this time.

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

- We're here at Lahoma now with our wheat geneticist, Dr. Brett Carver, and Brett, great group out here at Lahoma.

And one of the first things you talked about is the success of Smith's Gold and kind of what may be lying ahead in that line.

Talk about that.

- Oh yeah, Smith's Gold has been a very popular variety in Oklahoma in points South into Texas for good reason.

It's a really good high yielding, widely adaptive variety.

But one thing I think we should point out for a lot of our audience is the stripe rust resistance on Smith's Gold is outstanding and we really needed that this year.

This was a stripe rust year among other things, but Smith's Gold held up really well.

So we'd like to continue that lineage, and I've been working on it for quite some time.

- Of course you have an eye on the future.

What are you seeing coming down the line?

- Seeing a lot of good things.

It's been hard to- - Picked the best, but we have four being featured today in this field tour.

I wanna talk about just a couple of them, the first one being this OK2708.

Those first two numbers really mean something.

That means we started testing this line statewide for quality and for yield in 2020.

So that kind of tells you how long it's been in the program.

We have a pretty good idea how it's going to do, and it's statewide from panhandle to east, even the eastern part of the state.

This is one half Smith's Gold and one half Eastern European germplasm, specifically germplasm from Romania, a variety called Miranda, nice name.

So it's a Miranda/Smith's Gold cross.

The yield on this is challenging High Cotton, if not surpassing High Cotton.

I wanna make sure of that with this year because of course we had a lot of factors figure in the yield that they're very important, and so I think it's going to do it.

And I was so confident we gave the seed to Foundation Seed to go ahead and increase it.

- Great.

- But we have some backups.

- Okay, let's talk about those.

- Okay, so right down here is OK21D.

It's kind of a long name.

I attribute the name to the doubled haploid laboratory in Manhattan, Kansas, Heartland Plant Innovations.

That's where we get our double haploids, and the D in this name means it was double haploid.

So we were able to produce a progeny of, in this case, Green Hammer and Smith's Gold, quickly.

And we started testing it in '22, one year after the '21.

So we have a pretty good idea how this is going to do.

This looks like a short Green Hammer when it's mature.

A much shorter Green Hammer and also a much larger head.

I think it's a beautiful wheat.

It needs to go on somebody's table.

I have a lot of confidence, not just in this variety, but in the genetics behind it.

Green Hammer and Smith's Gold, they're leading varieties in the state and for good reason.

- Okay, let's switch gears a little bit and talk about the number-one variety in the state, which of course is Doublestop.

- Sure is.

- And, yeah, it's still performing, but there's a future- - Oh yes.

- Future brewing as well.

- Yeah, and we've talked about this on the show before, where we wanted to broaden that future, broaden the horizon of the Doublestop lineage.

And so we did that in two ways.

We kept Doublestop with the herbicide trait intact.

So we still had that BASF trait for beyond resistance.

But we also took the trait out.

We talked about this in previous shows, where, you know, we basically had Doublestop but without that trait.

Maybe it doesn't mean so much now since the trait is not protected like it was before.

We still want to be good stewards of the trait, but we certainly have the option of going just Clearfield, and so we keep the trait.

So let's talk about the options we have.

- [Host] Okay.

- The first two without the trait, these are in the variety trials this year.

They are outstanding Doublestop derivatives.

They're 50% Doublestop.

This is not a very tall year.

I mean, it was drought-stressed in this environment.

So the stature is not as tall, but still you can see the difference.

It's pretty outstanding, much better yield.

We're talking up to 15% better yield given the year depending on how many diseases we have.

The more disease, the better.

These like disease.

They also like grazing.

So those are the two un-traited varieties or experimentals.

Now we have two that are traited, which have again the herbicide tolerance, and it's been tough to choose between these two.

This is again 50% Doublestop, and that one is, the 8417 is 75% Doublestop.

And it's taller as you can see.

It looks more like Doublestop but a much bigger head.

So I think there we're talking about at least a 15% jump over Doublestop.

I want it to get into that High Cotton showdown territory, which I think it will.

Give me one more year this year, and I'll nail it down.

And we might just make this public in the summer.

Which one it is still not sure.

I'll go back to this 125 real quick and say yes, it's a Doublestop derivative.

But I also look at it as an Uncharted, Uncharted successor because the other half of the parentage is what made Uncharted.

So there's a little bit of both in these varieties.

I'm really excited about both of them.

- Lots of potential there on the family tree, of course.

And then when it comes down to, okay, it's decision time, how do you make that decision?

That's kind of the million dollar question, I'm sure, but how do you... - Yeah.

- What's the criteria that ultimately helps you decide?

- Yield, quality, and then everything else.

And everything else is mostly driven by diseases that we have in Oklahoma, and there's up to 15 that we could have any given year.

But of course the big ones are stripe rust, leaf rust, barley yellow dwarf.

And so I want positive results on those with that yield package and with acceptable, if not superior, quality.

We like superior on all fronts.

- Great information about what's happening here at Lahoma, and we'll continue our conversation here on "SUNUP" again next week.

Thanks for your time, Brett.

- Thank you.

I look forward to that.

(laid-back music) - Good morning.

- Oklahoma, and welcome to "Cow-Calf Corner."

This week's time for the spring edition of our spring checklist in the cow-calf business.

One of the neat parts about commercial cow-calf production is that it doesn't have to be intensively managed.

It doesn't require eight or 10 hours a day, but timely management is critical.

In the state of Oklahoma, we primarily have a warm season grass base.

And so if we are looking at native grass pastures, hopefully, we've already burned if we were gonna do that.

It's a little too late for that management practice.

But making that decision of whether or not we need to get down some herbicide to control weeds, typically, native grass does not require the inputs and the management that improved grasses would, but from time to time, controlled burns and some herbicide control for those broadleaf weeds can be important.

It's the time of the year to be getting that done.

If we are dealing with Bermuda grass, plains bluestem, or some sort of improved forage, those management inputs become more critical.

Have we got our fertilizer down?

Have we actually taken a look at a rate of nitrogen fertilizer that is going to permit the amount of forage production that we need to sustain our cow herd through the summer months?

It's time to be getting that down.

And again, herbicide and weed control is critical in those improved grasses.

In order to maximize the productivity, we want to be getting that done now so we can capitalize on the moisture, and we don't have broadleaf weeds gobbling up our soil nutrients or that moisture that we actually have.

So pasture management, one of the first things that we think about at this point in the year, we wanna make sure we get done in a timely fashion.

With regard to breeding season and vaccinations, depending on when we calve, I know there's some producers by this time of year that have already got bulls turned out.

In other cases, we may be getting ready for that.

But pre-breeding vaccinations on the cow herd, deworming, and fly control, all those things that we want to get done ahead of time and stay on top of through the summer months.

If we're thinking about whether or not we have ample bull power actually turned out with cows, keep in mind that rule of thumb, yearling bulls that have passed a breeding soundness exam should be good to cover about as many cows as they are months of age.

So if we've got 15-month-old bulls that turn out, they should be good to get about 15 cows covered, up to two years of age, about 25, and those mature bulls, probably more in the range of 30 to 35 bull, cows per bull, excuse me.

Final thought with regard to the spring checklist.

If we've got our herd health under control, our pasture management's in good shape, and we know we've got ample bull power out there, take a look at when those calves were born this spring.

It is always good to get that first round of vaccinations.

If we've got any castration or dehorning to do, we want to get that done two to four months of age on those spring-born calves to set them up for success and give them less health issues as they go on through the chain.

Hope this helps, and as always, thanks for joining us on "Cow-Calf Corner."

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Well, it's hard to believe, but this year's wheat harvest is officially underway in Oklahoma.

According to the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, combines started rolling in the southwest part of the state last weekend, about 10 days ahead of schedule.

Early reports showed test weights ranging from 60 to 63 bushels per acre, proteins between 11 and 12.5%, and yields at 40 to 45 bushels per acre.

The Wheat Commission will have updated reports throughout harvest.

Find a link on our website at SUNUP.okstate.edu.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music fades) - I'm Kim Anderson.

I'm here at Lahoma Field Day, and I started out today's presentation with a quote from Peter Drucker.

Peter Drucker said, "There are no solutions with respect to the future.

There are only choices between courses of action, each imperfect, each risky, each uncertain, and each involving different costs, but nothing can help you more than to know what alternatives are available and what they imply and what they mean to you."

And what that means is out here, the farmers and and ranchers are learning about raising wheat.

They're learning how to produce it.

They're learning soil fertility.

They're learning about production.

But all that information on production has no value unless you can convert it to economics.

You've gotta know what the bottom line for each alternative is and what the probabilities are it's gonna generate profit so that you can select the one with the highest probability to keep you in business.

What I talked about today was selling the wheat once it's produced.

In Oklahoma, it's a no-brainer.

If you'll look at the prices from 2009 through 2013, you want to sell in the June, July, and August time period.

So what I did was, is I got that daily prices, and I've got the average price, the lowest price for each year, and the highest price.

- The average price for that 14 years was $5.83.

But the big point is, is that from the high to the low on the average was $1.83 cents, plus or minus 90 cents.

And losing a $1.83 because you sold at the wrong time, is a big problem.

So what you need to do when you're selling your wheat is to stagger it over that three-month time period because you don't know if the highest price is gonna be at the beginning or at the end.

We looked at the years that it was below average prices.

The lowest year, 2016.

Prices had not been this low since 2010.

By the time mid-June, they hadn't been that low since 2005, and they went lower still.

And what that means, prices can be high, you don't know if they're going up or down.

They can be low and you don't know if they're gonna go up or down.

So what you want to do, is say 1/5, 1/5, 1/5, 1/5, and 1/5, five of those rascals, staggered over that three-month time period.

I'm Kim Anderson, and I'll see you next week on SUNUP's Market Monitor.

(cheerful upbeat music) - Your pond is designed to handle heavy overflows, but it's up to you as the pond owner to monitor and maintain those structures to make sure that you don't have an unpleasant and expensive surprise.

The first point at which the water overflows is called the primary spillway.

In our smallest ponds, this is typically a trickle tube that angles through the dam.

In our typical ponds, like the one behind me, this is most often an internal standpipe, and in our largest structures, our flood control structures, these are typically control towers.

The enemy of all of these overflows would be floating debris.

After a major overflow event has occurred, check to see if any floating limbs or other debris have accumulated around the pipe that may potentially be clogging it.

If the overflows are clogged or impeded in any way, one of the major dangers is overtopping.

If water starts going over the top of your dam, typically it's a short order until erosion begins and the entire dam can wash out.

That would be the major failure scenario.

Less dramatic but equally important would be the failure of the structure itself that can be more incremental.

Leakage around a pipe or in a collapse, or perhaps something besides floating debris clogging it.

Occasionally, we have turtles that get into pipes and that's an especially hard problem to tackle.

Be very careful about trying to clear debris during overflow events, especially on those control towers, because that's a major safety hazard.

You can get entrapped and it's a major drowning hazard.

Another thing to watch out for on these structures is just simply being aware that everything has a limited lifetime.

It may be from anywhere between 20 and 50 years depending on the structure, but things do corrode and do begin to have structural issues.

If you see anything suspicious, snap a picture and visit with your local NRCS office about it.

The second point at which water overflows, when the primary spillway can no longer handle the amount of water that's being delivered by the watershed, is called the auxiliary spillway.

And typically, this is a flat earthen channel around one end of the dam.

You need to make sure that this stays well-vegetated and that there is nothing blocking the channel there.

No structures, nothing added in there that would impede the flow of water.

Flowing water has tremendous cutting power.

It's well worth your time and effort to make sure that your control structures are functioning as they are intended to do.

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

A reminder, you can see us anytime on our website, and also follow us on YouTube and social media.

From the North Central Research Station at Lahoma, I'm Lyndall Stout, and we'll see you next time at SUNUP.

(cheerful upbeat music) (gentle music)