(rhythmic beats music) - Hello everyone and welcome to "SUNUP," I'm Lyndall Stout.

We begin today with an update on Oklahoma's wheat crop.

We're joined first by Dr. Meriem Aoun, our OSU Extension wheat pathologist.

Miriam, lots of stuff happening now in this time of the wheat really growing fast.

But first of all, we need to talk about some of the freeze damage that you and your colleagues are seeing.

- Yes, so if you look at the field behind us, we have a lot of burning of the leaf tips due to the damage that we see last week.

In Western Oklahoma, we still have drought, so our wheat is still stressed.

And yeah, those are basically what we see in terms of abiotic stresses, freezes and drought.

- So in terms of drought and some of the conditions in terms of disease pressure, what are you seeing and what are producers telling you all?

- So in mid-March, we start receiving samples from Western Oklahoma, from Alto's in Jackson County, and from Garfield.

So we got samples that were infected with common root rot and with Fusarium crown and root rot.

So if you remember, these diseases were severe last year in Oklahoma due to the drought.

So these are called dryland diseases and we seeing them in the field early March.

So those are like the diseases that are caused by drought, but nothing much.

Just couple of samples.

- What guidance do you have for producers at this stage when it comes to disease and viruses?

- So for viruses, the soil-borne wheat mosaic virus and spindle streak mosaic virus, most of our wheat varieties are resistant.

So this shouldn't be an issue in growers' field.

But also, we got in some of the samples, wheat streak mosaic virus.

So this disease was severe last year in multiple fields in Oklahoma, across Oklahoma, not just the Panhandle area, where we used to see this disease.

But basically, it's too late right now for wheat streak mosaic virus.

Usually, we recommend growing resistant varieties, like the OGI Variety, Breakthrough that have resistance to this virus.

And basically, if we have it in the field, we can't do much.

But right now, just couple of samples.

So I don't want, like, to worry the growers.

We will wait and see what will happen in coming months.

- And of course, we can always have you back on.

Sometimes what's happening to the south of us in Texas can be an indicator in terms of planning or being ready.

What are you seeing in Texas?

- So in Texas, usually we want to look at what they have for report for rust diseases, leaf rust and stripe rust, because these pathogens, they overwinter in the south.

And we have a couple of reports of leaf rust and stripe rust in Texas, but I didn't see rust in Oklahoma right now.

So we'll wait and see.

It all depends on the weather.

If we have rain, we probably would see it, basically, in late April, May.

But for now, we can't say much about rust diseases.

- That's good.

That's good news so far.

We'll take it.

And you keep everyone up to date regularly on your blog and on your social media, right?

- Yes, so for both Facebook and Twitter, OSU wheat disease, you can find these reports and any disease that we see in Oklahoma, and also on my blog and the Extension website with pest alerts.

So this information should be available there.

- Thanks a lot, Meriem.

And for a link to the blog and the social media that Miriam oversees, just go to SUNUP.okstate.edu.

And now continuing on the subject of wheat, let's talk about insects.

"SUNUP"'s Kurtis Hair takes it from here.

- Well, it's been a little bit since we talked insect and wheat pressure, but today we're joined by OSU entomology professor, Dr. Kris Giles.

And Kris, you were kind of new to "SUNUP," but you actually took part in "SUNUP," you know, 20 years ago, you used to do interviews with us.

- Yeah, in-studio interviews, talking to Rob, and talking about insects, in-wheat insects, and other cropping systems.

And so we really started the program about 25 years ago and now I think it's matured to a state where we can make really good recommendations.

- And you're a professor as well?

- Yeah, professor in entomology, plant pathology.

Together, work with many of the different faculty on campus, across campus, so working mainly in wheat systems though.

- You know, like I mentioned just before, it's been a little bit since we've talked insect and wheat pressure.

So like kinda looking back in the fall, what was the situation there?

- Well, there was a little bit of an issue with fall armyworm, and, I think, people that had those issues addressed those early on.

- And maintained their stands.

It was a concern because of lack of water, but I think that those folks that needed to manage 'em, did deal with 'em pretty effectively.

Now, we haven't had much rain during the winter, and so the crop is kind of a little bit behind, a little bit shorter.

And so those folks that did manage those fall insect pressure issues, I think are doing okay.

As long as we get some water.

- Yeah.

As you were mentioning, drought and you know, if you're kind of, cross that I-44 corridor, it's really, really dry.

So how does that impact, you know, insect pressure in general?

- Well, in general, insects do really well when it's dry.

So the two main culprits that we would worry about would be aphids, like green bugs and bird cherry-oat aphids, and then brown wheat mite.

And so those both are gonna do really well during conditions of low moisture and they both can be concerning.

One of the issues we've had recently is English grain aphid popping up, and so we're gonna have to keep an eye on that.

But right now, numbers are looking pretty low for aphids around the state and we haven't seen much brown wheat mite damage.

So things are looking okay, but we're gonna have to monitor things as the drop continues.

- Well, and it's definitely important to monitor 'cause we were kind of in the same situation last year.

- Yeah.

- And brown wheat mite kind of sprung up almost outta nowhere.

So, how do you scout for that issue?

- It's a real issue and so, they're too small to see for most of us.

And so what we're looking for is characteristic wheat damage by these mites.

And so it's kind of a, almost looks like a barley yellow dwarf kind of damage.

It's indistinguishable from a lot of the diseases, but more consistent throughout the field.

And so those do rise up in the spring and the late spring and with no moisture, they're gonna be a real problem.

And they do cause significant yield loss.

But there are products that can be used to treat 'em if you see damage in your wheat.

- So how quickly do you need to be to, you know, to apply those insecticides to really take effect?

- Relatively quickly.

But the good thing is, is that we've got a lot of people out in the state taking a look, and so we're noticing what's happening and if we see it start to pop up in a few areas, we can tell people to keep a lookout for it and then they can treat it effectively.

But we've actually done several years worth of research specifically Tom Royer, who's the extension entomologist, and treating in a timely fashion really preserves wheat yields.

- So it's relatively quiet right now, but you know, in Oklahoma, a lot of things can change quickly.

We could just get, hopefully get a lot of rain, but that could really, you know, change the situation.

- Yeah, rain does a pretty good job on knocking aphid populations down and the aphids are just starting.

We're out taking a look here and we're finding them throughout the state, but more normally, those aphids are controlled by natural enemies, little parasitic wasps.

But we're gonna have to keep track this year because the conditions are just a little bit drier than usual and aphids can really get going.

So that's one thing that we need to look out for.

Other than that, I think just paying attention to any kind of damage that looks unusual for brown wheat mite, that's it.

- All right, thanks Chris.

If you'd like some more information on how to manage brown wheat mite, go to our website, SunUp.OKState.edu (upbeat country music) - Welcome to the Mesonet Weather Report.

I'm Wes Lee.

The rain last week, as of Wednesday, was pretty much a bust for all but the far southeastern counties.

This five-day map shows Mount Herman, the only place receiving over an inch of rain.

This continuing dry pattern for the west has soils in that region drying out quickly.

This map of percent plant available water shows at four inches, the western third of the counties need rain.

Dark green, near 100% levels, are seen on most of the areas south of Interstate 44.

At our deepest sensors in the soil, we see the areas of the state that are hit the hardest.

The dark reds in the panhandle, far northwest, and far southwest show the extreme conditions there.

Some of our driest areas are in Oklahoma's major wheat producing regions.

With no rain, the soils are doing their best to keep the wheat crop alive.

As temperatures warm and day length increases, so does the amount of water needed to maintain crop health.

Evapotranspiration levels for healthy crops are now around point 12 to point 15 hundredths of an inch per day.

Next week's rain forecast continues with the recent Interstate 44 phenomenon.

There is, however, at least a chance of rain showing up for our dry northwest region as of midweek.

Now here's Gary, looking at the three month rainfall conditions.

- Thanks Wes, and good morning everyone.

Well, I really think I can just simply come in here and say the same thing every week, and so that's what I'm gonna do.

Once again, we have improvements across the southeastern part of the state and worsening drought across the northwestern part of the state.

Let's get right to that new map.

So here you can see again, as I've said before, the I-44 is basically the dividing line between no drought and drastically bad drought, so.

- We did have that drought expand once again up into the Northwestern part of the state, we now have it dipping down into parts of Northern Woodward County and more of Woods County, in Northwest Oklahoma and even a little bit more in North Central Oklahoma.

So, much of the Northwestern half the state covered in extreme to exceptional drought, the two worst drought monitor categories.

March rainfall was disappointing across the Northwestern half of the state to say the least.

Some areas had no rainfall at all, that's that white area up in Ellis County, parts of Western Woodward County and even Southern Beaver County.

But most of the regions across Northwestern Oklahoma had less than a corn inch rainfall, at the most we had about an inch in some places to the Northwest of the I-44 Corridor.

Now you look to the Southeast of that I-44 Corridor and you see most areas had five inches or more for the month of March which is well above normal.

Even we look down at Mount Hermann in far Southeast Oklahoma they had 12.66 inches of rain for the month of March, so that is an incredible amount of rainfall for the month of March for those folks we do wish they could spread some of that to the Northwest but unfortunately that's not the way Oklahoma weather works.

The percent of normal rainfall map from the Mesonet for that same timeframe shows it pretty clearly, very simply, Northwestern Oklahoma went less than 25% of normal rainfall for that entire period, whereas parts of the Southeastern Oklahoma, they went up to 200 to even close to 300% of normal.

So drastically different experiences between the two halves of the state.

Now as we look at the departure from normal for March, once we start to get into the rainier parts of the year these departures do start to grow, so about two inches below normal for parts of Northwestern North Central Oklahoma down in the Central Oklahoma, but generally an inch deficit or more.

And then we had areas to the Southeast of I-44, 1, 2, 3, 4 inches above normal as much as eight inches above normal and far Southeast Oklahoma.

So the divide between the haves and have nots continues to grow.

Hopefully we will see a change in that very soon, that's it for this time.

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

(upbeat guitar music) - We're joined now by Dr. Darrel Peel, our livestock marketing specialist.

Darrel coming into the new year we expected beef production to decrease, what are you seeing so far?

- You know, it's starting to happen, we started January a little bit higher, but in February and especially now in March, beef production is falling, the last four weeks beef production has been down over 6%.

And so, you know, and that's a function of both cattle slaughter decreasing across the board.

So steers, heifers, cows, bulls all categories of cattle slaughter are down, and carcass weights across all those categories are also lighter this year compared to last year.

- Is that starting to translate to prices yet for those of us when we go to the grocery store?

- Well, at the wholesale level for sure, so if you look at, you know, choice box beef values the last four weeks have been running about 11% above a year ago.

And again, if you look across the various cuts or at least the primals that the cuts come from, you know, the middle meats are are the most strength in that ribs and loins.

Chucks are pretty strong as well, rounds not so much, and brisket is actually the only primal that's actually down on a year over year basis.

But across the board we're seeing those wholesale prices begin to increase.

- And how about at the sail barns?

- You know, at the sail barn for feeder cattle, again, prices have been going up for some time, they continue to do so in the last four weeks, we're averaging 20 to 22% above a year ago for feeder cattle prices across all weight groups for fed cattle.

Again, higher prices running about 17% above a year ago at this point in time.

- And what are you seeing in terms of the cow markets?

- Cull cow markets same story, last year if you'll remember the last two years we've had very strong, very high levels of cull cow slaughter, beef cow slaughter in particular, that has dropped sharply.

We're down over 13% for the last four weeks on a year over year basis.

So these cull cow prices are beginning to advance.

And we're also beginning to see some strength in breeding cow values, and I think we'll see a lot more of that going forward.

It's the time of year obviously things are beginning to green up a little bit, and where we can, you know, we're starting to see some higher bread cattle values.

- And then with this in mind, what kind of guidance do you have for producers the next few weeks?

- Well, you know, it depends kinda on where you are.

Obviously we have some producers that are still dealing with very severe drought.

They're still trying to figure out if they can hang onto to what they've got, making some of those tough decisions and you know, seeing if they have enough hay to finish out winter here.

So they're very much on the defense.

But other producers across the board we see the potential in these markets, we know we're gonna have higher prices, and they're trying to be in a position to take advantage of that.

I think the one caution you have to offer to producers that are seeing some improvement in moisture conditions and so on.

And that's to not be too impatient here to get back out on those pastures, they need some time to rest.

- Longer term, it's gonna be important to give those pastures time to heal up and have more sustained growth, rather than trying to jump out there and fully restock too soon.

- For sure.

Great advice, Darrell.

Thanks a lot.

We'll see you next time.

(gentle music) - I'm Kim Anderson.

Welcome to, "Tailgate Talk" on, "Market Monitor."

If you've been watching crop prices lately, you've probably been pretty bored.

However, we have had enough movement in the prices to make some farmers nervous.

If you'll look at what the market's offering for harvest delivery with wheat, Northern Oklahoma the Medford Pine Creek area around $8.00, $8.20 a bushel.

If you go down to Southern Oklahoma, Snyder, that area, $7.90.

And if you go to the panhandle, probably $8.20, $8.25, somewhere in that range.

Going back on wheat, looking at the first of the year, that came in at $8.00 a bushel.

By mid-January had fallen down 50 cents to $7.50.

It wallered around until the end of January and then we got a little rally going, picked up about, oh, 85 cents to $8.35 by mid February.

And then the funds started getting out of short positions in the crop markets and prices fell.

Plus it looked like Russia was gonna export quite a bit of wheat.

Prices fell down to $7.19.

I had that support price at $7.50.

We were below it for just a little less than a week.

Then we broke back up, that $7.50, wallered around a little bit, and now we're back up to that $8.15 to $8.20 level.

If you're looking at corn, you can forward contract that in the Northern Oklahoma, Pond Creek, Medford area for around $5.50 a bushel.

Down in Southern Oklahoma, around I-40 Weatherford $5.90.

And in the panhandle, around $6.30.

Corn came in the year around $5.80 for a forward contract for harvest delivery, fell down to $5.60, just wallered for about a month and a half, oh, around $5.75.

Again, the funds getting outta short positions, drove that price down to $5.25.

It bottomed out there.

It's picked up around 20 cents to get back up to that $5.50 level.

Soybeans came in the year around $13.00.

You can forward contract in most of Oklahoma for around $12.20.

Oh, the panhandle area around $11.90.

The beans came in $13.00, knocked off 50 cents.

And what's 50 cents with $13.00 beans?

It slowly moved back up to $13.30 and then again, funds selling out of all the crops, getting outta those short positions, drove it down to $11.70.

Also, you had problems in the financial markets at that time and that lowered the crop prices a little bit.

And now bean prices are up around $12.20.

Cotton prices had movements between $7.75 and 85 cents, down around 80 cents now is what the market is telling you it's gonna be around harvest.

And canola's around $6.90.

There's enough movement in prices and uncertainty in prices that you do need to watch it.

The biggest factor that's going to impact our prices between now and harvest is weather.

It's dry in much of our hard red winter wheat area, and it's a couple months before we get into harvest and a lot can happen to lower that yield.

And if yield comes in a little less than expected, we could have higher prices.

Of course, if we have a really good price, prices could fall off a little bit.

You can look at the same in corn and beans for planting and during the growing seasons.

Russia is gonna play a big factor in prices, not just the war.

Cargill announced this week that they were gonna stop exporting Russian crops, and that had a positive impact on our prices.

What farmers should be doing right now is they need to concentrate on producing a quality product, managing cost, and getting the crop in the bin.

At the same time, I think now's a good time to look at your cost of production, look at your potential yields, and manage that, and make a written marketing plan.

I'll see you next week on, "Market Monitor."

(country music) - Good morning, Oklahoma.

I'm Mark Johnson and welcome to, "Cow-Calf Corner."

This week's topic is about drought and pasture management, in the spring of 2023.

We've obviously lived through some interesting times the past couple years with regard to the lack of moisture.

And it's the time of year when the grass begins to turn green and we can real easily fall prey to the temptation that it's time to turn out cows, and we don't need to supplemental feed.

- We wanna resist that temptation just a little bit, and take consideration of our soil and our plants and our cattle as we think about the long-term health of all three for the long-term benefit of our cow/calf operations.

And so basically three things we wanna talk about this week.

And first thing we get into is the importance of weed control and herbicides as we look at the onset here.

We know that continuous grazing and particularly drought are extremely stressful on the desired plant species that beef cattle like to consume.

The normal thing we see in drought situations or continuous grazing is those preferred plant species.

Those plant species that are the most palatable for cattle to consume will get grazed time and time again.

The lush regrowth that occurs in them, cattle will go back to time and time again.

And we may have broad leaf weeds standing over here in our pasture right beside 'em that grow untouched to maturity and never have any grazing pressure put on them.

And so at a time like this, as we think about the timely application of herbicides for weed control, we want to get this thing synced up right so that we are controlling weeds and getting those grasses that we want to grow off to a healthy and maybe a little bit of a head start, as compared to the grazing pressure we're gonna put on 'em.

And so I encourage producers, read your product labels, consider what kind of herbicide products you're gonna use.

Whether that is a pre-emergent, a post-emergent, is gonna depend on when you need to get that applied for the benefit of your pasture.

But I think we wanna be ahead of the game with regard to weed control this spring to help our plants get off to a good start.

Second thing, and along those same lines, we wanna delay grazing until, and then there's a big question mark after the until.

If we can, we really wanna get those desired plant species up a few inches tall, depending on the type of grass.

Is it Bermuda grass or is it native range?

Is it some other sort of improved grass we put in that we might need to get a little more growth and height on?

But somewhere in a ballpark of four to eight inches, if we can, to permit those grasses to get off and growing and healthy before we actually apply the grazing pressure to it.

Well, obviously we wanna soil test, and there's other macronutrients that we need.

We want to get those in our fertilizer mix too.

But when it comes to the application of fertilizers this spring, this is the good news story.

If you got native grass pasture, you don't need to worry about fertilizer application.

But if we're dealing with improved grasses, something like Bermuda, plains bluestem, maybe even crab grass, we know that we've got to get fertilizer down for those in order for 'em to be productive.

Our objective of fertilizer, even if we're still in a drought situation, is to have those soil nutrients down so that once the growing conditions are right in terms of moisture and soil temperature, we grow as much grass as possible in a short amount of time as possible.

This year, I recommend splitting applications of fertilizer and maybe getting that fertilizer down a little bit earlier just for the sake of optimizing on those good growing conditions.

So if we had 100 pounds we plan to put on some time in a normal year in the month of May, this year by the 1st of May, we're gonna put down about 50 pounds of actual nitrogen an acre, have it out there ready for that grass to utilize whenever the growing conditions permit it.

And as we follow through on that plan, we want to continue to monitor moisture situations and growing situations, and continue to add fertilizer to that through split applications if we have a real optimum growing season for those improved grasses.

So three points to consider relative to the drought we're in and pasture management this spring.

I hope this helps, and thanks for joining us on Cow/Calf Corner.

(gentle music) - [Announcer] Well, it's officially April and we all know what that means.

It's Field Day season for OSU Extension.

First up is the Tipton Field Day.

This event will be held on April 26th at the Valley Research Station in Tipton.

And just two days later will be the Chickasha Wheat Field Day on April 28th.

This event will be held at the South Central Research Station in Chickasha.

Field Days are an excellent opportunity for producers to meet and discuss with OSU Extension specialists to learn about topics such as wheat varieties, hay forage yield, weed management, and so much more.

For more information about these Field Days, just go to sunup.okstate.edu.

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

Remember you can see us anytime at 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.

(gentle music)