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

Oklahoma's wheat crop is really heading out now, and joining us to talk about how things are looking is Josh Bushong, our extension area agronomist.

And Josh, we talked a few weeks ago.

How have things changed with the crop since then?

- Well, it's definitely grabbed another gear down southwest.

I still say we're at least 10 days, two weeks, ahead of schedule as far as maturity goes.

Unfortunately, since early March, northwest Oklahoma still has yet to receive some significant rain.

So, for the most part, most of the wheat's looking great.

We've had some disease issues, namely stripe rust.

We've had pretty much from the Red River all the way up to Kansas now, we have some pockets, but definitely some pockets worse than others.

I've seen a lot of fungicides go out in southwest Oklahoma, so it was really good to see the farmers actually get reports of disease in the area and take action.

So that was really good to see.

You can definitely find the fields that haven't been sprayed for a fungicide, but the stripe rust, we've already had some field tours already.

Looking at the varieties, especially even here, we can see a good response.

Some varieties definitely have some resistance, especially as we get to the reproductive stages after boot.

Some varieties have more tolerance or resistance to that stripe rust.

- For the disease pressure that you mentioned, are there treatment options, or does it depend where you are in the State?

- So, like a lot of our crop-protective products, especially with fungicides, it's more of a preventative measure.

But we can use to treat when we do have incidents of those diseases.

But that goes back to growth stage.

As we get further along in wheat development, especially southwest Oklahoma, we're already past anthesis, we're past flowering, we're starting to feel those berries, we're a little bit too late.

But as we get to some areas, whether they've been heavily grazed, they might be a little bit further behind in maturity, some late-sown wheat after double crops, they're still just coming outta boot stage.

So we might have some opportunities there to protect 'em with the fungicide, but for the most part we're getting towards the tail end of protecting that crop with the fungicide.

- What are you seeing and hearing in terms of insect pressure?

- Over the whole spring, we have a few instances where we had some mites coming out of winter.

Those kind of went away.

Those were mostly southwest Oklahoma that I got those reports.

But as we got some big grains done there, some guys did have to spray.

They used mostly Group 3 products to get on top of those.

We have seen some aphids throughout whole western Oklahoma.

- You mentioned plot tours starting, field days, exciting time of year.

We want to to come out, but for those who haven't been before, what can they expect?

- We have a very in-depth schedule, which you can find online, y'all.

We'll share it on SUNUP, SUNUP's website, but we have a lot of county field tours, where we have some simple demonstrations, just the varieties, but we also showcase some of the actual replicated trials.

But it's great to see across western Oklahoma the varieties performing different in different areas.

Like I said, we've already started a little bit, but we'll really kick off here in May.

We have a lot more field tours and also some field days like our, kind of our big one in Lahoma we always look forward to.

But as far as what to expect, like I said, we'll go through the wheat varieties.

We'll also get some updates from any State specialists that might attend individual plot tours.

I'll give kind of a crop update, what we're seeing around the area, what to look out for, talk about weeds, insects, disease.

And like I said, we'll walk through those varieties.

- All right, thanks a lot, Josh.

And for a link to the field days and the plot tours, just go to sunup.okstate.edu.

(upbeat music) - We are here with Dr. Derrell Peel, our livestock marketing specialist.

So Derrell, what did the latest Cattle on Feed Report tell us?

- You know, this latest Cattle on Feed Report showed placements in March were down more than expected at about 12% from a year ago.

Marketings in March were down even more than that, about 14% from a year ago.

And the April one, Cattle on Feed number was still above a year ago, at about 1.8% above a year ago.

And that makes the seventh month in a row we've had feedlot inventory still above this time last year.

- So this report also had the quarterly breakdown of steers and heifers, right?

- That's correct.

So we get that every quarter.

As of April 1st, the number of steers in feedlots was actually up 2% from one year ago.

The number of heifers was up about 1%.

But the thing we're really watching in that number is the heifers as a percent of the total feedlot inventory.

So, it's been running about 40%.

It was just under 40% in January.

This time it dropped to 38.5%, which is a significant drop, but still well above normal.

So it suggests that we're still actually feeding.

- [Daryl] Quite a lot of heifers.

- What about cattle slaughter this year?

Let's talk a little bit about that.

- [Daryl] You know, cattle slaughter is down again, in total there's less cattle in the country, so steer and heifer slaughter are both down as well as cow slaughter.

So, you know, we continue to see tighter numbers as far as cattle slaughter.

- [Interviewer] So what about carcass weights in beef production?

- You know, one of the things that offsets the decrease in cattle slaughter is the fact that carcass weights are heavier.

I mentioned earlier that the marketings from the feedlots was down significantly.

And that's one of the things we've seen in this environment.

Feedlots are trying to maintain inventories, so they're slowing down the rate of marketing.

They're taking the cattle to heavier weights.

We see that in these carcass weights.

And so with carcass weights being up, that partially offsets the decrease in cattle slaughter.

Beef production then is down for this year.

It may wind up not being down quite as much as we thought because it looks like these carcass weights are gonna stay well above your go levels going forward.

- So do any of these things change the overall market outlook?

- They really don't.

I mean, it's still the same general setup.

We're talking about tight supplies of cattle as well as declining beef production.

It changes the timing just a little bit and that's usually what we're trying to figure out as we go forward.

But on an annual basis, it certainly doesn't change the picture very much.

Beef production may be just a slightly higher than we earlier thought.

That is to say it won't decrease maybe in quite as much.

But overall the picture hasn't really changed at all.

- Alright, thanks Darryl.

Daryl Peele, livestock marketing specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

- High winds, drastic temperature changes and the threat of severe weather.

Just another Oklahoma typical spring day, right?

But is it also a typical spring when it comes to getting ready for summer crops?

For some answers, here's our extension cropping system specialist, Dr Josh Lofton.

- Yeah so this year is very different.

Even in some of our years we've seen before the drought.

So when we talk about the last year or two, we were often talking about limited moisture.

How late can we go?

How much time do we have left in that window?

And we're still here in the really early parts of spring planting.

Corn has really gone in the ground really nicely.

We've had great conditions for the most part, we still have areas of the state, even some very corn heavy areas of Northwest Oklahoma that are very dry and have not had that opportunity to get either corn in or really good growth on their corn.

So we still are talking about moisture as we do almost always in the spring in Oklahoma.

But we do have good conditions to go through and plant.

We have been planting a lot of our summer crops into some relatively good conditions.

The one thing that we have been is you know, kind of we're out here standing in coats.

It is a little cool, even though our soil temperatures are pretty good, we are seeing our corn and early sorghum, early soybean, going back to your old traditional standbys.

So really gotta think about weeds this year.

If you got moisture, then weeds are always within, kinda that top tier that we need to think about.

So if you haven't planted yet, good burn down strategy, good pre-plant herbicide, if that involves tillage, that involves tillage.

But really start as clean as you possibly can and get good residual chemistry down ahead of that crop.

If we have a crop up and we maybe had some escapes from that early herbicide application, think about making early applications.

Check your labels.

Remember with moisture, a lot of our labels work a little bit differently so make sure you're looking at the residual time, how many applications you can have in season and all those other aspects of good herbicide management.

The other thing is we are seeing some army worms kind of move around.

We are seeing some cut worms.

So all those foliage feeders now they have a lot of green material to kinda consume, but really wanna focus on those crops, making sure we have a good seed treatment if you haven't planted, but if you have planted the seed treatment maybe is worn off or gotten too far down in the profile, maybe think about making sure you're scouting and make those timely applications if we need to.

Especially with how windy it's been and we've had these days up in the 90s and not to mention we have some good surface moisture, deep moisture, which is what's gonna sustain us on into the summer.

It is not guaranteed that we have that everywhere.

There's some areas that have really good deep moisture and then there's some areas that have really good surface moisture.

So think about maybe that top 12 inches, looks really good, but we haven't had the amount of rainfall or those winter snows that we're able to soak deep into the profile that replenish that profile moisture that we kind of drained through the last couple years.

So we still might be working on borrowed time on some of these fields, even if they have really good surface moisture because we might not have the profile moisture we need to sustain a summer crop if it does turn off hot and dry later in the summer.

Yeah, a lot of tools and especially over the last couple years we've really, again talked a lot about moisture, talked a lot about profile moisture so if you- - If you kind of think you're in that situation where you have good surface moisture, maybe not profile moisture, give us a call, give your county educator a call, and we can figure something out and kinda get a plan in place getting ready for this summer.

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

This week's topic is quantifying the value of good management.

The commercial cow-calf sector is interesting if we look at it in comparison to the purebred seed stock, the Stocker-Yearling, or the finishing segments of the cattle business in that we don't have to provide the intense day-to-day 24-and-7 management to it that we do in some of those other segments of beef production.

Typically, if we think about commercial cow-calf production, we can identify some critical control points where we can intensify our labor and our management into some specific things that are gonna lead to improved herd health or reducing the disease, reducing our parasite load, diagnosing pregnancy to make sure we don't incur that annual cost of running a cow without a weaned calf to return on that investment, and in particular, doing things that will raise the value of that weaned calf.

But let's look at some specific things and quantify the value of one management practice or another.

The reality is, in the commercial cow-calf sector, we are often price cycle takers.

We're gonna see cycles of high and low prices.

But in a time like this, we wanna manage what we can manage and control what we control.

First, if we can get our cows bred one heat cycle earlier, calving 21 days earlier, we're gonna wean a calf that's about 40 pounds heavier that following year.

In the current market, an extra 40 pounds of weaned calf is worth about $125.

Castration.

Typically, castrated steers are worth 5 to $10 a hundred weight above the price of an intact weaned bull calf.

That discount actually goes up, or that premium actually becomes bigger, the heavier those calves become at weaning.

As early in life as possible is the best time to actually perform castration.

It's less stressful on the calves.

And for those thinking, "Well, my bull calves are gonna outweigh my steer calves at weaning," there's actually very little testosterone surge until puberty.

Steer calves weigh up about the same as an intact bull calf whenever we wean them.

Growth implants.

Growth implants, for approximately a $2 cost, give us a 10 to 20% efficiency gain in terms of growth in those pre-weaned calves.

If that translates to around 18 extra pounds of weaning weight, in the current market, that's worth over $50 a head, somewhere in a ballpark of $55 per calf.

And in particular, if we think of castrated calves that have been growth implanted, those are typically heavier than an intact bull calf by the time we wean.

Management practice such as making sure we're raising polled calves, which can be controlled through a selection program, or just dehorning, also equate to a five to $10 a hundred weight premium over a calf that sells with horns at the time they're weaned.

Final thought is just preconditioning of calves.

Bundling a group of practices such as making sure we've got two rounds of vaccinations in calves by the time they're weaned covering respiratory disease and black leg, we've dewormed those calves, we've potentially bunk broke those calves and weaned them on our farm or ranch for at least 45 days before we market them.

We need to be getting on that when those calves are about two to four months of age.

In spring calving herds, that time is now.

A lot of evidence that shows, particularly in something like the Oklahoma Quality Beef Network or OQBN, going back over the last 12, 13 years, the average premium on those calves is about $13 a hundred weight.

On a 500-pound weaned calf, that quantifies the value of good management at about $65 a head.

Bottom line, good management has never had more value because of the markets we're presently in.

Manage what you can manage.

Control what you can control.

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

(upbeat music) - Well, if we're inside a greenhouse, you can probably guess that it's raining outside, which is great news for us.

But Kim, is there any good news happening in the crop markets at all?

- There's really good news, especially with wheat prices.

We got a rally in wheat prices this last week.

They got up, they broke that 550 level, got up around 560.

They're on a run.

Now, if you look at wheat prices, remember, the average is 580.

So we're getting up close to that, and we thought we should be in this vicinity.

Corn prices, we got a little rally on corn.

They're still on that sideways pattern, but, this is for harvest prices, they're knocking on that upper level and maybe break through that.

We got a little run in beans, but beans is still, I think they just broke that down pattern.

They'll probably start a side pattern.

But yeah, this is a relatively good week for prices.

Cotton prices, they're still going down a little bit.

- So for the past couple weeks on "SUNUP," you've been talking about when is the best time to sell wheat.

- [Kim] Well, as this chart shows, it's obviously.

- [Dr. Kim] You want to sell wheat in the June through August time period.

- So last week you said a farmer has to be pretty careful when it comes to determining when to sell wheat.

So can you expand on that thought a little bit?

- Well, if you look at prices from, say, 2009 through 2023, the average price is $5.83.

If you look at the range of prices though, in June through the August time period, on average it was a $ 1.83 cents, or plus or minus 90 cents from that average.

If you look at the bottom price during that time period, $2.58 cents, that was in August of 2016.

If you look at the high price, 11.15, that was in June the 22nd of June of 2022.

On prices, the lowest June through August range was 78 cents, and the largest was 3.42.

So there's a lot of variability in that price.

- So what if the harvest price is above average?

- Well, if the harvest prices are above average, let's start again with that average price of 5.83.

The average price, if you look at all the years that were above $5.83, it was $7.37 for the average.

Your price range was $2 and a penny up from your buck 83, but the lowest was in 2013 at 78 cents, and the highest was 3.42 in 2022.

So again, a lot of variability there, but a higher average price.

- What about below average prices?

- Well, if you look at below average prices, you did get a little decline in the range there, or the variability 5.83, your average price over that 15 year period, your average price drops from 5.83 to 5.44.

The range, average range drops to a dollar 68, but dollar 68 cents, that's really still plus or minus 65, 70 cents there, or really 75 or 80 cents there for plus or minus.

The lowest was 80 cents change, not much change from the full time period, and the top was $3.12.

Of course, that was in 2010 when prices ended up over $9.

- If the wheat price is historically low.

So how does that factor in at all?

- That's gonna take a little while to explain and look through these prices over the nine through 23 period.

So let's do that next week.

- All right, we look forward to seeing it.

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

(bright upbeat music) - A pond can only hold so many fish.

On average, that amount is about 250 pounds per surface acre.

So do not transfer fish from other water bodies into your pond unless you're doing that on the advice of a fisheries biologist.

(bright upbeat music) It's widely known that ponds present a drowning hazard.

But what is less known is that the main people who are at risk of drowning, the predominant group are children, ages four and under.

Keep an eye on those little ones.

(bright upbeat music) A major part of your pond that is often not thought about is the watershed, the area of land that slopes down towards the pond.

Anything that happens in that area is going to end up in your pond.

A major concern would be construction or overgrazing.

These things open up the soil to erosion and can quickly turn a pond from being beautiful into a muddy condition, and also at the same time, fill up the basin with silt.

(bright upbeat music) If you've ever been swimming in a pond, and dove down deep, you've probably been shocked by the sudden coldness.

Contrary to popular belief, this is not caused by an a spring feeding into the pond.

This instead is simple pond stratification, the setting up of warm layers on the top and a cold layer on the bottom of the pond.

(bright upbeat music) Many people who are interested in angling will add fish attractors, or what is called structure to their pond.

This may be piles of brush, old cinder blocks, tires, et cetera.

It is important not to put these in the deepest part of the pond because generally speaking, there will be no oxygen in the deepest parts.

Put those at about four to five feet of water depth in shallow areas of your pond.

(bright upbeat music) Beaver are very interested in your pond.

Every spring, there's a new crop of young ones that are looking for new territories, and they're going to be ending up in your pond.

You may, if you're not paying attention, you may not even notice this, but they will burrow into your dam underwater and work upwards until they create a large den inside your dam.

This can lead to a failure of the dam.

Do not let this happen.

Sit out in your pond at night and look for either look for the beaver by the moonlight, or listen for the sounds of their tail slapping the water.

If you detect beaver activity in your pond, seek advice on how best to get rid of them.

- Finally, today, Sunup Elizabeth Hokeit takes us to Blaine County for a story about family.

- And a look at how a small business owner is impacting the lives of those around her.

(upbeat country music) - [Child] All right.

- [Elizabeth] Right now, you might be thinking to yourself, "I wonder what holiday they're celebrating, or maybe it's somebody's birthday."

- [Speaker] You guys ready to eat?

- [Elizabeth] Nope, not a holiday, not a birthday.

Just Wednesday.

- My husband's great-grandparents came from Germany, and they were up in Kansas and they heard about the land lotteries, the land run in Oklahoma.

And so in 1893, they applied for one of the land lotteries and received this plot of land.

- [Elizabeth] As a grandmother of 14, Cindy Nicolai knows the importance of family.

- We actually still have the original patent that was signed by President McKinley.

To build on it before they would get the deed.

- Oh really?

- Yeah.

So that was what, this was, March of 1893.

So six generations have lived in that house.

There's a house that they built in 1908.

And we still live in that house, and it's probably one of the sturdiest houses.

It's been through tornadoes and everything else and never had a creak, so.

(laughing) - Remember back in 2020 when we had this little thing called a global pandemic?

Lots of things were really hard to come by, and one of those was an open spot at a processing facility.

- So I was calling around trying to get our normal appointments and was being told two years.

And I was going, "What?"

(laughing) So you know, we started talking about it and decided, you know, what would it take for us to open a facility?

- [Elizabeth] Yes, Cindy is a cattle producer and a grandmother.

But that's not all there is to her.

She's also the owner of The Fatted Calf, a beef processing facility started in December of 2020.

- We had equipment.

We knew what to do.

We had the experience.

And so we decided to talk to the Department of Ag.

And we called 'em and they came out and talked to us and said, "Build a building."

And so, you know, the old saying, if you build it, they will come.

(laughing) They did.

(door creaking) So we've got my son-in-law, who is the plant manager or head butcher, and then my son.

We call him our hired assassin, (laughing) because he does all of the knocks for the animals.

My husband works in there.

My daughter is also one of the butchers, and she does a fantastic job.

My grandkids even, they can't wait.

They like to help wash the floors, and they can't wait when somebody comes to pick up meat, they are there getting that meat outta those baskets and putting it in boxes.

That way, it's already ready.

- This kinda thing is important for communities because it brings in not only jobs to the local areas, but it also brings a connection back between the consumer and the producer.

- [Elizabeth] James Syzemore, extension educator for Blaine and Major Counties, says getting beef from local butchers is about as close to farm-to-plate as you can get.

- A person calls and they wanna have their own beef fed out, they know where it's coming from.

It's right here, home-raised, home-grown.

And you've supported your local economy.

- Small businesses are the backbone of the country.

You know, they say farmers are the backbone, and I believe that.

Because if you don't farm, if you don't have farmers, you're not gonna have food, you're not gonna eat.

But small businesses, locally-owned businesses, are what keep our communities running.

They're what keep people connected.

- Feed us.

(object clicking) - [Elizabeth] You know that old saying, when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade?

Well, when Cindy sees a lemon, she sees more than just a way to sweeten up the hard times.

She looks deeper and finds an opportunity for growth, a seed she can plant for future generations.

- I mean, it's just, it's a neat experience, something we can share with the kids.

They like to learn all the different cuts.

It's just a good family business that they can inherit later on.

- We were blessed because we had people come to us asking if we had jobs, if we had something that they could do for work.

And we've never had to just, you know, sit back and go, "Oh my, I don't know what we're gonna do."

At this point, still, today, we are booked up six months, seven months ahead.

I give credit to the Lord for that, because He's the one that laid it on our hearts to open this and to do it.

And we did and it's been a help to the community with not just, you know, with neighbors and friends and people being able to bring their beef close, but providing some jobs and some opportunities.

And so I guess we're doing pretty good.

- [Elizabeth] With a successful business and a family to celebrate it with, I'd say pretty good might just be an understatement.

In Blaine County, I'm Elizabeth Hokit.

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

A reminder, you can see "SUNUP" 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."

(upbeat country music continues) (logo chiming)