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

I'm Lyndall Stout.

We have a great show lined up for you today, including some information about stripe rust spotted in wheat fields in southwestern Oklahoma.

We'll have more on that coming up.

But first, "SUNUP's" Kurtis Hair is talking with Dr. Derrell Peel about the cases of avian influenza that have been reported in dairy cattle, the first time this has ever happened.

- We're gonna change it up a little bit today on Livestock Marketing, as cases of avian influenza are spreading throughout Texas and to some other states.

So Derrell, the USDA announced last week that there were cases of avian influenza in some dairy cows.

So get us up to speed.

- Yeah, so this is a brand new thing.

We've never found high path avian influenza in cows before, so the last week of March, USDA made an announcement that, you know, some unusual symptoms that had been noticed in dairy cows was confirmed to be high path avian influenza.

So you know, there was an initial market reaction to that.

A lot of uncertainty, because this is kind of a new thing for us.

And there's still a lot we don't know.

But you know, the market reacted initially, as it often does, the futures market, I should say.

Both live and feeder cattle futures sharply lowered just because of the uncertainty.

And then, so that was, you know, that was the initial market reaction.

- So you know, getting caught up to, you know, this week, this past week really, what's happening with it?

There's been more cases, right?

- There's been more cases in Kansas and, I think, Idaho and some other states now, it's starting to show up.

And there's a couple of new things.

One is that there is the possibility, at least, that this stuff is moving from cow-to-cow, even though it's avian influenza.

And also, Texas announced last week that a worker on one of the dairy farms was diagnosed with avian influenza as well.

So that was on Monday, April 1st.

And so it was kinda right at the end of the trading day.

The market reacted, obviously, very negatively again just because, you know, again, there's a lot of uncertainty at this point.

It's a very fluid situation in terms of the veterinary implications, as well as broader market implications.

- Because a lot of this is pretty new, right?

With dairy cattle and this spreading to, that hasn't happened in a really long time, right?

- Yeah, it is.

It's the first time it's happened in terms of moving to cows.

And again, the possibility that it's moving cow-to-cow creates a whole new possibility.

And then it's only the second time that high path avian influenza has been found in people.

So lots of uncertainty, lots of new things going on here.

- Definitely concerning.

So what are the next steps for the beef and cattle industry?

- Well, and that's the interesting thing is that, you know, we're affecting both the dairy industry, potentially the beef industry.

Now, you know, I wanna emphasize that officials are saying from, you know, in terms of dairy products and human impacts, no risk there, okay?

And the same thing for beef products as well.

But you know, the implications for animal management and disease management are still kind of unknown, because we don't really know how this thing is transferring at this point.

And of course, the other possibility is that there could be some, you know, international implications of this.

We've not seen anything yet.

Don't really expect to see anything, but you just never know at this point.

So again, a lot of uncertainty.

Even by the time this airs, there may be some significant changes to what we're saying today.

- So what, are there any steps that Oklahoma producers can do in a situation like this?

Like, do we know of even the symptoms that they should be looking out for if they're concerned?

- Well, you know, obviously, dairies are being put on high alert to, you know, to enhance biosecurity.

More than likely, this stuff is coming in as wild birds are getting into feed supplies or being near feed supplies.

So dairies are certainly, you know, doing some specific steps on in terms of management.

On the beef cattle side, we don't know that it's been in any beef cows.

There's, you know, the symptoms are actually relatively mild in the cattle.

So it might be hard to detect.

I think the main thing that producers, from a market standpoint, given that the futures market is reacting, producers need to be aware that, you know, first of all, again, the initial reaction is, you could argue it's an overreaction, but it's because of the uncertainty.

So you know, if you're caught right now kinda wanting to market some cattle, you might wanna see if you can hold off a few days.

More than likely, this is gonna moderate a little bit.

There's no guarantee of that.

We don't know where this thing is headed for sure.

And it also really emphasizes for producers the need to have risk management in place.

Longer-term, obviously, it's too late for this specific situation, but longer-term, these kinds of events, you know, sometimes they're referred to as black swan events, things that you can't anticipate pop up and impact the market.

So producers, you know, even in a strong market, need to have risk management plans in place to be able to be prepared for these kinds of uncertainties.

- And like you said, there's a lotta uncertainties, but one thing that is pretty certain is the dairy industry and the beef industry, their biosecurity measures are really set in place.

And we are prepared for stuff like this.

- Oh yeah, you know, the plans are in place.

There's always initially, to figure out exactly what's going on, but you know, there's really no reason for an overreaction, certainly no reaction on the part of consumers.

Again, there's no risk here or very, very low risk in terms of consumers or people at this point in time.

So you know, we just have to wait and see how we- - You know, as things evolve, and we learn a little bit more about this situation, and figure out exactly the steps that are gonna be taken to manage it.

- Alrighty, thanks Gerald.

I'll check back in with you a few weeks.

If you would like some more information about avian influenza, just go to our website, sunup.okstate.edu.

(bright upbeat music) - OSU Extension veterinarians say enhanced biosecurity measures are the best way to prevent the spread of avian influenza.

And the USDA has just released this fact sheet with some frequently asked questions about avian influenza.

Some great information in there.

We have a link for you on our website @sunup.okaystate.edu.

And of course, if you have questions, or concerns, don't hesitate to reach out to your own veterinarian.

(bright upbeat music) - Welcome to the "Mesonet Weather Report."

I'm Wes Lee.

Last week was one of our first encounters of the year with severe weather, where we saw a few small tornadoes and some moderate size hail.

The good news is some much needed rainfall came along with it, especially in the northeast.

This rain mainly fell on Monday evening, and dropped from a half to two inches in much of the northeast.

In other parts of the state, the rain totals were more from a trace to a half an inch.

This helped shallow soil moisture conditions, as you can see from this four inch fractional water index map from Tuesday.

Fractional water index is a scale of zero to one, where zero is as dry, and one is as wet as the center can read.

A year ago, we were in quite a bit worse shape than we are now, with large areas of yellows and browns in the west.

Looking down to our deepest center, we can see where Cimarron and Texas counties have been dry for quite a long time now, but it is still a better picture than we were a year ago, when zeros and point ones were common across much of the west.

Maybe a promising forecast next week will be the start of a wetter spring pattern.

Now here's Gary with a longer term look at rainfall.

- Well, thanks Wes.

And good morning everyone.

While we're in a more active weather pattern, we had half a dozen tornadoes over the last week.

We also got some rain, which sort of goes hand in hand in springtime in Oklahoma.

Did it impact the drought picture?

Let's take a look.

Well, unfortunately we have a lot more of that yellow color across Western and northern Oklahoma.

We basically filled in a lot of the holes along our border regions with Texas and Kansas.

So even though we did get some rainfall, those areas of abnormally dry conditions, are headed towards drought without a little bit more moisture.

So those rains did reset some of the areas on this map, the consecutive days with less than a quarter inch of rainfall.

Up in far northwest Oklahoma, we had areas that had gone over a hundred days without at least a quarter inch of rain.

Now we're down into the single digits again, but still too many areas are left from 60 to 85, even greater days without at least a quarter inch of rain.

So flash drought continues across northern and western Oklahoma, unfortunately.

Take a look at that 30 day rainfall map from the mesonet.

Again, much of that northwestern corner in the blue, that means less than an inch of rainfall generally.

So those are the areas where the rainfall is not enough to outstrip the, the vegetation waking up, needing moisture, the temperature's going up, evaporating that moisture.

So again, we need more moisture to overtake that flash drought.

Those areas show up a little bit better on the percent of normal rainfall map from the last 30 days, according to the mesonet.

All those reds and oranges out across northern and west Oklahoma, that's prime flash drought territory.

Just simply not getting enough of that moisture to alleviate the growing dry conditions.

Take a look at the maps from our friends at the Climate Prediction Center, the outlooks for April.

We do see increased odds of above normal precipitation across the main body of the state, but especially the eastern two thirds of the state.

The panhandle, at least its equal chances and not below normal precipitation expected.

So good news on this front.

Hopefully we get that in the next couple of weeks.

That's it for this time.

We'll see you next time on the "Mesonet Weather Report" (bright upbeat music) - Talking wheat disease now, and the cases of stripe rust that have been reported in southwestern Oklahoma.

For the very latest, we turn to our OSU Extension wheat pathologist, Dr. Meriem Aoun.

- Over the last week of March, we saw high stripe rust pressure in southwestern Oklahoma in Tipton and Altus.

And on on March 31st, that's when I start seeing it here in Stillwater.

So it's obviously it's spreading north.

So growers, they need to scout their field, because the inoculum is there, and they need to make action.

As soon as they see it in their field, they have to apply fungicide.

The stripe rust symptoms, they look as yellow stripes that you will see it on the, on the leaf.

So the fractals they are aligned in lines or in stripes, so it's named "Stripe Rust."

And they are usually yellow in color, so that's why also it is called "Yellow Rust."

So this is how you can identify it.

So, and the OSU, you can find the OSU variety characteristics on, if you write on Google, just... - OSU with varieties characteristics, you will find the level of resistance or susceptibility of the different OSU varieties to stripe rust.

But you have to be careful here, it depends on the stage of the crop.

So for example, in Tipton right now, we passed jointing, but we didn't arrive to the flag-leaf stage.

So most of the OSU varieties, they have resistance of the adult plant stage, which is at the flag-leaf stage, and after that, but they may not have that resistance prior to the flag-leaf stage.

So in Tipton, we saw that a lot of the varieties that are resistant at the plant stage, they are not, they are susceptible right now, in Tipton, for example, because the crop didn't reach there to the flag-leaf stage.

So, but we saw some varieties like for example, Smith's Gold and OK Corral, they are having that good protection, although the crop is not yet at the flag-leaf stage.

So, if you are growing a susceptible variety or if your crop is not yet at the flag-leaf stage, when you start seeing stripe rust, then you will have some different fungicide options.

You can check the current report, I believe number 7668, where you can find answers to many questions related to fungicide application.

Also, you can look at the efficacy of the fungicide on the Crop Protection Network Website.

So, you will find information about what fungicides are available and their efficacy in managing stripe rust.

So if you see stripe rust in your field, please send us samples.

Basically, you can take five to seven or ten leaves from your field, put it in a paper on envelope, and then ship it to our lab, and that will help us to identify if we have any new races of stripe rust in Oklahoma.

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

This week's topic is to discuss our blueprint for the future beef conference that we're hosting here on campus May 22nd and 23rd of this year.

This is a follow up conference to the one we did last spring and the topics we'll get into this year have to do with how selection and mating can impact the profit potential of your operation.

As well as things like the carbon footprint of beef production and methane emissions.

We'll also address where gene editing stands right now in the beef cattle business and just some things about land stewardship.

We have got key industry leaders from across the country that will come in and speak in panel discussion format that facilitates audience participation and question and answer sessions at the each one of these panel discussions to permit you to get engaged.

How do you make registration to attend?

You can actually visit the website shown on the screen, get more information about the conference.

The cost of attendance of this conference is $200, which includes all the meals.

And if you're an Oklahoma extension educator, you can type in the password EDUCATOR to get a discounted rate of a hundred dollars for attendance.

Hope you can join us.

Make plans to attend, May 22nd and 23rd here in Stillwater for the Blueprint for the Future Beef Cattleman's Conference.

This is a joint venture between Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension, the Noble Research Institute, and the Cattleman's Congress Show, and we have other sponsors involved, like the American Angus Association and American Hereford Association.

(upbeat music) Thanks for joining us this week.

- Pharmaceutical stewardship is a huge topic right now in animal health, particularly when it comes to antibiotics, but also when it comes to anthelmintics, which are commonly called dewormers.

We have an ongoing project here at Oklahoma State that's collaborative between animal science, veterinary medicine, and extension, trying to tell producers if their dewormers are working.

So we want producers to ask, "Is my dewormer working?"

"Is it being effective?"

"Am I having good use of the funds that I'm putting into this particular product?"

We do have an ongoing project, a research project that Oklahoma cattlemen and women can take part in.

We're looking for herds across the state, looking for 20 to 30 animals in each group of the same kind of age category.

And right now preference is given to those animals, in particular weaned calves on up to yearling calves.

This project is gonna run through the fall of 2024, and what it involves is taking fecal samples.

The producer will use their regular deworming protocol.

Those fecal samples will be submitted to the lab.

Laboratory testing is done free of charge, and then we come back and sample those same animals in approximately two weeks.

- And we evaluate again, are those dewormers working?

There's veterinary interpretation of those results that's provided to the producer, free of charge.

We also have extension educators across the state that are willing to assist in the sample collection as well as the shipment.

So no cost to producers on this other than getting those animals up and through.

Laboratory testing is free as well as the veterinary interpretation.

If you're interested in participating in this project, we encourage you to sign up on our interest form and our research team will get back with you on the details.

- Talking finances now and the damage estimates that have been calculated after the recent wildfires in Western Oklahoma, Dr. Amy Hagerman runs the numbers.

- We're about a month out from the wildfires that ravaged Western Oklahoma in late February, and now we're starting to get some estimate of the damages that were done.

So we worked together with Daryl Peel to get an estimate of the agricultural damage mainly in these Western counties.

Now, in total across the Western counties, it was about $32.9 million worth of damages.

So these damages are mainly focused on land that's currently in agricultural use.

Now, if we break that down by counties, Ellis County had the highest number of burned acres.

So if we look at the damages specifically to Ellis County, and that's both the Catesby Fire and the Smokehouse Creek fire, then we're looking at about 112,000 acres burned in Ellis County.

So one of the largest cost categories in these fires is the cost of fencing, about $6.7 million in expected fencing, repair and replacement costs for Ellis County.

This is followed by the cost of cattle that were lost in this fire, and then the cost of feeding those cattle at about $3 million.

So for cattle producer losses, we're looking at about $5.8 million in recovery costs.

And this isn't including the cattle that actually died in the fire or had to be sold at a loss on the market.

About 674 head of cattle and calves perished in the fire according to these estimates, and about 15,000 head of cattle were displaced and have to be fed while pastures recovered.

In total, about $22.7 million of damages are estimated for Ellis County or about $203 per burned acre.

Now, again, it's important to remember that these are preliminary numbers.

The actual cost of replacement for cattle, the actual cost of replacement for hay or for fencing could be higher than what we're looking at for these initial estimates, especially as we're looking at continued shortages in some of these different kinds of inputs for production.

So numbers could go up over time as we get more information, but it's important to realize the extent of these damages as we move forward into this recovery period.

And as producers begin to look at those programs that are available through USDA for recovery, thinking about how to replace fences through the emergency conservation program, thinking about replacing cattle and getting some help with paying for those costs, the Livestock Indemnity Program, or using the emergency assistance for livestock, honeybees and farmer raise fish program, ELAP, to get some additional help with hauling hay into the region.

If you'd like more details about these economic damage estimates, you can find them on sunup.okstate.edu.

(bright music) - Dr. Kim Anderson, our crop marketing specialist, joins us now.

Kim, the USDA released the 2024 Crop Planted Acres report.

Let's talk about the significance of this and kind of what you're seeing.

- Well, if you look at the news cycle that those are all numbers, but those numbers set the foundation for the '24/'25 marketing year for all the crops.

When we get the planted acres estimate, that limits the top side of production and it also sets a boundary for the bottom side.

So it's a starting point.

It's a starting point we have to have.

- How did this year's report compare to what we were seeing in 2023?

- Well, if you look at corn at the United States, 90 million acres as compared to 94.6 last year, you had slightly lower acres for the corn.

Oklahoma, 400,000 acres versus 390 last year.

You come down to soybeans, 86.5 million acres, 83.6 last year so more bean acres in Oklahoma.

Also a big increase, 550,000 versus 400,000 last year.

You come down to all wheat in the United States, 47.5 million versus 49.6 last year.

Lower all wheat acres, hard red winter wheat, 24.3 million versus 24 last year.

So we had a slight increase in the hard red winter wheat acres.

- And in Oklahoma, it went from 4.35 million up to 4.55 million acres.

Cotton, 10.7 million versus 10.2 last year, in Oklahoma, 500,000 versus 420 last year.

So increases in corn, soybeans, hard red winter wheat, and cotton.

Actually, you had lower wheat acres, about 200,000 this year.

- So did these numbers have any impact on prices?

- Not very much.

You know, the day they released it, we had a little movement and then some movement.

You've got wheat prices moving from about $5 to $5.50, thereabout, 5.20.

Now, this is the 2024 harvest price.

You can go to corn 2024 harvest price, $4.50.

You've got a 10-cent range corn prices have been moving in.

Soybeans is down to $11.

Their range has been 11 to 11.25.

Really, no movement at all in the crop prices.

- And what do you think in terms of prices that we'll see between now and harvest?

- Well, we can go back and look at those numbers.

Let's just start with corn.

You can forward contract that corn for $4.50.

Your average price is 4.80.

You're seeing lower corn acres.

That's gonna support that price some.

You look at the stocks-to-use ratio, average is 12%.

It's gonna be 17%, so you'd expect below average prices.

Soybeans, you had a increase in acres there.

You've got average price at 10.80.

$11 is what you can forward contract.

So about an average price.

And if you look at the stocks-to-use ratio, average is 8%.

10%, so you expect it a little bit below average.

So it's probably about right.

Hard red winter wheat, you've got $5.20.

The average is 5.84.

Right at average on the stocks-to-use, so you expect slightly higher price.

But the caveat there is that Russia's expecting a record 3.4 billion bushel crop.

They've been putting a lotta wheat on the market.

They're gonna continue to do so, and that's going to keep that wheat price probably below average.

- All righty, Kim, thanks a lot.

We'll see you next week.

(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 or kept off of pasture, we actually want to transition them back onto fresh green 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 green grass down to the ground and really have 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) - That'll do it for our show this week.

A reminder, 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."

(upbeat country music continues) (logo chiming)