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

I'm Lyndall Stout.

Today, we're talking about some feeding options for your cattle herd over the next couple months with Dr. Dave Lalman, our OSU extension beef cattle specialist.

Dave, let's talk about creep feeding and how the scenario may look this year over previous years.

- Yeah, it's one of those things that, you know, conditions are always changing and it is different this year, the outlook for that, because cattle prices are very high, feed prices are relatively low compared to the last few years.

So it's something that folks ought to maybe consider.

- Let's, for those who don't know what it is, have a brief recap of what creep feeding is.

- Sure.

Creep feeding is a practice of supplying a concentrate feed source to calves while they're still nursing their mothers.

And of course, you'd want to limit access or restrict access for the cows or they're gonna consume it all.

And so that's why most people would use a creep feeder, which is, you know, designed to accomplish that.

And so, yeah, normally our advice to producers, commercial producers is that creep feeding rarely pays.

Things are different this year.

Cattle prices are very high, feed prices are moderate.

And so it's something I think, with about 60 days left in the season here before people start weaning their calves, something folks might ought to consider.

- So let's run the numbers a little bit.

You've kind of put pencil to paper and have some of the economics behind all of this.

What does that look like on average, knowing that there is some kind of ebb and flow to prices and the bottom line?

- Yeah, sure.

And the efficiency of creep conversion to calf weight gain.

That one is really critical for the economics.

And the literature, the research shows that, gosh, that number can range from about four and a half pounds of creep feed per extra one pound of calf weight gain, up to 20 pounds of creep feed per one pound of extra calf weight gain.

20 is not gonna work very well, right.

Well, the more creep feed calves consume, the poorer that conversion will be.

The longer you expose calves to creep access, creep feed access, the more they eat, all right.

And so the more they eat the poor, the conversion.

Well, we're only 60 days away or so from weaning, so think that would limit their ability to learn to consume a lot of feed.

Maybe, get up to around four to five pounds of feed intake a day.

Therefore, Lyndall, the critical number there, I think, is probably, we could expect somewhere in the neighborhood of maybe six to seven pounds of feed per pound of additional calf weight gain, okay.

And so if we assume seven under these conditions and it's hot, dry, forage quality is going down, you know, at the cost of about 15 cents a pound times seven pounds, that's $1.05 a day.

Well, that extra pound of calf weight gain right now is worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.50 to $2 a pound.

And so, that suggests there's an opportunity there.

- What kind of feed do you use in these special feeders?

- So if you're going to provide feed free choice to calves, it needs to be something like a 14% protein product.

Most commercial companies produce a product like that and even label it or call it a creep feed.

And so, they're readily available throughout the state.

Some folks would, well, most creep feed products are gonna be pelleted.

Some folks would provide a textured product in that 14% protein range.

But they're gonna be well formulated with the needs of a growing calf in mind.

And so finding a creep feed product that fits this need should not be difficult.

- So we've talked about the economics, we've talked about the nutrition value for the feed that they're getting.

What are the other advantages in terms of calf behavior that may help at weaning time?

- Yeah, so advantages, disadvantages, yes, the list can get sort of long, but we've already talked a little about one of the disadvantages.

And that is if you give calves access to creep feet too long, they might eat too much and get too fleshy and therefore result in a market discount.

However, with only about 60 days left, I don't think that is much of a risk at this point in time.

And the advantage is that it.

- Trains or teaches those calves to consume concentrate fee.

Up to this point in their life, they're naive, they don't know about that.

But at the end of 60 days or so, they'll have it figured out, and it should minimize stress come weaning time.

- So you have an article, and then of course, the county OSU Extension ag educators can help out with this for people who wanna dive in a little more.

- I mean, they're gonna know their local feed costs and feeds that are available for creep feeding scenario.

They're gonna know their local market, and so yes, the Extension educators will be very helpful on that topic.

- All right, great, thanks a lot, Dave.

- Absolutely.

- And for more information on creep feeding, just go to SUNUP.okstate.edu.

(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to the Mesonet Weather Report.

When it's 100 degrees outside, it doesn't take very long for soil moisture to disappear.

Added to that, parts of the state being one to two months away from seeing any significant rain, and flash drought quickly becomes apparent.

One month ago we had plenty of soil moisture in most counties, as shown here on this four-inch fractional water index map.

Remember, one is as wet and zero is as dry as the center can read at a particular depth.

Notice how the green areas quickly disappear when we look at the more recent map.

Now we see browns are statewide and only a few pockets of green can be seen, mostly in the panhandle.

Point ones and point twos are much more common now than higher numbers.

We currently have soil moisture sensors at two, four, 10 and 24 inches.

Looking down to 10 inches, a little more green can be seen in the east, but conditions are just as bad in the west.

Even the wet shallow areas in the panhandle start to show more dryness when we start to look deeper.

At our deepest level of 24 inches, it is about half green and brown scattered across the state.

Some rain chances are in the weekend forecast before returning to hot and dry next week.

Gary is up next with more dismal rainfall information.

- Thanks, Wes, and good morning, everyone.

Well, when it comes to drought in Oklahoma, it seems we take a step forward, but two steps back.

That's what we did once again this week.

Let's take a look at the new map and see where we are.

Well, what you can see from the map is a large expansion of not only moderate drought, that tan area, but also severe drought, especially across southwestern parts of the state.

So now we have from north central down through southwest Oklahoma, cutting through central Oklahoma and over into west central Oklahoma, a large area of moderate to severe drought.

And then across the rest of the eastern, southeastern half to two-thirds, we also see a lot of that yellow color, the abnormally dry conditions, signaling areas that are going into drought possibly if we don't get a significant rainfall very soon.

Then we have just a few small areas of drought scattered about out in the western panhandle, far eastern Oklahoma, and parts of south central Oklahoma.

So drought is unfortunately on the rise in Oklahoma.

The reason's pretty simple, we just need more rainfall.

We can take a look at the consecutive days with less than a quarter inch of rainfall from the Oklahoma Mesonet.

This map shows those areas down in southwest Oklahoma that have gone 30 to more than 60 days without significant rainfall, and that bleeds up into west central over into central Oklahoma as well.

Also, those few areas up in north central, northeast Oklahoma, then also down along the southern border with Texas.

Take a look at this 60-day rainfall map from the Oklahoma Mesonet.

You know things are really weird in Oklahoma when the Mesonet stations up in the panhandle lead the state and that's what we see with Goodwell and Hooker at 11.6 inches and 11.3 inches, respectively.

And then up in that region we generally have seven to 10 inches of rainfall, where most of the state, especially in those green areas, we have less than four inches of rainfall.

A few areas scattered about have five to six to seven, eight inches, in that range and that range of amounts, but in general, just not enough rainfall over that southeastern three-quarters of the state to keep that drought at bay.

Shows up all too well on this departure from normal rainfall map from that 60-day period.

Again, deficits of three to five to as many as six inches in parts of the state.

Just not enough to keep that drought at bay, especially when we are in the summer months when the temperatures have been so much above normal for much of the summer.

The solution's pretty simple.

We need rainfall and lots of it.

Unfortunately, we probably won't get that over the next few weeks, but we can at least whittle it down a little bit.

That's it for this time.

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

- Talking Oklahoma land values now, OSU Extension Ag Economist Roger Sahs has a few updates this week.

- Good morning.

The land value website has been updated to include the 2023 data, and thanks and appreciation goes to the Farm Credit Associations of Oklahoma for helping out with that effort.

Well, really in a nutshell, the land markets here in Oklahoma grew at a modest pace last year.

- Certainly nothing like what we saw in '21 and '22 when we saw really some robust growth in the real estate markets.

It grew about about 2%.

Doesn't seem like much, but you know, I think the land market's very reminiscent of the real estate from residentials and commercial real estate.

They're facing some pressure from those increased interest rates.

And those higher interest rates just make it more difficult and more expensive to finance some of these parcels that come up on the market.

So then when we move into say, the crop land areas of the state, also modest... some modest increases in those values last year, about 2% across the board, and it's facing some headwinds on their own.

I think some lower commodity prices that we experienced in '23 last year, and a continuation of those lower commodity prices have played a factor in putting sort of a lid on those values as we march forward through this year.

So I see a mostly sideways motion in the markets, especially if we continue to see these lower commodity prices and the grain and fiber markets come into play.

Now, in the pastureland markets, a little different story.

They have been supported from the strong cattle markets and those cattle markets have lent some increased earnings and some increased revenues for a number of producers out there.

And I think that along with some positive factors such as some adequate hay supplies and some good forage growth conditions, they will all lend some support to the pastureland markets moving forward.

And so I think for the remainder of this year, we'll experience something very similar to what we experienced last year, about a 7% growth, something in that neck of the woods for the remainder of this year.

So really, that's a brief summary of the land markets here in Oklahoma.

I would encourage you to check out our website for the latest trends and patterns.

For more information, go to sunup.okstate.edu.

(upbeat music) - Well, we're joined here by our new livestock entomologist, Dr. Jonathan Cammack.

So Jonathan, before we hop in to see what's happening in the insect world, tell us a little bit about yourself.

- Sure, I started my position with OSU and the extension service back at the end of January.

And previous to that, I was with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service in the Pesticide Safety Education Program.

- Yeah, well, let's just jump right in.

You know, it's mid-July, right in the dog days of summer.

So what's the tick situation going on right now?

- Right, right now we don't have to really worry about too much with the adult ticks.

You know, usually a lot of the times that's what people are worried about because they're the kind of bigger ones that are more visible.

But what we do have to worry about are those little ones that we can't really see too well, particularly the nymphs and the larvae of lone star ticks.

We're kind of right in the thick of the season right now when those are starting to become pretty numerous in the environment.

So we need to take precautions to protect ourselves from getting bit by those.

- And around here we refer to those as seed ticks, right?

- Right, seed ticks.

That's gonna be those little tiny immature ticks that are like about the size of a seed, kind of how their name suggests.

And they typically just walk up to the top of some grass or a bush or something, and they stand there with their front legs up in the air, kinda wave around like this, waiting for a host to walk by.

And oftentimes we're unlucky enough to be that host for those immature ticks.

And you'll walk by and end up with, you know, potentially hundreds of them on you using your body as their... you know, one of their early blood meals.

- And that's really concerning because lone star ticks carry Alpha-gal syndrome, right?

- Correct, well, maybe not necessarily carry it, but they're implicated in how we get it.

So we don't quite know the association and kind of the biological side of it.

It's not a true pathogen or a disease, like a lot of things that ticks a can vector.

But there is an interaction between some proteins in their saliva and our body that causes us to then become allergic to red meat.

- And this is just really important this time of year 'cause a lot of producers are out, you know, checking on their animals.

And so it's just a really good reminder to wear, you know, repellent if you have it.

- Right, if you have, you know, jeans that you can treat with permethrin, a synthetic pyrethroid, that works really well to not only repel the ticks, but also kill any of them that might try to crawl up your pants.

If you do decide to treat your clothing with the synthetic pyrethroid, make sure you follow the instructions on that label.

And it's going to tell you to treat your clothing while you're not wearing them.

So it's best to have the pair of pants that you want to be treated.

You lay 'em out on a flat surface, spray them really well with that material, let it dry.

It's gonna take probably 12 to 24 hours.

And then you can wear those pants, you know, while you're out working with your animals.

And then after you are outside, either working with your animals or even just for, you know, kind of fun and you know, you know, enjoying the outdoors right now, make sure that you conduct a tick check to make sure that you don't have any, you know, present on your body and drawing the blood feed.

- So shifting to livestock.

Is they're really much of a concern this time of year when it comes to ticks?

- Right, they're going to be on the animals, right?

That's just something that we can't really do anything about.

So keep an eye on the animals.

If you do see large numbers, you know, you could... - Can treat the animals with, you know, just kind of a general insecticide, such as a pyrethroid.

It will help with control a little bit, but other than that, where there's not much we can do, dewormers will have a little bit of an effect on them.

But most producers aren't really deworming at this point in the year.

- Yeah, it's- - That is typically a springtime event.

- Yeah, yeah.

And it's just mainly just us that we'd be concerned with.

- Yeah.

- All right, well, what about horn flies?

I mean, this is the time of year that you can just look out and just cattle are covered with 'em.

So I imagine that is definitely an issue.

- Yeah, it's 100% is impacting the animals.

Like you indicated, we're getting kind of into that kind of the early on peak where we start to see horn fly numbers really start to increase between now and maybe August and September.

So if you haven't implemented any sort of control program yet or management program for those, you know, it's time.

And whether that is using an ear tag on the animals that's got the insecticides in it that will help repel the horn flies, or even using a feed-through product that you can either buy as a mineral supplement or mix in with feed, that the animals will ingest and it passes through in the manure, and it will help control the larvae that are developing in.

They're eventually developing in that manure.

- What about horseflies?

- Now, horseflies are also out.

They're, you know, a summertime problem as well.

They're basically flying around in the environment and landing on the animals, biting them, getting a blood meal, and flying off.

So they're very difficult to control because they spend so little time actually on the animal.

One of the best things that we can do to reduce horsefly numbers would be to kind of manage things in the environment.

What we know is that areas that have high amounts of eastern red cedar also have much larger populations of horseflies.

So you know, maybe not something you wanna tackle in the heat of summer, but definitely as things start to cool off- - Yeah.

- Maybe implementing some cedar management as well.

- And that's a really big concern, because horseflies are one of the main vectors for anaplas, right?

- Right, they, you know, just like when we're vaccinating the animals, you know, we have to keep in mind, you know, not reusing needles between animals to prevent spreading anaplasma through a herd.

It's essentially the same thing with the horseflies.

They're flying around out in the environment.

They'll land on the back of the animal.

Their mouth parts are kind of like a pair of scissors.

So they'll cut the animal and then drink that pool of blood up.

And then if that animal is infected with anaplasma, then they're essentially flying around with a pair of contaminated scissors stuck to the front of their head.

And the next animals they land on and bite could become infected.

- And of course, if producers have any questions, they can always contact their local county extension office and even give you a shout if they just have any questions, right?

- Definitely, that's why we're here.

- All righty, thanks Jonathan.

Dr. Jonathan Cammack, OSU Extension livestock entomologist here at Oklahoma State University.

(light music) - [Narrator] We just wanna take a quick break in the show to remind you about the upcoming 2024 Fall Pecan Field Day.

This event will be held on September 19th at the Improved Orchard in Cleveland.

Topics will include: tree establishment, weather setbacks, irrigation from ponds, and much more.

Check-in will begin at 2:30 p.m., so don't be late.

For more information about this event, visit sunup.okstate.edu.

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

This week's topic is a question: Is it time to wean?

If we look at the Mesonet Drought Monitor this week in Oklahoma, about 69% of Oklahoma is drier than normal, about 25% of that amount is just into the more moderate cases of drought.

And so when we think about management solutions and what we might do this time of year in a cow-calf operation, actually getting those calves off cows a month or two early might be a good management strategy.

Typically, when we think about weaning, in the beef industry business, most calves get weaned from six to eight months of age or a little past, on average, seven months.

What happens when we wean?

We actually see a big benefit that cows are going to see a decrease in their energy requirements of about 15 to 20%.

And so what happens?

Cows are gonna maintain body condition a lot better, potentially pick up on body condition a lot better, and particularly in those cows that are falling down to that threshold of a body condition score four or maybe might be under that, if we let those calves on 'em another month or two, we'll save that, give them more time to recapture some flesh before they have that next calf.

This, we say, is a cost-effective management solution.

If we can save that body condition on cows, have them in better shape going into the next calving season, we potentially see that pay dividends in their productivity and breed back at some point later.

And it comes with the additional benefit, as we look at the potential drought situation we're in, if we've got sparse vegetative conditions out there in pastures right now, we actually relieve the stress on those pastures and save a little bit of that forage by getting those calves away from cows.

So if this looks like something that may work for you, keep the following things in mind if we're gonna early wean those calves.

Fence-line weaning is great if we're set up to do it.

It does a lot to reduce the stress on the calves by having those mothers or those cows just across the fence.

If it's possible to actually have the vaccinations, the dehorning, the castration done prior to weaning, it prevents all that stress occurring in calves at the same time that they're undergoing the weaning stress.

If we're weaning right now in Oklahoma- - We want to think about shade, water, getting those calves bunk broke, but particularly shade if we're weaning in the heat of summer.

And if it's possible that this is something we're gonna plan a few weeks down the road, if we can get those calves started on some kind of a feeding program, potentially a creep feed, and have them going in that plane of nutrition at that time we do wean, we potentially transition them a lot easier, and we don't have that abrupt shift in actual diet on those calves.

Hope this helps.

Weaning a month or two early is a potentially cost-effective strategy, if you find yourself in a little drought situation, pasture vegetation is sparse, or those cows getting a little thin as we look at them here in late summer.

Thanks for joining us on Cow Calf Corner.

- [Narrator] Did you know OSU Extension supports Oklahoma farmers and ranchers with mental health resources and programming?

If you or anyone you know is experiencing mental health challenges, call the Comprehensive Crisis Response Lifeline at 988 or go online to the OSU extension website dealing with farm stress.

For more information about local resources, suicide prevention, finances, or disaster recovery, just go to SUNUP.OKState.edu.

(upbeat music) - This past week, the Beef Quality Assurance Team hosted a hands-on workshop to share the latest knowledge that soon could be available through your local county OSU extension office.

SUNUP's Elizabeth Hokit brings us this story.

- Today at the North Range Unit here at Oklahoma State University, we are hosting a regional train the trainer for beef quality assurance.

So we have a lot of county educators all across the state of Oklahoma here today to learn hands-on tools that they can take back to their county and implement.

- We've got over 40 educators here today that we're training and we're teaching them of about beef quality assurance and hopefully teaching them in a way that they can go out and train other cattle producers in beef quality assurance.

- If you have any doubts or questions, if they're... - So today, there's four different rotation.

The first is, you can see this pop behind me.

They're gonna learn about transportation, which is a separate certification called BQA Transportation.

And so today they're gonna be learning how to properly check the equipment and make sure your trailer is safe for the road.

So they're not only gonna learn equipment safety, but also how to load and unload safely.

Human safety is of the utmost importance when working with large equipment and large animals.

So that's one rotation.

The other is talking about nutrition and understanding about body condition scoring and how to properly look at an animal and understand is that animal fit for transport?

Should we even put them on the truck or should they stay at the farm a little bit longer?

(gate creaking) The other is gonna be about herd health and understanding shoot side.

How do we properly give vaccines?

What is the type of needle we should be using?

How do we make sure that we're properly reading those labels and understanding withdrawal times and keeping those records?

The fourth one is where Jay Edens will walk them through actually moving cattle from pasture to pasture and how to safely do that by understanding the animal's natural instincts.

- What this does is assure to the public that we are treating cattle in a humane manner.

We're using the latest scientific information on how we raise those.

We're guaranteed to the public that we've got a quality, a wholesome, and safe product for them.

- [Emma] We're hopefully encouraging our county agents in Oklahoma to be able to implement all of those science-based production practices into a very practical hands-on training for producers.

For more information about BQA and BQA trainings, please visit the SUNUP website or bqa.org.

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

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

I'm Lyndall Stout.

Have a great week everyone.

And remember, Oklahoma Agriculture starts at SUNUP.

(upbeat music)