- Good morning everyone.

We have a great show lined up for today.

We're hitting the road to Catto County to meet with our new OSU extension cotton specialist to see how cotton is looking so far.

Then we're talking cattle with Paul Beck and in particular, one is the most profitable time to market your calves.

We're also continuing our discussion regarding rabies with our OSU Extension Wildlife Specialist.

We have all that, plus John Michael with the markets and Emma with the Mesonet net weather report.

So grab that cup of coffee 'cause SUNUP starts right now.

Welcome back everyone.

We're back here in Caddo County in a cotton field with our new OSU extension cotton specialist Jenny Dudak.

And Jenny, you're new to OSU, so why don't you talk about where you're from and how you came to be the new cotton specialist here?

Yeah, - Yeah.

Well I am actually really excited to have this opportunity to be here.

I grew up in northeast Iowa, so not cotton country.

- No, - I started gaining my cotton experience when I started college at Texas a and m. I worked for the cotton specialist there as a student worker.

And then I continued on at Texas a and m with my master's degree.

And my thesis research was in Reinform nematode management in cotton.

- And - Then immediately following that I came to OSU and began working on my PhD and that was in weed controlling cotton.

- And so you've been about, you've been working as a specialist here for about a year with OSU, right?

- A little over a year.

Yeah, - Yeah.

And spend a lot of your times in fields like out here in like in, in, in, you know, Cato and Blaine County.

So let's, let's talk a little bit about, you know, just overall how's the cotton crop looking - Overall this year?

I would say our cotton crop is looking really well, especially comparing it to the last few years that we've had with the severe drought that Oklahoma has faced.

So this year I'm really excited about the way that our cotton production or our cotton is moving along and progressing.

This year we did get a little bit of a late start in spots and so we are just a little bit behind, I would say maybe five to seven days behind as far as developmentally goes.

But I mean, I'm hopeful for a good, for a good crop this year.

- Well you know, for, especially in this area there's a lot of wheat going in and there was a lot of rain pretty much through a lot of the states.

So that obviously delayed wheat harvest for a lot of folks.

But when it comes to cotton, was there any challenges in regards to rain?

- Yes, this year was actually very challenging when it came to planting.

We did have some replant due to heavy rainfall.

We also just had producers that just couldn't get in the field.

You know, once we got warm enough to start putting cotton in the ground, that's when it really started raining in spots.

And so yeah, we, there were some challenges and then some replant situations so that cotton that was replanted is also a little bit lighter than what we would normally see.

- And what about the heat?

- The heat units?

We were kind of cool, I would say relatively cool starting off the beginning of the season.

But yeah, I mean last night I was actually looking at the Mesonet, trying to check heat units progression through the season and then compare it to where we've been the last three years and we're about a hundred or so heat units behind in southwest Oklahoma, this area and then also in the panhandle.

So - Yeah.

And right now as you can see, you know, the crop does look great, but this is kind of the time where there's just not a lot of really management that you can do or just, you're just kind of looking ahead for these next, you know, couple weeks hoping that there might be just those freezes are always just the big what's on top of mind for cotton producers.

So talk a little bit about that.

- Yes, so, well right now really management practices, you just wanna make sure you're scouting for stinkbugs, so that's checking your bowls, opening up those bowls, looking at the inside of those bowls for warts.

But I mean other than that insect pressure, that's a really about all we have to look for.

Except for if you have the two gene worm traits in your cotton, then you wanna also make sure that you're scouting for bowl worms.

That's also an issue.

Weeds right now some of the cotton's at canopy, it just depends on, you know, your row spacing and different things like that.

You wanna just make sure that you're staying on top of the weeds, making sure they're not getting outta control for harvest, you don't wanna have a lot of those weed seeds like Palmer amaranth seeds running through your machine.

- So you're actually standing in a producer's field out here in Caddo County.

But there's actually something really special about this field is that you have multiple varieties 'cause you're testing to see what would be, you know, the right variety for the right place, right?

- Yes, that's correct.

So that's what our program focuses on mainly is variety trials.

That was something that was important to me.

I know that producers use that information to make those decisions for the next year, the following year, what did good in their area, things like that so they know what to pick.

So this trial or this field actually has multiple herbicide resistance.

So we have both the dicamba and two four D resistant varieties in here.

Our two four D tolerant varieties, those belong to Phyto.

And then we also have delta pine and stone bowl and fiber max varieties, which are dicamba tolerant varieties.

And so one thing that I wanted to really point out here is we do have some of the phyto Gen E one varieties, which are non Roundup tolerance.

So that is actually something that phyto gen has come out with alone.

They are saying that it offers, or they're going to charge less per bag of seed for that just because if producers do have Roundup issues, Roundup resistant weed issues, then they can opt out of that Roundup technology and then pay a little bit less for that bag of seed.

We also have a thriveon variety in here.

So Thriveon mainly focuses on pests and that is thrifts and tarnish plant bugs, And then the stone bowl and fiber max varieties, those are what they, their trait package is A XTP.

So the ax is actually their accent flex technology, so that a corn herbicide that they integrated into cotton for resistance for that to add another technology for folks to use it works really well on Morning glory pigweed, things like that.

- Yeah, - That tech, that the seed is available, but the herbicide is not yet.

And so they're working on getting that label for the herbicide, but we are evaluating that, looking at different growth measurements.

And then at the end of the season we'll look at yield as well - And all.

And you know, all this is just, you know, to help the the producer for decisions when it comes to next year's planting.

- That's correct.

Yep, yep.

So I will go ahead and I will collect all of the yield information, we take a little sample out of the bale and then we gin it ourselves and then we send it off to the Texas Tech Fiber analysis lab and they will send us back the grades and then from there we can calculate loan value and then I'll, I'll get that information out to producers.

Yeah, so they can use that when they're making seed decisions next year.

- Well Ginny, it was great to have you and it's great to have you on board and we look forward to working with you some more and we'll check back in with you in a couple of weeks and just see how cotton's progressing and then we on to cotton harvest.

- That sounds great.

Thank you so much.

- All right, thanks Ginny.

Ginny Dudak, OSU extension cotton specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

- Mark your calendars for the 2025 fall pecan field day.

This event will be held on Thursday, September 25th from 9:30 AM to 1:00 PM at the Frazier Pecan Farm in Bixby, Oklahoma.

This event is open to anyone wanting to learn more about pecans and topics will include soil sampling, interpreting leaf analysis, weevil control, and much more.

The event is free of charge and lunch is included, but make sure and register by September 19th.

For more information, scan the QR code on your screen or go to our website, sunup.OKstate.edu.

- Hello, Oklahoma.

Emma White here with a special Mesonet weekly sunup report.

Today we will discuss the misunderstanding of corn sweat.

Using sweat to describe water release from crops is not quite correct.

Rain falls on a corn field.

That water enters the soil, that liquid water is taken into each plant through the roots and it is transported through the plant.

The plant has thousands of little stomata on the leaves, which serve as entry points to bring in carbon dioxide, but also exit points through which water leaves the plant.

In practice, the stomata function as a door.

When the door is open, the liquid water inside the plant turns into water vapor via evaporation inside of the plant.

And then that water vapor exits the stomata.

Thus, when the water leaves the plant, it leaves the plant in the form of water vapor, not liquid water.

This process is called transpiration and it cools the plant.

On a dry day, the stomata door is generally open, so like the description above the water inside the plant will exit the stomata as water vapor.

That vapor goes off into the air and the plant cools.

The outside surface of the leaf is not wet with water, since the water when it exits the plant is vapor.

Now let's think about a human sweating.

The water on the inside of the skin is liquid water.

And the water coming out of a human's pores is also in the form of liquid water.

In other words, the water does not undergo evaporation coming from the inside to the outside of our skin.

This is sweat.

A dry day can help that sweat evaporate from our skin surface so that it is not wet for very long, humans then cool.

On the flip side, if the day is very humid, not much water vapor exits the plants to ma and the plants do not cool much for humans.

We still sweat on a humid day though.

In other words, unlike plants, lots of water still leaves our bodies on a humid day.

But that sweat and liquid form will sit on our skin for longer because it has a harder time evaporating from on top of our skin and humid conditions.

It's harder for us to cool as a result.

So one fact is similar between plants and humans.

On dry days, it's easier to cool for plants and humans, and on humid days it's harder to cool for both plants and humans.

To further emphasize what the term sweat means, its definition is the clear salty liquid that you pass through your skin.

The water coming out of plants is not liquid water, it's vapor.

Human sweat, plants transpire.

As one news headline did mention that despite corn's sweat's, nickname, it does not actually involve any sweating in our sense of the world.

And it is instead known as evapotranspiration.

Evapotranspiration is the combined effect of transpiration and the evaporation of water from the surface like soil.

So when you see the term evapotranspiration, know that it refers to both the transpiration of the crop and the evaporation of water from a surface like soil.

To summarize, we have made three main points.

Number one, sweat is a liquid form of water that humans experience water vapor not liquid leaves, plants, plants do not sweat when water leaves its system.

It's called transpiration.

Number two.

Additionally, on a humid day high relative humidity, humans lose water via sweat, but plants do not lose much water.

As you can see on this graph, as there is more humidity, evapotranspiration decreases.

Transpiration from plants and sweat.

Evaporation from human skin are cooling processes on humid days, cooling is limited for both plants and humans.

The lack of sweat for plants applies to all house plants, gardens and crops.

So when you hear corn sweat, again, know that sweat is not the proper term.

Transpiration or Eva transpiration are correct and know that this process applies to all plants, not just corn.

Thank you for listening.

- We're here now with John Michael Riley, OSU, agricultural economist, and John Michael, the WASDE report came out last week.

Is there any changes with that?

Do we have any good news?

- Well, definitely some changes.

It was a report that that took the market by surprise.

And the good news though is, is a little bit mixed.

Let's start with corn.

That was the one that really shocked the market.

USDA upped the number of acres, number of planted and harvested acres really put a big increase on, on yield.

So a a big surprise there with regard to corn.

The acres that corn gained, most of that was taken away from soybeans.

So a positive note to soybeans on the day.

Let's look at some of those numbers Again, they're, they're a little bit stale, but I think it's still the, the report was so interesting.

I think it's worth going through.

We had an increase of 7.7 bushels per acre for, for the national corn yield up to 180 8 0.82, about two and a half million more harvested acres expected for this, for this current growing season.

A big change we don't see, typically see those changes in the August report.

This is the second year that we've brought in some of the data from farm service agency that are being reported by farmers.

And last year, really no, no seismic changes.

But this year farmers are reporting that they put more, more corn in the ground than than beans relative to what they were thinking earlier in the growing season with the prospective plantings in the, in the acreage report that we got months ago.

So that was the big change.

Soybeans reduction in harvested acres, still a pretty good yield.

Yield was increased to 53.6 bushels per acre about a bushel per acre increase.

So, but soybeans really saw some positive note on the day.

- So what about Oklahoma?

How is our crop looking?

- Oklahoma, it's, we had all those rains early in the growing season.

Good to excellent ratings throughout the, the summer have been strong.

It's been, it's starting to fall off a little bit for corn.

Soybeans have seen quite a drastic drop off, about 25 percentage point decrease in good to excellent ratings over the past few weeks.

A lot of that having to do with now the rain being turned off, we've got some dryness out there, Oklahoma's back into some drought conditions in, in certain parts of the state.

So overall, it's, it's, it's the, the crop is still really good because of all the rains, but we're starting to see some, some growing pressure here in Oklahoma.

- Yeah.

What about cotton?

How is that looking - Nationally, we had a reduction in, in harvested acres for, for cotton, but a big bump in, in yield.

And a lot of that has to do with the, the acres that aren't gonna be harvested or probably some of your lower yielding acres.

So that was a reason for adding, adding pounds per acre.

But overall, the, the report was positive for cotton.

It did see a, a bump on the day and it's fairly, stayed fairly high at that, at that bump since the, the days following the report.

- Yeah.

Well, glad to hear some good news.

John.

Michael, thanks for catching up with us.

- I am Mark Turner, wildlife extension specialist at OSU, and today we're gonna be talking about rabies and wildlife.

Rabies is a disease that is spread among mammals and, and several wildlife species can, can get rabies.

For example, in Oklahoma, our primary reservoirs of rabies are skunks as well as bats, although there are other species like coyotes and foxes that can also carry it and transmit it.

So just in general as always, it's a good rule of thumb if you see an animal, it, it's not a good idea to approach it or pick it up because you can get bit and that is the primary way that rabies is spread.

Rabies is spread through tissue in the either saliva, the spinal column or the brain.

And so unless you come in contact with those tissues, either through a bite or through a either your mouth or your, your eyes, you're, you're not really at, at exposure risk.

If you do happen to come into contact with an animal that you suspect had rabies or you're knowingly bit by an animal, you certainly want to get with your healthcare provider and, and look into post-exposure shots.

There's a lot of very effective post exposure shots, but it's very important to get those relatively soon after contact because generally once symptoms of rabies would begin to show, it's generally a little bit too late.

So you certainly want to get with your healthcare provider sooner after that contact.

And again, just stay away from animals that you see, especially things like skunks and bats that are known to be reservoirs of rabies here in Oklahoma.

As always, it's a good idea to make sure that your livestock as well as pets are, are up to date on their rabies vaccination, just in case they come in contact with an animal that is infected.

For more information on this, check out the sunup website, - OSU Extension's, popular Ranchers.

Thursday lunchtime series is back.

Join the OSU Beef Cattle Experts, experienced ranchers and scientists to learn and share production management and marketing tips.

The Zoom webinars are all on Thursdays at noon and they're free, but you do need to register so you can receive the zoom link and more details.

Just scan the QR code on your screen, contact your county extension office or go to the sunup website for a direct link to registration.

- You ever get a call in the middle of the night and the highway patrol or your neighbor tells you that your cow or horse are out in the middle of the highway?

Not a good call to get.

So let's talk just a second about how to latch a gate.

And so this is an issue that we deal with a lot here at the university with training students that you know, don't have much experience with this and I'd be interested to hear your tips on how to latch a gate.

But if we've got a metal gate and a chain mechanism and you latch the gate like this, you can see that the tail is available for the animal to access.

And especially in confined animals, horses, cattle, what have you, they like to play with the end of that chain.

And next thing you know, they've got it unlatched instead, all you have to do is take the chain under the gate latch, flip it over toward you away from the animals, and it's very difficult for them to get that unlatched.

That's my tip on how to latch a gate.

- Good morning Oklahoma and welcome to Cow-Calf Corner.

Our topic this week is, what is the current value of a good quality replacement bred heifer.

It's interesting, if we look at market reports, we're seeing a little bit of sign of heifer retention.

It's not overly aggressive, but we're starting to see signs of it.

Cattle facts recently published an article that talks about how many calves it takes to return our investment on a bred heifer right now.

And one of the interesting things that comes outta that is in a robust market like we're currently in, it actually takes fewer calves.

Cattle facts predicts that to be about two and three quarter calves.

Meaning if we had a bred heifer right now, by the time she's raising her third calf, she's gonna break into profit mode for us that is noteworthy.

That's below the long term average of about four and a half calves and significantly lower than what we were seeing back after 2015.

The interesting part of this, as we think about the development of replacement heifers, the opportunity cost on a heifer calf, we could be selling right now, the amount of time it takes her to get into production, purchasing bred females or bred heifers right now may be the time to do it.

The other part of this equation that's important to take into account is what is our annual cost of running a cow?

'cause it's not the gross value of those calves that those replacement heifers are gonna be having for us, and that does look to continue to be good for the next several years.

But we've gotta think about the net value or our profit each year from that calf that we're actually selling.

And a great deal of that is gonna depend on our annual cost of running a cow and looking over some data.

We see that USDA reported in 2018 that in larger operations of over 500 cows, our annual cost of running a cow is just a little over $900.

If we get into smaller operations of less than 50 cows, that can be as high as over $2,000 a year.

There's wildly variable amounts that we can spend in maintaining a cow each year.

What's interesting is that our feed and our pasture is only a part of that, typically half or a little bit less.

We have got fuel, fertilizer, labor cost depreciation on assets, a lot of other things that go into that annual cost of running a cow.

The Kansas Farm Management Association in 2024 reports that about the average is about $1,551 a year that we spend just maintaining a cow in production.

Again, not quite half of that is just the feed and pasture itself.

That's an excellent set of data to look at as far as what some of those other costs are.

But the point is, if we're considering taking on inventory right now and what we should invest in a bred heifer and what kind of value she has to us, the number of calves it takes for her to break into profit mode is gonna be based by and large on our annual cost of running a cow.

And that needs to enter into that consideration in determining when and for how much we take on inventory and try to rebuild the cow herd.

As always, thanks for joining us on Cow Calf Corner.

- Finally today and continue on the discussion of cattle retention.

OSU extension Beef cattle specialist Dr. Paul Beck has advice on when the best time to market your calves is.

- There's been a lot of talk about the record cattle prices and how to effectively market our cattle.

I've talked to beef producers that normally keep their calves all the way through a heavy yearling phase that are, you know, considering selling their calves at weaning or even early weaning this year and selling those calves early into this strong market.

I've also talked to producers that normally sell at weaning and wondering if there's a potential because we have extra grass this year from the really good growing conditions earlier in the summer to keep those cattle a little bit longer, potentially wean them and sell 'em at, at a higher value later.

Although there's, there's really never a mistake in selling our calves at a profit and, and we have really good prices right now, you know, steers, lightweight steers, those 500 pound steers bringing in the mid $4 range per pound.

You know, that's a really strong market and, and really hard to turn down.

But as we have more producers that are weaning early and selling early, we not have our, our big drain on the market from these, you know, big wall of cattle that always hits in October.

Historically, our seasonal cattle prices, we have a a, a close to 10 percentage reduction in the price.

You know, 90 to 93% of the average price for a 500 pound steer occurring there in, in October.

So much lower price.

And if we keep those cattle on into the later in the fall or into the winter by January, we would have our, our normal price for those heavier cattle, or the average for the year would be hit right there in January.

We may not have this seasonal market this year, but it just, there just does not appear to be from discussions with Darrell Peele and, and, and some of his writings, we don't appear to have a bubble right now that would really pull back on that market.

So this may be a year if we have extra resources with extra grass where we could keep cattle for a, for an extra month or two, get 'em weaned.

Add value to the people we're selling those cattle to is having them weaned and preconditioned and, and capture a, a better value or an increased premium.

Right now when we're comparing unweaned cattle to wean cattle with no benefits of a certified preconditioning program, we're still seeing a 20 to $25 advantage for cattle that have been weaned compared to cattle that are sold as unweaned.

If we are selling unweaned bull calves, that discount gets even more.

So there is some potential to get some extra rewards, extra benefits from adding some management to our calves.

That could be something like the OQBN Preconditioning program through OSU or just maintaining that ownership and, and selling as a wean calf later on.

For more information, if you're interested in taking part of the OSU OQBN Preconditioning program, contact your county extension office or go to the sunup website.

- And that about wraps it up for us today.

Now remember, if you saw something on the show you liked, you can always visit our website, sunup dot OK state.edu or stream us anytime on YouTube and follow us on social media.

I'm Kurtis Hair, and remember, Oklahoma Agriculture starts at Sunup.