- Good morning everyone.

I'm Lyndall Stout and we have another great show lined up for you today on Sunup.

The Science of controlling weeds.

We'll talk about a couple of studies underway and what to think about now as you plan ahead for weed control in the spring.

And a warm welcome to our new OSU extension crop marketing specialist, Dr.

Todd Hubs.

Grab that fresh cup of coffee because SUNUP starts right now.

We begin this morning talking with Dr.

Liberty Galvin, our OSU extension weed scientist and, and Liberty, you and the team have been busy kind of setting up your research studies.

Tell us what you guys have going on.

- So we really got our field season kicked off a hundred percent this year.

We have a grant from the Oklahoma Wheat Commission where we're looking at pre-emergent herbicides because we have documented a lot of resistant to our post- emergent herbicides, which are typically applied, applied in the spring.

We've been really looking at fall applied products.

Now these are mostly applied to the soil and they require rainfall to activate and because rainfall is so variable and unpredictable, they're a little bit more of a riskier product.

So we wanted to go ahead and test those before we really started pushing those products to growers.

We have three field sites, one about north of Stillwater in Perkins and in Chickasha.

Now our field sites that are north of I 40, they got a lot more moisture.

We saw really good weed control.

Now our Chickasha site, it did not get any moisture.

We did have to kind of irrigate those plots to observed the weed control that we were trying to get.

But we're finding that with most of these products they have good weed control up to 14 days, which most people think that you're only gonna get good residual control for about seven days.

So that was very promising.

It is just our first year, so we're gonna repeat this next year, but we're, we're off to the races with our fall weed control.

- And you have a second study that's looking at some other factors kind of not related to chemicals.

Yeah.

Talk about that study.

- Yeah, so you know there's a lot of shifts at the USDA and like even on our local level for diversified weed control.

A lot of people really like using chemicals but because of resistance issues, we're trying to diversify a little bit.

So Dr.

Amanda Silva and I have a, we call it a cultural weed control project going where we're looking at planting timing and we're finding, even though this is our first season, that if you delay your planting timing until November, all of your winter annual weeds are gonna have the right temperature and hopefully some moisture that they're gonna germinate out of the ground if you wait to plant until after those have come out of the ground, you can do tillage if that's what you do.

You can spray them with chemicals but you can spray them with chemicals that you would not use during the wheat season.

And so you're diversifying your chemistry, you're giving your crop an opportunity to establish after you've killed all those weeds.

So that is to me a really big opportunity for our grain only producers.

They have that planting timing flexibility.

- Let's switch gears a little bit and kind of talk about what's going on in the field.

Now we are getting into dormancy this time of year, but we did talk with Josh Boushan last week, our area agronomist on the west side of the state and kind of what's going on in in these different areas and and you kind of wanna follow up on on some of those things that he mentioned.

- Yeah, so Josh made a really good point about we, we have a divide north and south along I 40.

Above I 40.

We get more moisture, we get cooler temperatures and so our winter annual weeds that need those cooler temperatures with moisture in order to germinate, we're seeing business as usual.

All those weeds have come up in our Lahoma site now south of I 40 we did not get as much rain.

It also was warmer for longer.

So when we were ready to plant our conventional timing, like in the middle of October, we still had summer Johnson grass and that was not the case in the north.

So that to me is also really fascinating.

I talk to farmers that they don't use pre-emergent herbicides but they'll use a burn down to kind of clean up the field before they plant wheat.

Those individuals are in those types of situations where they have those summer annual weeds that they're just trying to get rid of so that they can get good crop establishment and and we are seeing that south of I 40 - And then the weed game or the weed management game is kind of a 50 50.

Yeah, kind of split.

- Yes.

- So - Yeah, - Kind of done what we can do for now, but it's not too early to start thinking about what's ahead in the spring.

- Oh, it's never too early to start think to start planning ahead.

So we are halfway done with our experiments 'cause we have our fall weed control and then we have our spring weed control for the pre-emergent herbicide study that was specifically looking at fall weed control for these pres.

But we are probably gonna throw a bunch of chemicals out in the field in the spring just to see what we could get away with.

You know, we're not worried about our crop.

So if we kill our crop with the wrong chemistry, that's actually good data - Because it's research, - Because it's research, it's research.

But for that cultural control project that had a, we were looking at planting timing, but we're also looking at variety.

So we have an early season maturing, I'm sorry, an early maturing variety.

We have a tall like denser variety that I believe is going to compete with weeds in the spring.

We also have a clear field variety so that clear field variety can be sprayed with the beyond herbicide.

And we have a lot of beyond omo resistance in the state but not everywhere.

So it's still a very good product that can be used.

Planting, timing, variety and then combinations of fall and spring weed control.

So we're just going with one chemistry.

We're gonna look at Everest.

Everest has a 60 day pre-harvest interval.

That's one of the products that you can apply the latest in the season and in theory it should work for dual purpose and grain only producers if they're all trying to harvest a crop.

So we're hoping for good commodity prices, we're hoping for good moisture so that we have weeds to kill and I'll be keeping everybody updated on our spring weed control and how that goes.

- Liberty, thank you very much, lots of great information and of course happy holidays to you and your family and we'll see you again in January.

Awesome, thank you Linda.

- Good morning everyone.

This is state climatologist Gary McManus with your Mesonet weather report.

Well it's been cold, it's been dry and you know what that means.

A new drought monitor map.

Good or bad, let's take a look.

Well we actually saw a little bit of improvement on the drought monitor.

It's not a lot but at least it, it wasn't for the worst.

So those improvements really came across central and up into north central Oklahoma over in the northeastern Oklahoma where those rains fell previously over the last couple of weeks.

Not this week of course, 'cause we were dry and we can see that on the, the latest consecutive days with less than a quartern inch of rainfall map from the Oklahoma Mesonet.

We're now up to about 15 days and again this was as of Wednesday so you know that's gonna extend a little bit longer than that.

So we're getting close to three weeks again without significant rainfall over at least much of the state.

And of course that leads to, if not worsening drought conditions.

No improvements like we saw this week.

How about that 30 day rainfall map?

Well this does include those rains that fell previously, at least prior to that 15 day period.

But you know, you can see from southwest Oklahoma up through north central Oklahoma, lots of those blue colors, those are less than an inch generally.

And we also have lots of those light greens less than an inch and a half.

So those are the areas over the last 30 days that just haven't seen enough relief, at least not enough to see vast improvements on the drought monitor.

And when we get to southwest Oklahoma, it actually made things worse.

Of course we can look at the departure from normal rainfall map from that same 30 day period.

This goes from November 9th through December 9th.

We do see generally deficits over much of the state.

We do see some surpluses up in the northwest Oklahoma and the panhandle and down in southeast Oklahoma.

But by and large about a half an inch to an inch below normal for that last 30 day period.

This shows up much better on the percent of normal rainfall map from that 30 day period where you can see those dark reds and the oranges and even the yellows that are less than 75%.

And when you get to the, the oranges and the reds, those are less than 50 to down to less than 25% of normal.

In other words just really dry over that 30 day period.

We need those improvements on the drought monitor map, especially in these places where we are seeing those big time deficits over, at least over that last 30 day period.

And of course some of these deficits extend much farther back, especially across southwestern Oklahoma.

So it's been cold, it's been dry.

What do we see for the next couple of weeks?

Well unfortunately we do see that increased odds of above normal temperatures for next week from the climate addiction center's outlook.

It doesn't say how much above normal, but it's not going to be just a couple of degrees above normal from the looks of the forecast probably into the fifties and sixties as we go through that timeframe.

That's not good for drought.

We do want it to be colder to, to keep some of those stresses on the soil moisture down a little bit.

And of course the big thing would be the precipitation outlook.

And unfortunately we do see increased odds of below normal precipitation for the entire state, but especially far northwest Oklahoma and the panhandle.

I guess the good news in this map is those are the areas that can at least handle some deficits going forward.

'cause they've had the best rain over the last 30 to 60 days.

So it's been cold now.

It's gonna be warm again, probably gonna be windy.

It would be nice to get some rain here to get some more improvements on that drought monitor map.

That's it for this time.

We'll see you next time on the Mesonet weather report.

- We are happy to introduce our new OSU extension crop marketing specialist, Dr.

Todd Hubs who's now part of sunup as well.

Todd, welcome to the team and why don't we start off by telling folks a little bit about you.

- Thank you.

I came from USDA in Kansas City and prior to that I was a Outlook specialist at the University of Illinois.

I'm excited to be here to do crop marketing in state Oklahoma.

- This has been a a very important for position for sunup throughout the years.

You're also based in the AG Economics Department, at OSU, so we're definitely glad to have you.

Let's dive right in and and talk about the markets and some of the things you're seeing.

And the WASDE report that was released this week, - We did see some price bump in the futures markets and in Oklahoma prices coming outta October, November with all the trade deals that were announced.

And since then, all the uncertainty, we saw it peel back a little bit and everything's been hanging in a tight little range leading into this WASDE report.

And there wasn't really a whole lot in the WASDE report.

The wheat committee sort of confirmed large crops.

We saw the major foreign producers, Argentina, Australia, Canada, the European Union and Russia all had their crops raised.

A lot of that was already baked in, so we didn't see a huge move in the market from it.

And the only other major thing that happened was they raised corn exports once again, another 125 million bushels to what is it gonna be a record if they actually hit it at 3.2 billion bushels.

So these lower prices are bringing out buyers.

- Let's dive a little bit deeper into the market impact and some of the things you're seeing currently, especially when it comes to the trade situation.

- Yeah, the trade uncertainty is a real problem for the ag markets right now.

Particularly crop markets, that 12 million metric tons that China said they were gonna buy by the end of the year, that timeline keeps getting pushed out.

There's a lot of uncertainty around how that's gonna play out and if they're gonna come through next year with the 25 million metric tons of soybeans they said they were gonna buy, it's putting a lot of downward pressure on soybean prices.

They didn't do anything to the soybean balance sheets of much note in the WASDE and yet we still see the prices falling a bit here in Oklahoma, we're bumping around $10 a bushel and I think that's sort of dragging down all the other crop prices as we, you know, move into the holiday season.

So it's, we're in the low end of the ranges we've seen recently for prices and Oklahoma's in the low end of the ranges we've seen in the last few years.

So it's tight.

- It's kind of tough news.

- It is tough.

- And then kind of looking forward, we hope that there's optimism as we kind of hit the new year, but what are you kind of keeping an eye on and what reports are you waiting waiting on to hopefully gel some things?

- There's three things I'm looking at right now in general for the markets, one's weather here and in South America as we see those Brazilian and Argentinian crops come in, you know, they're soybean crops and then they plant their corn crops.

The weather here, we've been a bit dry in the southern plains and we hope to see that relieved a bit.

We'll see how the winter wheat plantings go and we'll get that report in early January.

I'm looking at trade policy, we have some, we need to see some kind of resolution to trade and we've got a possible well a renegotiation of the U-S-M-C-A next year.

This is all out in front of us, just a load of uncertainty and that's gonna bleed into our markets for sure.

And the last thing I'm looking at is biofuels policy.

We've yet to get resolution on the renewable fuel standard re renewable volume obligations.

Hopefully they do that in the first quarter of next year so we can start having some certainty for all the vigil oil producers that make biodiesel and ethanol producers that use corn and sorghum.

So those are the things I'm looking out for.

Those reports on January 12th, the stocks report, the final production numbers for the spring crops and the wheat seedings reports are gonna be big.

- All right, well we're glad we have you on the team to keep track of all this.

It sounds like we will have lots to talk about in the new year.

Todd, - Always thank.

- Alright, thank you.

Great.

We will see you again soon.

Thank you.

- Good morning Oklahoma and welcome to Cow Calf Corner.

Our topic this week is mature cow size relative to profit potential and revenue generated relative to calf sales out of a commercial cow calf operation.

I arrive at that topic this week based on some follow up questions that we have had to the articles from the past couple of weeks.

And we start off by just addressing some realities in the commercial cow calf sector in the United States.

Over the past few decades, our mature cow sizes went up pretty substantially.

There's a growing amount of empirical evidence that tells us that there's about a 10 to one relationship, meaning that if we increase mature cow size by about a hundred pounds, we only see 10 pounds of increase in a calf weaning weight.

There's research collected that tells us that as cows get bigger, they wean off a lower percentage of their mature weight.

It's easier for a thousand pound cow to wean off close to 45, 50% of her mature weight, whereas cows get out there from 14 to 1600 pounds.

It's more of a, and they're probably gonna be at 30 some percent, maybe get as high as 40% on average of their mature weight.

If we do some basic forage budgeting and think about mature cow size and its impact on the forage dry matter intake that a cow needs annually, we see that for every a hundred head of thousand pound cows that we run, we could run about 71 head of 1400 pound cows.

And so it's, today we worked through some math relative to current calf markets and assuming a 90% calf crop weaned looking at 71 1400 pound cows versus a hundred head of thousand pound cows, assuming the thousand pound cows are gonna wean off calves at about 450 pounds.

Whereas our 1400 pound cows are gonna wean off about 500 pound calves equal steer heifer split and current report, which is a little bit less per pound for those heavier calves.

If we work through a 90% calf crop, those weaning weights and think about a value of 4.65 a pound for 450 pound calves versus 4.35 a pound for the 500 pound calves.

Those a hundred head of thousand pound cows based on additional calves and additional weaning weight at a higher value actually return a little over $47,000 more per calf crop than the 71 head of 1400 pound cows.

It's important that we have growth, obviously in the cow calf sector.

We sell calves based on pay weight, that's our primary profit center and we should put selection pressure on growth, be it at weaning as yearling.

If we're retaining ownership past that, maybe it's those final finished weights or carcass weights, but that needs to be selection pressure applied relative to mature cow size.

We know that these positive genetic relationships exist between birth weight, weaning weight, yearling weight, post weaning gain, mature weight, mature height, finish weights and carcass weights.

And yet through EPD use and trying to make, keep birth weights down and maintain calving ease, we have been able to do that over the past 30 plus years while spiking weaning weight and yearling weight.

What have we not done?

Probably put enough selection pressure on the backside of that growth curve and made sure that mature cow size didn't get too out of hand.

The point is all these traits are moderate to high inheritability.

A proper and intended breeding program that addresses mature size relative to growth can be accomplished.

The heritability tell us it can be.

So we've got a success story from our past that tells us we can address mature cow size without compromising the growth that we want in the calves we produce.

I hope this helps.

Appreciate your feedback questions from the past couple weeks.

Have a good weekend and as always, thank you for joining us on Cow Calf Corner.

- Finally today we learn what makes Justice John Cain the iv, a distinguished alumnus for 2025 in the Ferguson College of Agriculture video production manager Craig Woods.

Put together our story along with a little help from our good friend Ron Hayes from the radio Oklahoma Network.

- John Kane IV began his journey in Osage County where he was raised with a strong connection to both his small town and his family's ranching heritage.

- I grew up in town, very blessed to have a wonderful childhood there in Pawhuska.

In the summers I would go out and work on the ranch.

Dad would take me out.

My dad was a very devout rancher.

He, he loved that ranch so much.

My grandfather actually started in the ranching business.

He was a principal in the MK and K Ranch, but it was my dad that really had the passion.

- When you grow up in agriculture, it's really hard to get too big for your boots, too big for your britches because all of the cowboys, all of the ranchers have to work together to make sure the animals are taken care of.

You have to sometimes get up before daylight, often have to get up before daylight.

There's a, there's a little bit of humility required if you grow up in agriculture.

- Before I started college, I was not a serious person.

I was brimming with potential, but I was voted the class cut up of Pa Huska High School and nobody was recruiting me to go to their college.

And by the time I graduated, I was a top 10 senior man at Oklahoma State University.

- While John was working hard and finding his footing at Oklahoma State, he also found something far more important than grades or recognition.

His future wife, Cindy, - There was a fix up your roommate party and her roommate said, well, we're just gonna get old John to meet up with Cindy.

And so they told me it was a costume party, which it wasn't.

And so I showed up, I showed up at this party dressed as a smurf and everyone else of course is dressed in their 1980s, you know, knit shirt with their collar popped up in their boat shoes.

And I, here's John the Smurf and I guess I took it in a good natured way 'cause we've been together ever since.

When I graduated from Oklahoma State, there was no doubt that I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my father and my grandfather who attorneys there in a Huska.

First my grandfather passed on and then my dad passed on and all of a sudden I was a sole practitioner and so our local judge decided to retire and I'd always had this dream of serving on the bench like my great-grandfather.

So I applied for the position in 2004.

Every four years I had the privilege of standing for reelection and I was reelected four times.

Finally in 2019 just at free, retired from Oklahoma Supreme Court and I was very pleased to make myself available to the governor and very honored that he selected me to be on the Supreme Court.

- Then two years he was named Chief Justice, a role that held special meaning for him.

- My great grandfather was a member of the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention and helped write the constitution that I get to interpret now.

And then he was popularly elected to be on Oklahoma's first Supreme Court.

- Chief Justices are elected every two years by their peers based on the Oklahoma Constitution, and the Constitution says that the chief justice is the administrative director of the entire court system.

You also are the face of the court with the legislature, politicians, court reporters, bailiffs attorneys, the Bar Association and the public who we serve.

- I think the career of Justice Kane shows that if you have a background in agriculture, it prepares you well for having an extraordinarily profound impact in the legal profession.

- Cindy and John's children have inherited both the legacy and passions of their parents.

- Both the Patrick and Matthew are are Ferguson guys.

My daughter Meg is a labor and delivery nurse, and then my son Phil is a country music star.

At least he's a star in my mind.

- I keep trying to ask him who his favorite kid is and he will not tell me just as any good justice would do.

He's, he is not picking a favorite, but, but he's so proud of all of them, rightly so.

- I'm so thrilled for this, not because it says, John, you've succeeded.

I'm thrilled because I would like to send a message to people that getting your Ferguson College of Agriculture degree will prepare you for anything including being the chief justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court - Celebrating John Kane 2025 Ferguson College of Agriculture, distinguished alumnus.

- That'll do it for our show this week.

A reminder that you can see us anytime on our website, follow us on social media and stream sunup anytime at youtube.com/sunup tv.

We leave you today with some footage from some of our pretty cold mornings as we've been out filming the show and we know this is just the beginning.

Have a great week everyone, and we'll see you next time at Sunup.