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

We begin today with a progress report on Oklahoma's wheat crop.

Here's our OSU extension specialist, Dr. Amanda Silva, to talk about some of the challenges that producers are facing.

- Yeah.

So like you said, it's being challenging.

It's been a challenging wheat season, since planting specially for dual purpose producers, who had a late start due to the lack of moisture in September.

Fortunately we got some moisture in October, which allowed us to have our crops established somehow in some forge growth.

But then by December, I visited some wheat fields, we were already seeing signs of drought stress.

And if you look at Mesonet for Oklahoma, most areas had not seen a significant amount of rain for 90 days.

Last week's winter storm helped to improve some conditions in some areas, but some areas they're still dry.

And so as a result of all that, some producers grazed as much as possible, may have already removed their cattle from the pasture.

Some did not have a chance to graze at all.

And for producers who are still grazing, I would say just to be careful and watch for that grazing intensity.

Leaving at least 60% of that canopy coverage will help the crop to recover from grazing, especially with the environmental conditions that we are now.

- It's about time for first hollow stem.

So get us up to speed on, on that timeline.

- Yeah.

So we are right now, just starting to check for first hollow stem.

We are seeing that some varieties are moving and just to clarify, so first hollow stem, it's that stage that indicates the beginning of stem elongation.

So right before, just before jointing, and it is a good indicator for when we need to remove our cattle from wheat pasture.

And so, like I said, we will be collecting samples like we do every year.

So twice a week, and we'll be monitoring for first hollow stem differences among varieties.

So varieties, so several factors can influence first hollow stem.

So environmental conditions in varieties.

In varieties, they can differ by as much as three weeks in reaching that first hollow stem.

So we'll be collecting first hollow stem here in our plots and those are ungrazed plants.

So they will likely be a little bit ahead of producers fields that are actually being grazed.

And so the reason why we do here, it's to serve as an alert for producers, for varieties that reach first hollow stem first in our samples, should be the first ones to be monitored in commercial fields.

In Mesonet also provides a good first hollow stem tool for producers to look, also for varieties different in immaturity to reach first hollow stem.

- Give us an idea of what producers should be looking for as first hollow stem dates get closer.

- Yeah.

So just dig up some plants in an ungrazed part of their field.

Look for that 1.5 centimeter of hollow stem below that developing head.

So 1.5 centimeters, the same diameter of a dime.

When plants are not at first hollow stem it's more difficult to see, but when it is, it's very easy to see that hollow stem, when you split the stem length aways.

So looking into that, it's very important, because especially with the conditions that we are now, that are not so favorable for regrowth.

So grazing past that first hollow stem can lead to losses from 1 to 5% per days.

- Let's talk about any disease or insect pressure.

Are you seeing anything?

Are you hearing anything from growers around the state?

- I haven't seen or heard anything at all.

fall was very quiet, no diseases right now, not seeing diseases and for now it's very quiet.

- Thank you very much for the information, Amanda.

And we'll see you again here on SUNUP in a couple of weeks.

And now a word about nutrition needs for cattle as they're removed from wheat pasture.

Here's Dr. Dave Lalman.

- With the continued dried conditions, some folks are pulling the replacement heifers off of wheat pasture and may have already done so.

And so if it's a spring born heifers, you know, we've got about 60 days now until the grass greens up and you can turn those heifers out.

So we thought maybe it might be helpful to go over to just some fundamentals to get those heifers from this point in time until green up.

So 45 to 60 day period.

And just assuming that most folks would have grass hay available, you know, how much supplement might it require to get those heifers ready to breed this spring?

- So in general, I think one of the fundamental things is folks need to have a target weight for their heifers in mind.

So, do you intend to develop your heifers to the point where they're about 65% of their expected mature weight, or is your program, your philosophy designed more around the lower input system where you target maybe 55% of their expected mature weight, as their target weight by the beginning of their first breeding season.

And so if you've got that target weight in mind, whatever your philosophy is, and if you can get a check weight on your heifers now, at the time you're having to pull the off of wheat pasture you'd have a really good idea of what they need to gain between now and grass green up or between now and the time you're ready to breed those heifers.

That will determine the amount of supplementation.

Generally speaking, a good quality bermudagrass hay and somewhere in the neighborhood of about five pounds of a 16 to 20% feed will allow those heifers to gain around a pound and a half per day.

Another option might be about three pounds of rolled corn and two pounds of dried distiller's grains with free choice high quality bermudagrass hay would allow those heifers to gain about a pound and a half a day.

Obviously the lower the quality hay that you provide for the heifers, the more supplement that will be required for them to meet your target rate of weight gain.

For example, low quality native grass hay might require up to seven pounds of supplement to get the heifers to gain a pound and a half.

So, just keep in mind that you need to know what your target weight is at the beginning of the breeding season, get an idea of what the heifer's weigh now that will allow you to calculate the amount they need to gain between now and the first of the breeding season.

And then you can design your supplementation program around the hay quality that you have available and around the supplement choices or options that are available near you.

Be sure to contact your local extension educator and they'll be happy to sit down with you, and work through those different scenarios to help you come up with a program that's cost effective and helps you achieve production goals on your replacement heifers.

(upbeat music) - Hello, Wes Lee here with a Mesonet weather report.

Finally, a little bit of moisture was received statewide last week.

Unfortunately for most of us, it came in the form of a very dry powdery snow.

An old rule of thumb is it takes about 10 inches of snow to equate to an inch of water.

That is only true when it falls, when temperatures are near freezing.

In colder conditions like this time it takes many more inches to get an inch of water into the soil.

This rainfall map for a week from Wednesday was mostly capturing the snow as it melted with the exception of cold rains that fell in the far Southeast.

You can see the numbers were very small in most of the Western counties where the drought is the most severe.

This map, is the 10 inch fractional water index before any of the snow fell.

Great conditions in the east, but dire in most of the west.

After the snow melt as seen on this map from Wednesday you might be able to see some very slight improvements but little to none in the worst drought hit areas at this depth.

I want to leave you with some hopeful news that next week we'll possibly have some rainfall in it as seen by the green on this forecast map.

Gary is up next with the monthly rainfall maps.

- Thanks, Wes.

And good morning, everyone.

Well, I think the question on everybody's mind is how much did the rain, snow and ice help?

Let's take a look at the new map and we can find out.

Well the improvements on the new map are really confined over in far Eastern Oklahoma, where one to two inches of liquid equivalent precipitation fell enough.

Some of it was rain, some of it was ice, Some of it was snow.

So we did see a reduction, especially down in the floor and McCarton counties where we got rid of some of that, even extreme drought the red color.

Now across the rest of the state, we were just on the borderline between making improvements but we kept it status core over much of that area simply because the deficits are just too much over the last 30 days to really up to six months.

And we can tell you a look at that 30 day rainfall on the Mesonet maps.

Here we see, this is mostly what came from this last storm actually, because we haven't had a lot of precipitation and you can see those green areas over across far Eastern Oklahoma.

- That's where we saw the improvements.

Now, when we got to those darker blues and lighter blues we really just kept it more status quo especially across West Central Oklahoma where they've only had, about a 10th of an inch so less than a quarter inch rain over much of that area.

And really across much of the Northwestern quarter of the state.

But really nowhere across the Western two thirds of the state have gotten a lot of precipitation over the last 30 days.

And over that 30 day period, everybody in the state has a deficit of some amount.

Now it sits more across parts of South Central Oklahoma up into the central parts of the state but everywhere has deficit.

Not enough to start making improvements on the drought monitor in those areas across the Western two thirds of the state.

Where the deficits are so much larger over the long term.

Now those longer term deficits are exemplified by the consecutive days with less than the quarter inch of rainfall map from the Mesonet.

Again, the Western two thirds of the state, much of that area goes from 90 to more than 160 days without a quarter inch of rain in a single day.

And that's indicative of the drought conditions across those areas.

We have had some improvements in this map across the Eastern parts of the state but simply not enough over most areas.

This first storm in February was a good start.

Now we need a few repeat storms.

We'd rather not have the ice but some rain and even snow would help.

And hopefully we can start getting those storms in succession.

As we start getting later into February and then into March when spring starts to come around.

That's it for this time.

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

(upbeat music) - Good morning, Oklahoma.

Welcome to Cow-Calf Corner.

This week's topic is hardware disease in beef cattle or what we could call Bovine Traumatic Reticuloperitonitis.

How does this happen?

And how is it unique to cattle?

Well, because of the way cows graze using their tongue to pull in big chunks of forage.

If we're out here in tall grass like this.

If there's debris or some other kind of material in this grass particularly something like sharp metal objects.

They end up ingesting it without knowing that they're doing it.

Particularly things like wire, screws, nails.

If it's in our grass, if it's in our harvested forage or feed we are providing the cattle.

What happens in the process of digestion is this metal object is heavier.

And so it ends up in the compartment of the stomach.

We call the reticulum.

And the rest of the lighter feed material passes on through the digestive system.

Because of the anatomy of the reticulum and the weight of the metal object.

It's a virtual guarantee that it's gonna stay there forever and potentially cause problems.

When this happens, muscle contractions, the digestive process, we end up with an irritation in the lining of the stomach or a puncture to the stomach wall.

And if we get a puncture and a penetration we end up with hardware down here potentially penetrating sac of the heart.

And so they're varying degrees of issues that hardware disease causes.

It can be mild.

It can be severe.

It can be fatal, based on what happens with these metal objects.

Once they're in the reticulum.

Hardware disease in cattle can be kind of challenging to diagnose.

There's a variety of symptoms.

Cattle with hardware disease are gonna appear to be in pain.

They're not gonna wanna move around.

And sometimes when we get 'em to move we'll actually hear audible grunting.

They may stand with their head and neck extended out in front of 'em.

We may just see a gradual weight loss over time in those cattle and they start to get a little unthrifty.

If you're ever uncertain, whether or not you've got, or you're dealing with hardware disease.

It's best to consult your veterinarian and effective treatment is possible by feeding magnets and antibiotics.

But you need to do that with a veterinarian supervision.

How do we prevent hardware disease?

Again, something unique to cattle.

We need to provide the extra management needed to clean up pastures.

Make sure there's not metal out there.

Make sure that we haven't got wire sitting around in the pasture that potentially gets ingested.

We can put magnets in our feed mills in our forage harvesting equipment maybe in our cube feeder.

But in doing so try to prevent anything that is a potential cause of hardware from getting ingested by cattle.

It's gonna take some extra management to do it.

We're gonna need to invest that time and effort in keeping pastures and feed stuffs clean.

But if we can eliminate the potential sharp metal objects, we go a long way toward eliminating the potential for hardware disease in beef cattle.

Thanks for joining us on Cow-Calf Corner.

(upbeat music) - Dr. Kim Anderson our crop marketing specialist joins us.

Now, Kim, the USDA has released the latest WASDE.

Let's talk about.

- Some of the changes that may have happened in supply and demand expectations.

- Well, there's only minor changes and you look at ending stocks for wheat, corn, and beans.

They went up just a little bit.

You look at the range of the pre-release estimates.

They were near the top end of that range but yet wheat prices, corn prices and soybean prices all went up; wheat and corn up 14 cents soybeans up 26.

Now today's prices the relatively high prices we got now, that's not very much, but still it's a positive price move with really slightly, various numbers, but not many changes.

- What is the market offering now for the different crops?

- Let's use Medford, Oklahoma prices.

Now Parrington's a little higher on the, on the nearby price for wheat and, and Snyder's a little lower but in Medford right now, you can sell wheat on the cash market for around $7.85.

If you're looking at June, July, the harvest period around $7.90 for forward contract.

Corn the current corn price cash, farm level price $6.30.

You can forward contract for 2022 harvest delivery of $5.60.

Sorghum is $6.45 for the current price, $5.55 for the forward contract.

Soybeans are up to $15.40 a bushel on the cash market.

And for the 22 harvest, you're talking about $13.60.

Cotton, (laughs) $125, a hundred weight.

That's what the futures price, the cash probably in Oklahoma around $121, something like that.

And if you look out for the 22 crop, $105 a hundred weight for that cotton.

So relatively high prices.

- I think we all wanna make sure we heard you, right especially on soybeans.

Let's talk about the grain price expectations.

How does that, how do those figure in?

- Well, right now, if you read what the analysts are saying they're semi bullies for prices.

I like to look at the futures market prices, say the the KE price or the Kansas City hard grade winter wheat price on the Chicago board of trade.

The July contract at $7.50.

The range is $7.50 to $8.50 up near $8 right now.

But the March contract to the July contract is only 7 cents difference plus 7 for July and plus 13, when you get out to December.

So you only got a 20 cent price difference between March and December.

So not much there.

Corn, the trend is up.

The range is on the futures market, $6.10 to $6.40 on that March contract.

You look at March to July, the difference in those contracts, 2 to 4 cents, something like that.

But when you get out to the 22 harvest, you're down 80 cents.

So they're looking at corn prices stable through July, August, September and then falling off.

Soybeans, no difference in the March and the July contract.

But you look at beans.

You go back to December $12.40, $15.75 now.

Up trend there, and a strong up trend in bullish but you go out to harvest, you drop off a $1.55.

Cotton $1.26 on March, $1.21 on July, $1.05 when you get out to December.

So not much change there.

So relatively high prices and not much change.

And when we say not much change you're talking about plus or minus 50 cents to a dollar for wheat and some variability around that but relatively high prices are expected to stay here.

- And let's talk about those high prices.

Just a little more.

Why are they so high?

- Well, if you read the markets and what the analysts are saying there's a shortage of everything.

All the commodities gold, copper, steel, wheat, corn.

So I mean the ending stocks and the stocks are all lower and you wonder what's going on there.

It's because not only are people hoarding commodities, countries are hoarding commodities.

Now you don't necessarily see it in the stock levels because it's being held by the farmer or by the consumer and those aren't for sale.

And so I think it's a big problem right now is hoarding all across the market and building those stocks to hoard has lowered our stock levels and, walla, higher prices.

- Do you think that this phenomenon all the factors that lead into it will continue?

- Well, I'll say the news right now is saying that the people all around the world are getting tired of this, these rules and regulations for COVID.

I think as we work through that, plus this last string of COVID wasn't as dangerous, or wasn't as near as hard to get over as the past ones.

I think we're moving on out of that.

And I think people when get back to normal.

It may take another year or two.

When we get back to normal and we start using up this stuff we hoarded, that price is going in the tank.

- Yeah, it'll move in that direction then.

Well, Kim, great information as always.

we'll see you next week.

- Hi, I'm Dr. Kris Hiney, the equine extension specialist with Oklahoma State University.

Today we're actually gonna be talking about the spring transition period in mares.

So, as you can see from our empty foaling stall we're a little bit soon to be foaling mares out here at the farm, but a lot of people do start to think about breeding mares early, especially if you have mares that are producing foals that'll be competing in futurities, being sold in auctions earlier in their life or certainly in our racehorse industry.

However- - Mares are essentially long day breeders meaning that they don't really cycle regularly until the daylight is a little bit longer than what we have right now.

So, typically breeders that are trying to get those mares to foal pretty early, have to plan ahead and essentially start putting those mayors under lights in November or December.

So, they put them under, essentially big field lights or bring them into stalls with lighting.

There's even some kind of cool devices where the mares wear a hood that essentially shines a light into their eyes.

So, all of those techniques can actually speed up that period of time when mares begin to cycle.

However, we do wanna remember that when mares do begin to start cycling or go into estrus they have something that's called a transition period.

What that means is the mare may be receptive to the stallion, she may be showing estrus, but she still isn't actually going to be fertile at this point in time.

So, really the only way to know for sure when the optimal time to breed that mare is working with your veterinary to palpate or do ultrasounds of that mare to determine the follicular size.

For more information on breeding mares and mares in transition, you can visit OSUs extension fact sheets as well as check out our extension horse's tack box talk series, podcasts available everywhere.

- Talking broadband expansion now in Oklahoma.

Here's Dr. Brian Whitaker with an update.

- You all might be familiar with the Infrastructure Act that passed late last year, but the awards that recently happened were actually not part of that, we're still waiting on those funds to come down, that probably won't happen for the another year or so, but we have a couple of places in Oklahoma that are getting funding from an earlier version of a Broadband Federal Program.

So, we have two electric cooperatives within the state who got a significant amount of money to run fiber broadband in parts of the state that they serve and for those of you not familiar with what fiber means, a lot of our rural areas are stuck with DSL connections which are pretty slow, maybe three megabits per second, 10 megabits per second, fibers gonna provide up to a thousand megabits per second, gigabit speeds which is super fast.

If you've been on a fiber connection you'll never want to go back.

So, the two places that are two cooperatives that got awards are Cookson Hills Electric Cooperative which is based out of Stingler and so they're serving most a Sequoia County and they got about four million dollars over a 10 year period and you can find a map of their service area.

If you get your power through Cookson Hills you can be expecting a fiber connection to be rolled out within, hopefully, the next four or five years.

And the other cooperative that got some broadband funding is Canadian Valley.

They serve 10 counties in the mid Oklahoma area but they're mostly focused on Potawatomi, Seminole and Lincoln for where they're gonna roll out their fiber first.

They have a nice map on their website as well showing their planned roll out a fiber and so those are what we expect to see over, again, the next four or five years, those of you who get your power through those cooperatives can expect fiber broadband in the near future.

So, that's the first broadband related story.

The second one is an update on a program we call the Affordable Connectivity Program.

You all might have been familiar with the Emergency Broadband Benefit that went into a place last year as the pandemic was continuing.

This is an update to that and basically it'll give you, if you qualify for it, up to $75 a month to pay for your broadband connection.

Most Oklahoma is considered being located on tribal lands according to the sponsoring organization and so if you apply for this program and are eligible, you'll get $75 a month from the FCC to pay for your monthly broadband subscription.

They also have a program that can help you that will give up to $100 if you want to have a connecting device like a tablet or laptop and again I encourage people to apply for this.

Right now, they've actually boosted the amount of people who are eligible for this, up to 200% of the federal poverty line.

So, for a family of four that's around $55,000.

So, if you're under that threshold, you can get your broadband costs paid for for free for the foreseeable future.

This program has a lot of money behind it and it should last at least a couple of years.

So, we strongly encourage everyone to take advantage of that and then the last story I have for you today deals with someone who you might know that has an old flip phone.

Most of us with these regular phones, we can see we have the either the 4G or 5G networks on them.

Not everyone has upgraded to these nice smartphones however, if you know someone with a flip phone that still says 3G on it you might wanna make them aware that those networks are being shut down in 2022.

So, the three major cellular providers, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are all going to discontinue their 3G networks at some point in 2022 and they each have a list of the devices that are gonna be affected on their website.

So, go to your local library, talk to your local extension educator.

If you do have a a flip phone that says 3G, you might be affected.

So, be aware of that and those are the major broadband stories I have for you guys this week.

- That'll do it for us this week.

Remember you can see us anytime at sunup.okstate.edu and also follow us on YouTube and social media.

I'm Lindall Stout have a great week everyone and remember, Oklahoma agriculture starts at "SUNUP."