- A new year with plenty of news when it comes to avian influenza and the cattle markets.

Plus the cold has arrived at last in Oklahoma.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

Grab your cup of coffee because an all new Sunup starts right now.

Avian influenza continues to be an issue in Oklahoma and other parts of the country.

Joining us now for the very latest is our OSU extension veterinarian, Dr. Barry Whitworth and, and Barry.

We visited with Dr. Biggs a few weeks ago, but since then we've had some new occurrences in Oklahoma.

Get us up to speed.

- Well, currently in the month of December we had four commercial flocks that were infected with the virus.

Two of 'em were turkey operations and two of 'em were broiler operations.

- Kind of give us the scenario of what has to happen when there's a positive case detected.

- Well, when there's a positive case, they obviously will depopulate.

Since we look at avian influenza as a foreign animal disease, those facilities have to be depopulated and they're rested for a certain period of time until they'll come into our agriculture decides if it's all right to put birds back in those facilities again.

- And kind of what happens.

Tell us kind of where, where the spots are in Oklahoma and kind of what happens in terms of monitoring other flocks, commercial and backyard flocks in those areas.

- So, so far all those four commercial flocks have been in Adair County.

So they have a certain radius around those facilities that they have to test the birds that are any, any birds that are in that area.

When I say birds, I'm talking about poultry to make sure that the virus hasn't spread anywhere there.

The other thing that Oklahoma's doing, according to Dr. Rod Hall, our state veterinarians, they have been com have been testing the milk and dairies that are close to those commercial facilities as well.

Have not had any positive cases with that.

As of now, - Terms of limiting further spread of the virus, what is the responsibility of someone who has a backyard flock?

It's my understanding commercial operations have kind of regular screening and testing to maybe find it earlier for, for the homeowner who has a backyard flock, what are you telling them?

- Well, the most important thing is, is, is biosecurity.

Make sure that you follow that and one of the components of biosecurity is preventing contact with wild birds.

So owners should be doing anything they can do to prevent contact with wild birds.

Another component of biosecurity is knowing what the clinical signs of the disease are.

And so owners should familiarize themselves with those signs.

One of the things that you'll see is either unusually large numbers of dead birds or sick birds.

And if you see that you need to get in contact either with your veterinarian or an ex or your county extension ag educator or contact the state veterinarian's office and let them know about that so that they can take at least investigate that and make sure that it is an avian influenza.

- So some people may be hesitant to do that fearing they may get in trouble for some reason.

Right?

What do you tell them?

- You're not gonna get in trouble.

There's nothing there as far as getting in trouble.

But I do think it's our responsibility to protect the poultry industry.

So we don't wanna do anything in the state of Oklahoma that might jeopardize that.

So if you have birds that you're worried about, don't hesitate to call.

You're not gonna get in trouble over that.

But we do need to protect the industry - When we're talking about people getting this virus, what is the, what is the actual scenario?

'cause it can be scary.

- There are 66 cases that the CDC has confirmed, the origin has been associated with dairy cattle or poultry.

The clinical signs that these people have gotten have been mild.

Most of 'em have had a conjunctivitis pink eye, what we would normally call that, and some mild respiratory symptoms.

Now these people are watched closely and so they are put on antivirals pretty quickly.

So that may be why their symptoms have been mild as we go.

The people that have to be very careful, old people, those who have immuno immunocompromised people, very young people, people who are pregnant, those immune systems can be compromised.

And so those are the people.

You have to be very careful when you're around these poultry or these animals.

You need to be careful, protect yourself, wash your hands before and after you have contact with the animals.

If you're dealing with sick animals, you might wanna wear gloves.

I might even wanna put on a a some type of mask to protect myself if I was dealing with sick chickens.

So take care of yourself, just proper use, proper hygiene and I think you'll be fine.

- How do migratory waterfowl actually shed the virus to these backyard flocks?

- The viruses can be shed in any type of fluid that comes from the birds.

So ocular nasal, anything from the mouth and fecal material, most likely it's fecal material that's contaminating the environment where your chickens are.

And that's probably how they're getting it.

- And that's kind of overview of the biosecurity, but you and the team have an OSU extension fact sheet too that people can read in more detail or we want them to share it broadly as well.

- Yes.

Yeah.

OSU does have a a fact sheet for small flock biosecurity and it is really pertains to avian influenza, how to protect that flock from the avian influenza.

- Okay, Barry, thanks for the great information.

We, we, we hope lots of people see and hear this and apply some of this biosecurity.

And for a link to the fact sheet that Barry mentioned, we have it for you at sunup.okstate.edu.

- Good morning everyone.

This is state climatologist Gary McManus with your Mesonet weather report and we've certainly had some big weather news over the last three weeks since I last spoke to you.

We broke some major records in 2024.

Winter actually showed up and we had some improvements on the drought monitor.

Let's start there.

As you can see from the current map, we just have a smidge of drought up in north central Oklahoma and also down in south central Oklahoma.

So just about 5% of the state in drought at this time, which is certainly wonderful news.

And just three months ago we were over 60% of the state in drought, so some great improvements.

Now how about those all time records in 2024?

And these are a couple of the biggies.

We did see our highest tornado total across the state of Oklahoma since 1950 when records began with 152 tornadoes.

That's still preliminary.

We might find another tornado or two out there as the weather service investigates, but we did top that 2019 total at 149 tornadoes.

This is a record that we do not want to beat, but unfortunately we certainly did.

In 2024, we also tied, at least we didn't break, but we tied the record for the warmest year and these records date back to 1895.

And, and this is based on the statewide average.

We had a 63.2 degrees temperature across the state in 2024.

And that ties 2012.

So that's another record that we didn't expect to break, but it snuck up on us with that warm December that we had and the lack of winter here you can see the Mesonet average air temperature for that 2024 full year period.

Really, you know, when we talk about average temperatures, we're talking about highs and lows average together at about 62 to 63 degrees across much of the state down in the fifties in the panhandle, which is to be expected.

Now the departure from normal average air temperature, it doesn't take a lot to break that record.

It was just two to three degrees above that long term average.

And that's enough to break the record or tie the record rather for the warmest year on record, just about two to three degrees, a few one degree departures there every once in a while, but mostly two to three degrees.

Now since we did finish 2024, we can also about that 2024 rainfall from the Mesonet and you see some pretty good totals out across the northeast, down through south central Oklahoma, down into the southeast, and a little bit less as we go up to the northwest.

This is basically climatology really, but we went from 58.78 inches maximum in Idabell to just 18.87 inches in eba.

Now how's it looking as we go through the next couple of weeks into January?

It does look cooler than normal across much of the United States and right here in Oklahoma as well.

This shows from the Climate Prediction Center, increased odds of below normal temperatures.

Now it doesn't say how much below normal, but anytime you're below normal in January you're pretty cold.

The precipitation outlook looks a little bit better.

We do see slightly increased odds of above normal precipitation across much of the state, all but northeast Oklahoma where it's near normal chances.

But you know, the good news there is we don't see any below normal indications over the next couple of weeks.

Okay, some big news over 2024.

It's always the case in Oklahoma.

We always have big weather news it seems.

Let's hope things calm down a bit and just get some good precipitation in here and completely wipe that drought out as we go over the next few weeks.

That's it for this time.

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

- Hey, it's that time in the show where we check in on the livestock markets with our livestock marketing specialist, Dr. Daryl Peel.

So Darrell, we just had Barry Whitworth on talking about the news with bird flu.

So how are markets reacting to that?

- You know, really the, there's not a lot of market reaction at this point to the bird flu thing.

I mean, there's some continuing issues in terms of the international markets on, on the poultry side, but you know, by and large we're not seeing a lot of impacts there.

It's mostly obviously the animal health concerns and potential human health - Concerns at this point.

So when it comes to just cattle markets, if there's not a lot happening there when garage bird flu, are they remaining pretty strong heading into the new year?

- Yeah, you know, we finished 2024 very strong with cattle markets.

We set new record prices last year at some time during the year for all cattle markets and, and you know, and beef markets as well.

So we're starting the year, you know, in, in very good pace to continue moving forward with that.

- So what are some questions, what are the biggest things that cattle producers have their mind on right now as, as, as the new year drugs along?

You know, - The, probably the biggest question is the same one that we've been, you know, we're really working on for the last year or more, and that is when will we start some herd rebuilding?

You know, we're at multi-decade lows and cattle inventories and, and you know, prices are moving higher.

The market's trying to provide incentives to start that rebuilding process at the end of 2024.

We had no indication that we did any of that last year until, you know, the question going forward will be when do we start that process?

And to some, to some extent, the question will also be sort of how, how aggressive will we be about that process?

- So what concerns do you have going on?

I imagine the new world screwworm in news that happened in Texas has probably definitely piqued your interest.

- Well, yeah, you know, we got issues like that, so we're still watching that.

We've still got some, some trade disruption going on there.

You know, most of the cattle markets, supply side stuff is pretty well fixed at this point.

We can't really change things one way or the other at this point.

So that part's not really a, a, a concern, if you will, just some questions about how we move forward.

But, you know, on the demand side, demand has been really strong for, for beef, but, you know, general economy, lots of political uncertainty right now.

All of those kind of things remain an issue that could have some impacts on cattle markets and lots of other markets.

And so that'll be what we'll be keeping an eye on, you know, as we go forward.

- So if cattle prices are still remaining pretty strong, what, what are things that producers can do to take advantage of that?

- You know, obviously we've got very strong prices.

Cattle producers want to have something to sell.

So, you know, we're moving in close to calving season here, so producers really want to pay attention.

Yeah, every live calf is worth an awful lot right now, so it's worth a little extra effort perhaps to make sure you get those calves on the ground, keep 'em healthy.

And then beyond that, in terms of maximizing profits, it's gonna be the same thing we always talk about and that is, you know, the revenue's there, markets are strong, but you still gotta manage costs and, and profit maximization will come from managing costs.

So planning ahead for grazing and feed, feed needs and, and you know, minimizing those extra feed costs and so on will be important in this year.

- And with the past couple weeks there's been some moisture in this state and I'm sure that's gotta be good news for the producers as well.

- Yeah, one of the things we're watching is continued drought conditions and, and the prospects for, you know, what forage is gonna look like in 20 24, 20 25.

So that'll be a very important consideration going forward.

All thanks Daryl.

- Dr. Daryl Peel, livestock marketing specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

- With one exception, there's really not a lot that you need to be doing as a pond owner during the winter months.

Ponds are much like gardens in that wintertime is a good time for just dreaming and thinking about what's going to be happening in the spring and what we might do different this year to improve things.

One of the things that people may be thinking about as they reflect back upon their pond is the quality of fishing.

If you're having problems with the quality of fishing, do not automatically jump to the solution of stocking fingerlings.

Fingerlings generally get eaten in short order when they're stocked on top of a bass population.

Instead, consider fishing the pond heavily in order to get a good picture of what's going on with the various fish populations in it.

Maybe take a few pictures also to share with somebody if you have problems knowing what it is that you're looking at.

We need to know what species of fish are there, and in particular, if anything is becoming over abundant and small and skinny.

If that's the case, probably we're going to suggest that you try to do some selective harvesting.

In other words, fish for those particular size and species heavily and keep all you can catch in an effort to try to restore the balance between bass and the prey species.

Likewise, if in the past you've had problems with overabundance of aquatic plants, it's not going to be any better in the coming year.

So make a resolution now that comes springtime.

You'll get some photos of the overall pond situation and the closeups of your problem plants and share them with your county extension office so we can come up with some possible herbicide solutions or other management steps to reduce that overabundance issue.

But as for that one exception, it's very important now that everyone realize that it is unsafe for animals or plants to be on top of ice cover in our ponds.

It's almost never the case that the ice becomes thick enough for it to be safe to be out on it.

Make sure that you keep animals away from the pond and you make everybody aware of the dangers of going out on that ice, especially children who might be tempted to try to rescue a beloved pet who's fallen in.

- Good morning, Oklahoma.

Welcome to Cow-Calf Corner.

Our topic this week is when to assist with calving, and we dig into that a little deeper by addressing the three stages of bovine partion.

And understanding those three stages and what goes on in each is helpful when deciding if we need to assist a cow or heifer in the process.

First stage basically is a little bit of dilation of the cervix.

This can happen over hours or days.

We may not notice this happening or we may notice that cows or heifers have kinda separated themselves off from the herd.

Perhaps they've lost a little bit of appetite.

We may see a mucus string hanging from the vulva.

Again, it can be a very deliberate process or something that happens pretty quick, but typically is easy to go unnoticed.

Stage two is the actual delivery of the calf, and this is kind of where the action's at, so to speak.

Stage two officially begins when we see presentation of the water bag at the vulva.

And when we see the presentation of the water bag, we always say that's when we wanna start our clock.

There's ample research that shows that with a normal presentation of the calf, a mature cow is gonna calve within 30 minutes of when we actually see the water bag.

Now a heifer that's not as large in our pelvic area and has not had a calf before can take up to 60 minutes after we see the water bagged actually calve.

And so those are timelines to keep in mind.

If we're looking at a mature cow after we see the water bag, we should spec expect her to have in about 30 minutes a have her can take up to 60.

Stage three is actually shedding of the placental membranes or shedding the placenta.

That's usually gonna happen within six to 12 hours after the presentation of the calf.

If we ever see retained placenta, we don't want to get aggressive in trying to pull those out.

That is a topic actually for next week when we talk about how to address, address retained placenta in cow herds.

But if we actually see that for a few days, we may want to administer some antibiotics or get in touch with our vet.

So back to this process of stage two and how do we decide when we need to potentially assist with calving?

Keep those timelines in mind and if we see a cow or heifer that's not making adequate progress, or even one that looks like we're not seeing a water bag, but she's been struggling and straining for a while, we're probably gonna need to do a vaginal exam.

We want to keep cleanliness in mind, we wanna be gentle, we wanna wear protected gloves.

OB sleeves have lubricant, some kind of cleanser.

And when we go in, if everything is normal in the presentation and the cervix is fully dilated, we're not gonna feel much of that cervix.

We're gonna be able to feel the front feet of the calf.

We should feel the split between the front toes on top, the delaws underneath, and right behind that and above those front feet, we're gonna feel the nose of the calf.

If we can palpate and get a little farther back, the spine of that calf is gonna be directly below the spine of the cow.

That's how we're gonna confirm we have a normal presentation.

If the water bag is still intact.

When we go in and do that, we still got some time to potentially give that heifer cow the opportunity to have that calf on our own.

If the water bag is broken at that point, we're gonna need to proceed with actually manual assistant assistance in getting that calf out.

If we've got an abnormal presentation, we know that that vet client relationship is critical at times like this.

We're gonna want to get in touch with our veterinarian because we may need assistance there.

So that's a little bit on when to decide if we need to assist with calving, the three stages of partion.

I hope this helps and I hope nobody has to pull a calf this year during spring calving season.

Thanks for joining us on Cow-Calf Corner.

- Finally today, just before the end of the year, I caught up with Dr. Dave Lalman, OSU extension beef cattle specialist to talk about the cattle industry and what producers may wanna keep top of mind this time of year.

We're joined now by our OSU extension beef cattle specialist, Dr. Dave Lalman to kinda reflect back on 2024 and look ahead to the new year.

So as we, as we think about the year that has been, there's a lot that we could talk about.

A couple things come right to the top, how the industry is changing and, and of course we talked a lot about drought on Sunup this year.

- Yeah, those two major impacts to the industry.

And and you're right, things are, things have changed a lot and things continue to change rapidly.

You know, one thing that comes to mind, Lyndall is the, the, the continuous increase in carcass weights in cattle, you know, finished cattle weights and carcass weights.

And of course that that has impacts downstream.

This last November we had a few weeks where steer carcass weights hit 960 pounds and that that is, appears to be increasing steadily by the rate of, oh, somewhere around four and a half to five and a half pounds per year, just year after year after year.

Part of that is, this year in particular is because we have the cheapest corn we've had since 2020.

Recent costs of gain in the feed yard has been around a dollar, $4 five for every pound of gain you put on.

But cattle worth a dollar 90.

Okay?

And so you get to the end of that feeding period and there's that big difference.

They're gonna keep, they're gonna keep feeding those cattle and making them bigger.

But of course, in, you know, my interest in that is in our cow efficiency program, when you continue to aggressively select cattle for growth, carcass weight, you're gonna make bigger cows.

You know, unless you have a real intentional program to control that in your selection.

But cow weights are increasing, on average it appears by about seven pounds per year.

So if we don't do anything different, and that trend continues in 10 years, cows will be 70 pounds heavier than they are today.

And of course when we have drought, extreme drought, you know, that's important because, you know, you have to a, stock fewer cows on a given land base, and b, you have to depopulate more of those animals, bigger animals.

When we do have these extreme droughts, - As we think about drought, you know, it, we got some nice rain late fall, but as we know that drought can, can rear its ugly head pretty quickly in Oklahoma, especially in a La Nina year.

What, what's on your mind?

What's on the mind of producers as we get through the winter?

- Well, we've had lots of issues related to that.

I mean, first of all, we entered, we entered the year with relatively low hay inventory.

And so hay costs late last year were really expensive.

And then we had decent late spring rains here in Oklahoma to sort of help us recover from that.

And so hay prices have kind of gone down here later in the year, which is kind of odd, but, but they, they have.

And the other, the other impact of the drought this year is the real late wheat pasture.

And so you've got limited number of cattle with record high prices trying to find a home.

And you know, in Oklahoma we, we, that's one of our, our primary enterprises.

And, and so the value of those calves makes that wheat pasture extremely valuable this year.

And again, it's limited.

And so supply and demand, the, the cost to graze cattle on wheat pasture is substantially higher than probably we've ever seen it before.

- Speaking of cost, what about, what about vitamins and other supplementation, you know, when this time of year, but then especially if it's gonna be a little drier than we want it to be.

- Yeah, well let's, let's start off with folks that are grazing cattle on standing forage, maybe lower quality forage, which is very common.

You most, many yearlings are wintered that way and lots of cows are wintered with a bit of a protein supplement and standing forage or low quality hay.

Well, in 2023 soybean meal, that's a good, that's kind of a good barometer of protein prices.

Soybean meal in January was about $488 a ton.

2024 January is about $333 a ton.

Right now it's about $290 a ton.

So, you know, very cost-effective protein availability, if you will.

Anytime we have drought or anytime a producer is grazing or feeding low quality forage, you know, you just anticipate that the concentration of carotene, which is the precursor to vitamin A, is gonna be low in that forage.

Even late summer standing forage is low in carotene.

And so after we've gone through a couple of years of drought, it seems like the concerns, the issues reports to veterinarians and, and our nutrition community increase over time related to vitamin A.

What are those reports?

Well, early born calves, real short gestation periods, maybe stillborn calves, substantial amount of diarrhea and baby calves.

Those kind of things are all potential symptoms of that problem.

Keep your mineral and your feeds fresh.

You know, don't, don't store them somewhere for a year and a half to two years before you feed those and, and then consult with your veterinarian about other opportunities to, you know, make sure that doesn't happen in your operation.

- Well Dave, thank you so much to you and the beef team for all you do for Sunup throughout the year.

- Appreciate - You guys and happy you here to you and your family.

Yeah, thank you.

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 and social media.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

Have a great week everyone.

And remember, Oklahoma agriculture starts at Sunup.