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

I'm Lyndall Stout.

We begin today on the topic of nutrition.

Here in the heart of winter, many cattle producers are thinking about supplementation.

So today, Dr. Dave Lalman, our OSU Extension beef cattle specialist, takes a look at how much or how little you actually need.

(upbeat music) - You know, mineral nutrition in a cow herd can be a complex issue.

And there's several reasons for that.

First of all, you know, as a beef cow goes through her annual production cycle, those requirements change over time.

For example, just like with protein and energy, when a cow is lactating, her protein requirements, energy requirements are at their highest level.

Well, the same can be said for vitamin and mineral requirements.

So at the same time, the mineral concentration in forages in particular are changing over time.

And so things are a moving target, and that can make it kind of complex to know exactly what your cattle need to be receiving at any given point in time.

Fortunately, perhaps it's gotten a little bit easier over the last 10 years or so to evaluate mineral nutrition in a cow herd.

One of the primary reasons is because a lot of our commercial laboratories now offer mineral concentration or mineral analysis service.

For example, our laboratory here at Oklahoma State, our Soil and Water Laboratory, charges about $15 per sample.

And so it's not terribly expensive, and it is much more available now than it used to be.

The other thing is that we have a fairly simple, easy-to-use software program called the OSU Cowculator.

And you can put the animal's stage of production, you know, the breed of the animal, the weight of the animal, and so on, and that program will help you estimate the animal's mineral requirements, such as calcium, phosphorus, and all the trace minerals.

You put those two things together, a laboratory analysis, the software program to help you evaluate their needs, and you can do a reasonable job of making sure that you're meeting the requirements without any big gaps.

So when the forage was harvested, you know, early season and mid-season last summer, we still, a lot of the state was under relatively dry conditions.

And so some of that forage or hay could still contain relatively low levels of beta carotene, which the rumen animal's able to convert into the active form of vitamin A.

A lactating cow has the requirement of somewhere in the neighborhood of 55,000 international units of vitamin A per day.

That's quite a bit.

So it can be a complex issue dealing with, you know, a well-balanced mineral and vitamin nutrition program.

And if you need assistance, you'd like assistance, either visit with a nutrition professional, and particularly, your county educator or your livestock specialist.

Those folks have a lot of experience in sampling forages, sending those to the laboratory for testing, and also balancing those requirements with supply from the feedstuff.

So they can be a big help.

So hope you'll consider joining us for our next version of the Rancher's Thursday Lunchtime Series.

Guillermo de Nava from Uruguay is outstanding in terms of reproductive management in cow herds.

Also, Dr. Richard Prather from Western Oklahoma, another outstanding veterinarian in helping commercial cow herds improve their genetics.

(upbeat music) We'll put a link there at the "SUNUP" website.

Hope you'll join us.

(upbeat music continues) - Welcome to the Mesonet weather report.

I'm Wes Lee.

This past week, winter weather hammered parts of Oklahoma with cold temperatures and icy conditions.

However, one positive was seen, and that was the increase in soil moisture conditions.

This seven-day rainfall map from Wednesday shows rainfall recorded statewide.

The amounts were heaviest in the southeast, where they reached almost three inches.

Central Oklahoma stations also recorded a much needed 1/2 inch or more.

While areas of the northwest and panhandle were mostly less than 1/10 of an inch.

This has our Fractional Water Index maps looking pretty good in most areas of the state.

This index indicates the sensor is as wet as it can read as it reaches one on the scale.

At 10 inches, green ones are seen statewide outside of the far northwest and panhandle.

You will notice that there are several missing numbers in this region due to cold soil temperatures.

When they reach into the low 30s, as seen here on this shallow soil temperature map, the moisture sensors become inoperable.

At our deepest soil moisture sensor, there are more working, and again, we see mostly green outside of the panhandle.

Getting any rain in January and- - February is special, and it is usually the driest time of the year.

Let's hope the El Nino conditions continue to benefit our wintertime crops.

Now here's Gary with a more detailed look at January rainfall.

- Thanks, Weston.

Good morning, everyone.

Well winter reared its ugly head once again in January and we got all that ice this week.

Believe it or not, that still counts as moisture, and that means changes on the new drought monitor map.

Let's take a look.

Well, we continue to diminish that drought across south central Oklahoma.

That is a long-term drought we see down there, and really just a little bit of moderate to severe drought here and there, interspaced by some abnormally dry conditions, really showing areas going out of drought.

And then of course, we have that other long-term drought area up in far northeast Oklahoma, centered on Osage County with again, just a little bit of moderate to severe drought.

So hopefully we can continue to see these great changes.

Let's take a look at the moisture we've received during January thus far, and we can see from the Oklahoma Mesonet map here.

We go from about a quarter of an inch, little bit more out in the far western panhandle, all the way up to five to six inches in far southeast Oklahoma.

Now much of the state has only seen one to two inches or so, but believe it or not, that's still well above normal for this time of year.

And we look at the percent of normal rainfall for that same timeframe through January, thus far.

We see a lot of areas out across West Oklahoma, parts of central, up in the northeast Oklahoma.

And in southeast Oklahoma, well above that 100% of normal mark, and some places up to close to 200, 300% of normal, just showing that we've gotten a lot of moisture for this time of year in Oklahoma.

Now we do have a few areas below normal, but those are few and far between, luckily.

And of course it's not just this part of January where we've received moisture.

We've gotten some pretty good moisture since December began the start of climatological winter.

Take a look at the rainfall map.

Since December 1st, we do see areas in the state from four to five inches, even as many as eight inches down in southeast Oklahoma.

So everybody, except for the far western panhandle, it's gotten a really good dose.

That's it for this time.

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

(upbeat music) - We definitely hope those warmer temperatures are on the way soon.

Speaking of weather, in this week's vet scripts, we have some timely advice for protecting your newborn calves from the elements.

Here's Dr. Rosslyn Biggs.

- Our 2024 calves are already hitting the ground, and of course that is lined up recently, with some really less than ideal weather.

So for these newborn calves, there's a few things we need to be thinking about.

First and foremost, we want to make sure those deliveries, if assistance is needed, we want to intervene early.

Any calf, we want them up and dry quickly.

Calves do not have the ability to regulate their temperatures easily, and so they can get in, especially in these conditions, very cold, very, very quickly.

When we have precipitation, we can make it even worse if we have wind and precipitation together.

So wanna watch those calves.

We want 'em up early.

We wanna see that they're getting colostrum in them quickly.

We really want that colostrum in them as quick as they can, but for sure within that first four to six hours.

If we question whether that baby has had colostrum, we wanna have a colostrum replacement ready to go, whether that be frozen colostrum, from a previous cow or whether that be a powder.

Talk to your veterinarian about what options are gonna work best for you.

When we have these babies that are not getting the nutrition they need, keep in mind they're gonna become low on energy really, really quickly, and they're gonna become dehydrated really, really quickly.

That predisposes them to a variety of viral and bacterial infections.

So we wanna get that colostrum in them.

We wanna worry about things like diarrhea.

There's also certain sets of conditions depending upon the age of that calf.

So just because we get beyond that 72 hour mark doesn't mean we're outta the woods.

We wanna keep a close eye on these calves really for the first couple of months, if not beyond if we have the capacity.

Best trick that I have in my calving kit, particularly in these conditions, is to have my digital thermometer ready to go.

That can really determine how quickly I need to intervene and whether things like intravenous fluids that could be administered by my veterinarian need to become involved sooner rather than later.

So if I see a calf that has a temperature significantly below 100, for sure in that 97 and 98 range, I need to get that calf inside quickly and slowly bring their temperatures up.

Things folks can consider are blankets, hair dryers.

We wanna be careful though, because they have very delicate skin, so we don't want to rub too vigorously.

We don't want, especially for brand new calves, rub off that amniotic fluid 'cause we want that calf back with mom as soon as we get them turned around.

(upbeat music) - As you can see by Darrel's gloves and my shaking, the winter weather is still around.

So Darrel, how is this overall impacting cattle markets right now?

- You know, out in cattle country, obviously cattle producers individually have a lot of issues dealing with this.

They've got to chop ice and can be to get water and a lot of extra feed hauling and so on.

As far as broader market impacts in the feeder cattle markets, you know, we're just starting the year anyway, so a lot of the markets have been closed because of the weather.

Some of 'em have never really started since the holidays, so we've seen some disruptions there.

It's a little bit hard to get a beat on sort of the market price level at this point just because we haven't had a lot of movement at this point.

- So how is this winter weather actually impacting fed cattle and beef markets?

- You know, the fed cattle, if you look at feedlot country, we've had a number of impacts that go back even to that storm around Christmastime that affected the plains.

And so obviously fed cattle performance is greatly impacted.

We're gonna see carcass weight start coming down.

There were even some packing plant closures as a result of the weather here recently.

So there's been some disruption in beef supplies going to market, and again, coming out of the holidays, boxed beef markets were down initially, but then they've come up sharply because of the disruption.

So, you know, again, we're still trying to sort that all out, but certainly there have been some impacts.

- As we all know, the hay situation was looking pretty grim like through most of the country.

So what's it looking like now?

- You know, USDA recently released some data on hay production in 2023.

And so for the whole country, hay production was up modestly from last year about 6.3%.

If you look at the top 10 beef cattle states, it was up closer to 22%, so we did see some improvement.

Of course, that's from very low drought levels in 2022.

And so, and if you look at December 1 hay stocks, it's pretty similar to that.

We have about 7% more higher December 1 stocks for the whole country, but about 18.5% higher stocks in the top 10 beef cattle states.

So we are in better shape in general, across the major beef cattle areas.

- What about the state of Oklahoma?

- Oklahoma is actually quite unique in the country.

We had unusually, a good year last year relative to states around us, so hay production was up about 88% in Oklahoma and the December 1 hay stocks were almost double what they were a year ago at the end of 2022.

So, you know, and we're even above a 10 year average in terms of December 1 hay stocks.

So locally, or regionally here, we've got... We're in pretty good shape, but there's still a lot of limited hay supplies in surrounding areas.

- So with that winter weather impacting, you know, several states, especially in beef country, you know, how is that gonna impact prices for the consumer?

- Well, again, you know, boxed beef markets coming out of the holidays dropped off initially, but then with the disruptions we've had lately, they've come back strongly.

And so, you know, the bottom line is we're gonna continue to see impacts for consumers.

I don't think we're gonna, you know... We'll see, if anything, higher prices, although January is not a strong beef demand time.

So you know, the disruptions here will just add some additional supply pressure to that market.

- Alrighty, thanks, Derrell.

Dr. Derrell Peel, Livestock Marketing Specialist, here at Oklahoma State University.

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

Our topic this week is what is a good bull worth in 2024?

This is a topic we revisit annually and a lot of the reason for that is just due to the fact that the age old answer to this classic question that I learned as a student about 40 years ago here at Oklahoma State University is that a good bull should be worth about five calves that he sires.

And that doesn't necessarily help us hone this down to one number.

But today we work through a little cowboy math and we take into account what calves and yearlings and fed cattle are currently worth in the marketplace.

So if we're a commercial cow-calf operation that sells calves at weaning, right now the USDA market report tells us that five weight wean calves are knocking the door at about $3 a pound.

So that equates to a value of 15 to $1,600, give or take.

We multiply that by five, we arrive at a figure.

If we sell calves at weaning and we're looking for good bulls to use in our commercial cow-calf operation, a bull ought to be worth about 7,500, maybe 7,750.

That's our ballpark range.

If we typically retain ownership and turn those wean calves into yearling out of our cow-calf operation, right now calves weighing approximately 900 equate to a value of about 18 to $1,900 a piece.

So we multiply that figure by five.

If we routinely sell yearlings, a good bull's worth around $9,500 to us.

Interestingly enough, if we retain ownership all the way through finishing and talk about selling finished beef calves, right now, a 1,400 pound finished steer heifer is trading for about 172 to 173 live.

- We do the math on that, multiply it by five, that's telling us that a good bull's worth 12,000 to 12,500 if that is our intended marketing plan for calves.

Now, we can take that a step further.

If we're investing in genetics that are gonna pay dividends on some sort of a carcass value marketing system for those finished cattle, we can bump that figure even higher if we know we're gonna be selling something at a value beyond a commodity price.

Now, what do we learn from that exercise?

That's a wide range of numbers, anywhere from $7,500 up to over 12,000 for a good bull.

One of the key take-home points is, the longer we own the calves sired by that bull, the greater opportunity we get to capture the genetic value out of that bull.

And a good bull has more value to our operation if we are retaining ownership longer.

Along those same lines, we haven't considered the dynamic of keeping replacement heifers out of that bull.

We start entering that into the equation and we start to grow these figures by quite a bit.

We keep one set of daughters out of a bull, we're gonna have that bull's genetic influence in our herd, particularly in our cow herd, for 10 years to come.

A lot of economic impact as a result of our bull selection.

(upbeat music) - We're joined now by Dr. Kim Anderson, our crop marketing specialist.

Kim, give us an idea of what's been happening in the crop markets the last few weeks.

- Well, if you look at wheat, corn, and beans, they've been going in the tank during January.

- Well, that doesn't sound good.

Why don't you run the numbers?

- Well, if you look at wheat, go back to December, it's 5.75 to $6 throughout Dec.

Came into January, then started going in the tank.

It's dropped down to around $5.45.

It's back up about, though, 25 cents to 5.70 now.

Corn, same way, up 4.70, 4.75 during December, fell down to 4.27 as we got into this part of January, and it's only picked up about a dime.

The poster child, soybeans, it also, you know, up close to 12.50, right around 12.75, something like that during December, fell down to $11.53.

It's picked up around 30 cents now up to, you know, around 10.70, 10.80, something like that.

The average prices on those, if you look back over time, 10.80 for beans, 4.70 for corn, and 5.70 for wheat.

- Why do you think we're seeing these declines?

- Supply and demand situation.

You look at the stocks-to-use ration for wheat, especially hard red winter wheat, 33% stocks-to-use ratio last year.

48% projected for this year.

The average is 49, so we got right at average stocks-to-use ratio or stock situation for wheat.

United States at 30% last year, up to 34 now, but the average is 41.

So your soft red and your other wheats, they're a little tighter than hard red winter wheat.

And the world situation, 34 last year, down to 33% this year.

The average is 35, so it's near average.

We've just got more wheat right now than we can put on the market.

You look at the seedings, we had the seedings come out that report less acres than last year, and I think that helped our prices a little bit as we've seen over the last week or so.

- What are your wheat harvest price expectations?

- Well, what I did for looking at wheat harvest, one, you can forward contract for around $5.70 a bushel.

I looked since 2009 through 2023, the average January price and how did that compare to your average harvest price coming up, that's the June, July, and August.

You look at the average January for this year, $5.65.

Over that 15-year period, on the average, prices were either 65 cents lower or 85 cents higher.

So a range that gets you 50% of the time, it's from $5 to 6.50, with an expected of 5.70.

If you go on out, your biggest moves, minus 95 cents down a plus $1.50 up, that gets you a potential price range for this harvest from $4.70 to 7.15.

So expected, $5 to 6.50 with most likely around 5.70.

4.70 on the bottom, 7.15 on the top.

- That was a lotta pencil to paper right there, wasn't it?

- Yeah, but that's a nice range.

- Sure.

- And it's a realistic range because that's what's happened over the last 15 years.

There's a lot of volatility in this market.

- For sure, let's switch gears and talk about corn and soybeans now.

- Well, we'll do it a little tighter there, since they're further out.

You look at corn, I think you can forward contract for around $4.50, $4.60 cents.

Soybeans, you can forward contract for around $11.30.

You bring in cotton in here, somewhere around 77, 78 cents is what we're looking for cotton as we go out into that time period.

- Okay, Kim, great analysis, as always.

We'll see you next week.

(upbeat music) Finally today, we find out why Andy Cole was selected as a Distinguished Alumnus in the Ferguson College of Agriculture.

Video production manager Craig Woods put together this story.

- This is one of the four respiration chambers we have here.

- At Bushland, Texas, it's comprised- - [Narrator] Researcher Andy Cole has dealt with some of the most critical cattle industry issues.

But it all started on a farm in the Texas Panhandle.

- So I grew up hoeing cotton and driving a tractor.

But the thing I really liked was working with cattle and pigs.

So I decided to go to West Texas A&M University, where I got my bachelor's degree in agriculture with an animal science option.

- [Narrator] Under the advice of his ag-ed teacher, Andy chose Oklahoma State University for his graduate work.

He earned his master's degree in animal science in 1973 and a doctoral degree in animal nutrition with a minor in biochemistry in 1975.

Andy would teach briefly at Texas Tech before returning to the Texas Panhandle, began a 40-year career at a USDA research facility in Bushland, Texas.

Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs for Texas Tech University Michael Galyean was Andy's college roommate.

- When Andy was in graduate school, he wasn't the best public speaker.

And when he got out, knowing what he needed to do as a scientist, and I think, again, what he needed to do in terms of conveying the results of his data and his research to people, he joined Toastmasters.

And he won competitions, and I mean, he reached the top that you can reach in Toastmasters.

- [Narrator] Andy would eventually use those speaking skills when he began researching shipping fever, a significant concern in the livestock industry.

- It's got the name, because normally, it's when cattle are shipped from one location to another.

- Andy became, over the course of 15 years or so, a national expert in that topic, was, you know, writing, talking everywhere on the topic, and really well-thought-of, well-recognized.

- [Narrator] Made career for Andy.

The USDA asked him to shift his research to examine greenhouse gas emissions from feedlots, an area of research that Andy knew well.

- And I did my master's work on methane inhibitors in beef cattle.

And when I finished my career, I was back to working on methane.

So you can say I came back around to the home again.

About every 20 years, there's a publication called "Nutrient Requirements of Beef Cattle" that gets revised.

And in that publication, today, there are two chapters that have been added to that since I started to work, one on feeding stressed calves and one on environmental issues.

- [Narrator] After winning many industry awards, Andy has given back to the educational institutions that gave him his start.

He established the Cole Agricultural Endowment Scholarship at West Texas A&M.

But when it came to OSU, he did something a little different by creating a traveling scholarship.

- I was talking with Gerald Horn one day at animal science meetings and mentioned I wanted to start a scholarship in animal science.

And Gerald said, well, the biggest problem they had was they didn't have money to pay for graduate students to travel to scientific meetings.

And since I had been there, done that, I could understand that I wanted to be able to help out that way.

So I was able to start a graduate student travel scholarship.

- [Narrator] Andy has also funded a student huddle room in the New Frontiers Agricultural Hall.

- My vo-ag teacher and my 4-H leader, both were graduates from OSU in ag education and animal science.

And so I've been able to hopefully fund a student congregation area there that their names will be on.

- It's wonderful to see such a high-caliber researcher remember where his roots are and remember his alma mater.

And we're very grateful for him thinking back on his alma mater and inspiring a next generation of students to follow in his footsteps.

- [Narrator] And for those future students who'll be using those study areas, Andy has some simple advice.

- I love a quote by John Wayne in the movie "The Sands of Iwo Jima."

"Life is tough.

It's tougher if you're stupid."

And so I think, try not to be stupid.

Try to keep your wits about you, and it'll just make life and progressing a lot easier if you just do that.

- [Narrator] Celebrating Dr. Andy Cole, 2023 Ferguson College of Agriculture Distinguished Alumnus.

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

A reminder, you can see us anytime at sunup.okstate.edu.

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.

(upbeat country music) (cheerful guitar music)