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

I'm Lyndall Stout.

We begin today with an update on Oklahoma's wheat crop and some of the challenges producers face amid worsening drought across our state.

Here's our extension area agronomist, Josh Bushong, with more.

- Well, the wheat's been through quite a bit this season so far.

Kinda have a wide range.

Obviously, here in Stillwater, things look a lot better than as we get west, especially up to the Panhandle, or down towards Altus.

For the most part, lacking a lot of wheat pasture this year.

We just didn't get the growth, mostly, obviously, because of the moisture.

So for the most part, the wheat didn't get a stand until we get out there where we've gone over a hundred days without a significant rain.

We still have some wheat that's still in the ground that got a very thin stand to it right now.

So those acres are going to be obviously looked at pretty hard, but as we get closer to North Central Oklahoma, or that kind of 81 corridor, Highway 81, there is some wheat pasture to be found but for the most part, it is less than typical.

So the wheat right now, just looking at something like NASS, the USDA, ag service, just comparing it to last year where we're usually have about 50% of our acres grazed at this point in time in the year.

I think it was down to 40% or 41%, so we're down 10 points off that.

I believe that at the beginning of the month, we're still in the 30s, so we're seeing more cattle turned out in some areas to get that number up but for the most part, what I've heard as we get further Northwest, what acres we were having grazed, they've already been removed because of the lack of the forage.

And some stands where we turned out a little too soon, we thinned out some stands because we never got a really good root system developed on the wheat.

So the stockers did thin out the stands by pulling those plants up.

But like I said, the biggest thing is having enough pasture right now to withstand those.

And I would assume most of them that are grazing right now, the stocking rates are quite a bit lighter than what we typically run early spring.

At this point we're having a real big decision-making trial on the go.

Guys are determining, is it worth taking the grain?

Obviously, the wheat price is looking pretty favorable.

And then if we are taking it to grain, when should we pull off these cattle especially with the heavily stressed crop that we have right now.

Should we pull out a little bit sooner to give that wheat a little break to get some regrowth on it since we never got the fall growth?

And then how much money do they wanna put into their crop?

How much fertilizer do we wanna top-dress?

How much nitrogen?

And then can we afford to maybe put some other crop protection products out there like a herbicide or insecticide?

For the most part, luckily, we haven't seen a lot on the pathogen sides.

Haven't really seen any rust or powdery mildew or any septoria or anything like that.

Insects have been pretty light for the most part.

A few cases where we had some mites come in or some aphids.

From what I've seen maybe a few, even saw some out here are still below those thresholds which I think are about maybe 30 per stem.

So we're still holding off on that.

The weeds, they're stressed just like the crop.

And so typically we want to get out there as soon as we can once we start get some green up to it.

I'd say, wait for a couple of rains before we start doing those herbicide applications, just because I want that weed actively growing to get good control.

And then some of our products, some of our traded products like the coaxial system using the aggressor herbicide that's out there.

For those traded wheat varieties, we don't want that wheat any more stress than it has to be because we might see an increase in crop injury.

And even stuff we've been spraying for decades like Finesse, we've seen instances where if we spray around a freezing event or very cold temperatures, we've seen crop injury with products that we're used to like Finesse.

And so I want the crop to rebound, I want the weeds to rebound so I'm pushing off those herbicide applications, for one, make sure we have a crop to go after that can support that kind of investment.

And also I'd rather focus on getting that nitrogen out now, I know it's still early, we still have some time if we've got a lot of acres to get over.

There are some products might buy you a couple of weeks on some of those top dress applications.

For the most part, like I said, I'd focus on top dressing first and then we'll look at those other inputs.

And then going back to the safety of the crop with the wheat stress so much as it is as we get out further west, I really hesitate to use flat fan nozzles.

Guys are wanting to do 2 in 1 with the herbicide and that top dress, that flat fan with the UAN urea ammonium nitrate, we're going to have some crop injury with that.

So I'd rather have the separate applications.

Go out there to your top dress and then once we get some growth on it, come back and get her or herbicide out there and set aside if needed and stuff like that.

So the price of fertilizers up twice a week.

So you gotta really kind of put the pencil to it.

I see what your budgets are looking like but I want to say it's still under about a dollar, 90 cents to a dollar per pound of nitrogen and a bushel wheat for what seven, eight bucks right now.

So for $2 a nitrogen, you're still making money on that investment even with application as long as we get the rains to support that crop.

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

Today I want to talk about old horses and their care just a bit.

So certainly with the increases in veterinary medicine, good nutrition, our horses are able to function quite well for a much longer period of time.

So it's not unheard of to have horses that live to their late twenties, thirties, or sometimes even 40.

And certainly those old horses with experience have a lot of value, certainly can be productive and stay in the show pen or using horses for a lot longer than they used to.

However, that does mean we need to take special care of them.

Typically when we're thinking about older horses, one of our biggest issues is making sure that they stay at a good weight and a good nutritional status.

So the key to that is actually their teeth.

So essentially as horses get older, their teeth may have excessive wear, be uneven, they can even lose teeth as that root of the tooth gets more shallow.

So a key is good dental care and working with your veterinarian to monitor that on a routine basis.

Luckily, February is commonly known as dental month both of our small animals and our equine.

So check with your local veterinarian to see if they're running any specials on getting dentals done in this February.

Along with good tooth maintenance, many older horses may actually need some special feed or more processed feed.

Essentially as those teeth wear down, they're not able to chew that long stem forage or hay quite as much as they used to.

They still may be able to do pretty well on pasture with it's more tender grass but otherwise you may have to have a pelleted, chopped or a cubed hay source to allow those horses to still have adequate forage.

You may also look into complete feeds that ensure all the nutrients that that older horse needs is in a form that's easy to eat and readily digestible by their little bit more older tract.

You want to be sure to make plans to attend our March 5th Horse Owners Workshop here in Stillwater.

We're going to be featuring three tracks worth a trip programming for our more novice horse owners to advanced horse owners and even our adult leaders and volunteers that work with you.

So we'll have programs relative to donkey nutrition, running successful youth programs and clubs, youth leadership skills, and some fun activities on making biosecurity fun for kids.

Again, everything from adult education to youth, that's there for you March 5th at our Horse Owners Workshop.

For more information on caring for your older horse, visit OSU extension fact sheets for more detailed information, or listen to "Extension Horses Tack Box Talk" podcast series available on all devices.

- In this week's edition of the Mesonet weather report, let's take a look at the progress of this year's wheat crop.

I want to focus on temperature impacts and later Gary will discuss the bigger issue, which is the limited amounts of moisture available.

The warmer than normal winter today should have the wheat crop further along in development.

One way to illustrate this would be to look at the Wheat Degree Days chart.

Degree days accumulate whenever the temperature is above 40 degrees.

This year we are about 1,300 degree days or about 30% above the five-year average.

A more important method to look at development would be to look at progress towards first hallow stem.

A tool available on the Mesonet website looks at soil heat units and estimates when wheat varieties will potentially reach the first hallow stem stage.

This is extremely important for wind to remove cattle from dual purpose wheat fields.

Specific varieties are broken into early, middle, or late categories.

Here is the early map through early this week.

We recommend hands-on scouting when it reaches 5% and likely need to pull cattle at 50% or the red color.

The tool can reject up to two weeks as well.

Here is that early variety two-week map showing lots of red.

Chances are this is highly overestimating because water has dramatically limited wheat growth this year.

- Thanks, Wes.

And good morning everyone.

Well, unfortunately we have another week of drought intensification across the state.

Let's get right to the new drought monitor map and see where we're at.

Unfortunately, we have a few more of those bad colors on the map just a little bit more red, a little bit more brown, a little bit more on that dark red too out there in the western Panhandle where we now have that exceptional drought going from about the center of Texas county all the way into New Mexico.

So an intensification out in that part of the state.

Basically the Western half the state covered with extreme drought, we do have severe drought over much of the rest of the state.

Only far, far east central Oklahoma remains out of any type of dry conditions at this time, they've had a few more rainfall events.

That shows up in the Mesonet maps from the start of the climatological winter back on December 1st, 2021, we can see that east central part of the state got four to five inches back in those last two months.

So a little bit better out there, but when you get to I-35 and to the west, basically an inch or less rain, and for much of that, it's less than a quarter inch, In fact much of it is around a 10th of an inch.

So definitely not good news, a dry part of the year or much drier than what it normally is.

That shows up quite well on the percent of normal rainfall total over that timeframe.

Again much of the Western half the state, less than 25 of normal.

In fact, a lot of it is less than 10% of normal.

And then of course, much of the rest of the state is below normal, at least to some degree.

That warm weather in December sure didn't help our chances to get out of drought impacted it exacerbated there a drought quite dramatically.

When we look at the outlooks for February through April, from the Climate Prediction Center, we see increased odds of above normal temperatures across the entire state of Oklahoma but especially across the southern half of the state and also the entire Panhandle.

So that's not good news for drought conditions, at least.

Precipitation.

We see increased odds of below normal precipitation for those three months but especially across far Western Oklahoma in the Panhandle unfortunately where the drought is at its worst.

For east Oklahoma, they see equal odds of above normal, near normal or below normal precipitation.

So not quite as bad for that part of the state.

But if temperatures are above normal, that's almost as bad as if you're just a little bit below normal on precipitation.

When you combine the two, that's when we get really bad drought conditions start to intensify and spread more rapidly.

That's it for this time, we'll see you next time on the Mesonet Weather Report.

(upbeat music) - Good morning, Oklahoma.

Welcome to "Cow-Calf Corner."

This week we're going to talk about something that kind of hits home because to this point in Oklahoma, we have been fortunate to have a very mild winter.

We have not had a great deal of precipitation.

I realized there's a downside to that, but from a standpoint of just cow maintenance, looking at our breeding herds and evaluating what's going on in those, it's been a pretty good winter to this point to maintain body condition, keep those cows in good shape and we've not had a lot of those environmental stressors like really cold weather, not to say that it isn't potentially on the horizon for us but it creates an opportunity right now.

If we take a look at those cows that are going to be calving this spring, those heifers, and even the bulls were going to turn out later this spring, when we keep in mind that we would like those heifers at a body condition score of 6 going into calving season, we'd like to cows to be somewhere in the 5's, maybe a 5.5, and for the sake of breeding bulls as we look at the time we're going to turn them out later, we'd like to be them to be about a 5.5 body condition score 6 as well.

These mild temperatures right now permit us the opportunity to go out and evaluate body condition scores on the breeding herd and put some weight or flesh on them, probably in a more efficient manner than we could if they were suffering from really severe temperatures.

We know body condition scores going into calving season are critical on those cows, very correlated to their reproductive performance and how quick they're going to have fertile heats and breed back in the 90 days following calving.

So to keep our cows and those first calf heifers on schedule.

So they continue to wean off a calf for every 365 days we want them in the appropriate body condition score going into calving.

By that same token as we look at breeding bulls right now, yes, it may be the off season, but if we can put the flesh on them that we need, we got their batteries fully charged, we've got them fit and athletic, they're going to be more likely at turnout to be servicing and settling more cows and facilitating that process of getting more calves born earlier in the calving season that following year.

So we want those bulls in good shape.

So seize the opportunity while the temperatures are mild and we are enjoying a milder winter right now in Oklahoma.

If some changes in body condition scores in the breeding herd are necessary, we might still have some harsh weather looming on the horizon here the next couple months but use this opportunity while it exists.

Thank you for joining us on "Cow-Calf Corner."

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

Kim let's kind of start things off with what the market is offering for 2022 harvested wheat.

- Well, there's a lot of volatility in this market right now.

You go up at Medford it's somewhere around $7.90, go down to Altus, Snyder in that area, it's $7.83.

And if you go out to the Panhandle Parrington and that area, $7.80.

- So this 7.90 range, how does that compare to historic prices?

- It's relatively good, I'd say it's very good.

I'll go back to June of 2009 to where prices are now the average price for the June, July and August time period, the harvest time period, is $5.50.

So that 7.90 is really good.

You look at the lows and the highs in 2016, you had a $3.24 and in '11 and '12, you had 7.68 and 7.74.

So that's the high average for those three months and we're above that.

Now you gotta be careful here because you go to 2011, you had that 7.68 average.

The range in those three months of the prices was from 6.72 to 8.69, a $2 range in that three month time period.

You look at 2012, the average was 7.74.

The range was 5.99 to 90.3 and that 90.3 occurred in July.

So you may have a high price but you've got a lot of volatility too.

So you got to be careful how you pull the trigger on that price.

- A lot of things to consider.

I think a question that people have is what are the odds that these relatively high prices we're seeing now or that are projected will remain?

- I think they're high because look the situation, you got their cop condition that's below average, the hard red winter wheat production area, Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Southern Nebraska, North to South Dakota, Colorado, Montana, that's where we produce produce our weight.

You look at the crop condition in Oklahoma, 43% of its poor to very poor, 5% last year.

You look at Texas 71% of its poor to very poor, 41% last year; Kansas, better condition, 31% poor to very poor.

So our crop conditions in poor conditions.

And if you look at the drought situation, that'll tell you why the prices will probably remain high.

The drought, if you look at the map, the red is extreme drought, the orange brown is severe drought in yellow.

That pretty much covers our whole area with a large percentage of it at that extreme level.

You look at the 90 day forecast for the drought, brown in this chart shows that so you see that it's going to be persistent, it's expected to be persistent at least through April.

The yellow means that the drought is going to increase in that area and that covers most of all the hard red winter weight.

So the yields are probably going to be below average, that's the odds and that means our price will probably hold.

- Certainly tough weather conditions for Oklahoma wheat country.

With all of this you've talked about, would you forward contract 2022 wheat?

- Well, the problem is going to be, if my wheat's in poor condition right now, I don't know my yield and I don't want a forward contract at a relatively high price and not be able to deliver.

If I hadn't sold any, I'd probably sell 10 or 15% just to lock in that near $8 price, but I'd be very careful about forward contracting.

The key time period, one is the drought projection going to be correct, and two, what's May and June gonna look like if they continue dry, we're not going to have much weight, but if you don't have much weight, we could even have a higher price.

- Okay, Kim, keep us posted and we'll see you again next week.

Thank you.

- Hello, my name is Brian Freking, I work for OSU Extension.

I'm a livestock area specialist.

And today we're going to demonstrate how to walk cattle quietly into a working facility.

Let's go ahead and demonstrate how to do that.

The key to low stress cattle handling is to understand cattle flight zone, being able to read cattle behavior, be seen and move cattle with a line of focus.

Facility design should allow for easy cattle movements.

Consider three head at a time as a goal number of making cattle feel comfortable and moving freely.

A common mistake in cattle handling is cramming too many into the system.

One guideline is only bringing the amount of cattle that can fill the alley.

Non-slip flooring is an essential element to good working facilities.

Animals tend to panic if they slip.

Consider rubber matting as they exit the squeeze shoot to prevent animals from stumbling.

Other options are a rough grooved, concrete surface, or even a sandbox placed at the exit point.

In summary, low stress cattle handling minimizes noise and is usually correlated with increased performance and health outcomes.

We want cattle handling to respond favorably to routine management practices.

Cattle are prey animals so when you move into the flight zone, they will move away from you.

Always considered the human element to minimize the danger of tripping handlers.

Cattle will be a lot calmer with good design facilities when footing is planned.

Remember these three key points: Never abuse cattle.

Provide training to personnel.

Observe animal movements in the facility and make notes for improvements.

- Finally, today I look back at a "SUNUP" favorite behind the scenes at the draft horse pull at the state fair of Oklahoma.

Early on a Sunday morning, a truck arrives with a four ton load at the state fairgrounds in Oklahoma city.

Within minutes of stopping the cargo steps into the sunlight and onto the scales.

The first set of Belgian draft horses, the lighter team weighs 3,600 pounds.

The heavy weights top 4,500.

Jaw dropping size and stature are inspiring to say the least.

- We're at the Oklahoma Draft Horse Pull, It's an up split overweight pull.

So the horses are all weighed.

They take the total number of teams, they split it in the middle.

We have the bottom half of those teams there'll be in the lightweights and the top half of those teams are in the heavyweights.

- [Lyndall] Owner, Brad Brazeal and team member, Ty Hickman lead them to the barn where preparation commences.

First up, the horses settle into their stalls and get water feed and hay.

Some are more patient than others.

- They're friends with each other.

They spend about six hours in a harness staying side by side all day working.

- [Lyndall] And make no mistake, each horse has his own personality and style.

- I'll start with the biggest horse I have, he's SpongeBob.

He's kind of a crowd favorite.

He's a super strong horse.

- [Lyndall] SpongeBob's also a world record holder.

- The next horse, the horse that I pull with him, his name's Ted.

He's a big chocolate horse.

Very mild-mannered, easy to get along with.

- [Lyndall] Perky and Barney makeup the lightweights.

- Perky is a blonde horse.

Pound for pound he's probably one of the strongest horses in the country.

He's more of a follower of the bunch, the other horses can't, Perky's kind of the leader.

He's very quick and he's just a little more honoree than most of them.

- [Lyndall] They compete across the country including the national championships in Florida and the National Western Stock Show in Denver and everywhere in between.

And each time they go through the rigors of getting ready, shampoo, suds, scrubbing, and rinsing.

It's almost time to harness up.

The energy starts to build.

- They get excited.

This is definitely a competition.

They they've been here before, they know what they're doing.

- [Lyndall] Proudly into the ring, go Barney and Perky for teamwork at its finest.

Brad is the driver.

Ty is one of two hookers who literally took what's called a DoubleTree onto the sled in less than two seconds.

- You drop the hook in and they take off and get out of the way in a hurry.

You have to be very cognizant and paying attention at all times.

It's massive, massive animals pulling a lot of weight and so you'll have to respect that.

We'll pull the weight 20 feet.

Once that 20 feet is completed, we'll complete that round and then we'll do another round and they'll add more weight and we'll pull that 20 feet.

They'll continue to add weight until the last person's pulled it the farthest.

- [Lyndall] Competition is fierce, intense, and exciting.

It instill a spirit of community and support for fellow competitors.

Bernie and Perky give it their all, landing in second place.

A short break and then it's time for the heavyweights.

SpongeBob and Ted are ready to go.

- Once you've held the held lines on one of these guys and experience the power that they have and seeing them work, it's very rewarding that they get to do it.

- Being around that kind of power is pretty neat.

- [Lyndall] Block after block is added, round after round and in the end they get win.

The crowd is ecstatic, more than 11,000 pounds for the blue ribbon.

- Just because you have a Belgium doesn't mean you have a pulling horse.

If that horse doesn't have the heart, doesn't want to pull, he's not going to do very good in the competition.

He's got to have the heart and want to do it.

- And update to our story.

Both of those draft horse teams have now retired.

The heavyweight team just this past weekend after competing at the National Western Stock Show at Denver.

And 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 Lyndall Stout, have a great week everyone and remember, Oklahoma agriculture starts at "SUNUP."

(upbeat music)