(light music) - Happy New Year, everyone.

And welcome to "SUNUP."

I'm Lyndall Stout.

We begin today talking about the coldest months of the year as we enter 2024, and getting your operation prepared for winter.

Let's start with winterizing equipment.

Here's "SUNUP's" Kurtis Hair with Dr. John Long.

- Well, many producers know what to do when it comes to storing equipment over the winter.

But John, there might be a few things that they may overlook and might not have even thought about, right?

- Sure, yeah, there's, I mean, a lotta people, if you've been around the cold environment, you know that there's water and those are the things we have trouble with.

But if you're running a newer piece of equipment, especially newer diesels, one of the things we have to be mindful of is our diesel exhaust fluid.

- So what's the concern with that?

- So most of that's distilled water, really, in reality.

And that's something we have to add to newer diesel engines for emissions purposes.

And when we get down below about 12 degrees Fahrenheit, it freezes pretty solid and expands.

If we're talking about our tanks, so we put it in our tractors, our trucks, they're heated and can handle that.

But if we're using systems to actually dispense that or we have our storage containers, we wanna make sure we keep everything in those containers and purge those storage systems if they're gonna be in a cold environment.

- And I imagine, you said expanding.

(laughing) Like when something freezes, it expands, which could, I imagine, cause a lotta issues.

- Yeah, that can cause a lotta issues, especially if you got a transfer system with a pump or valves that you're using to basically dispense diesel exhaust fluid.

Those things can expand and break and bust, and then you're talking about a lotta costly repairs.

- So is it really just kinda watching the weather, and how often should you be checking once it gets down below those temperatures?

- You should be checking probably, making sure that those systems, if they're not in a heated environment, making sure that whenever we're gonna have that cooler weather, when it finally starts to kick in, that you start getting those things flushed out, make sure that they're clean.

- So what are some other things that producers can really do to really make sure that their equipment's gonna be in working order, you know, come the springtime?

- So like a lot of equipment, if we're talking about sprayers or other types of equipment, anything that's using water, we wanna be able to flush those.

We can use different types of antifreeze, like RV antifreeze you can buy at any type of store, to flush the systems, make sure those valves and those pumps are good.

And then even just normal equipment that doesn't use water, like our drills, our combines, things like that that we're using, make sure those are really cleaned out really well, especially things that harvest material.

'Cause it's a great place for rodents and pests to get into.

- Yeah, that's something my dad always worried about, especially like with his boat or just really anything that he was kinda putting up is just mice getting in there.

Is there really anything you can do about that other than keeping things clean?

- Just keeping things clean.

You can use other types of rodent deterrents and things like that.

But the big thing is just keeping things clean when you put 'em up for storage.

- Everybody loves a good barn cat.

(laughing) - That's right.

- Yeah.

So are there, when it comes to things that aren't necessarily the big equipment, just kinda stuff that you would be using just, you know, here and there on the farm, what are some things that they can do as well to make sure that those would be, or more, maybe smaller engine-type stuff?

- Yeah, so for smaller engines, the big thing with that is just making sure that if we have any fuel still standing in the engine, we need to make sure we put stabilizer in it, run it through the system so that we get it all the way through the carburetor and everything.

Anything that has a battery on it, you wanna make sure either we disconnect the battery or we put a maintainer on that battery.

Because we want it to be available to us when we come back in the spring or whenever we use it again.

- You know, in the wintertime too, things slow down quite a bit for everybody.

So I would imagine this is probably a good time to take advantage of some of the things that they could do to kinda make their equipment run better.

- Yeah, definitely.

I mean, we get through the season.

We've got a lot of wear and tear that we put on our equipment through the season, and we've pushed it hard.

And so the wintertime's a great time for us to start looking at places where we have issues, maybe things that are just repairable parts that we need to replace each season.

(engine whirring) And so if we've got a space that we can actually do that during the winter, we can move equipment in and out, thinking about that, something we should consider when we're looking at storage.

- All right, thanks, John.

John Long, OSU Extension ag engineer.

(light music) - Welcome to the first edition of the Mesonet weather report for 2024.

This month marks the 30th anniversary of the Oklahoma Mesonet providing weather information to the state.

As we welcome in another new year, I thought it would be prudent to look back at the weather summary for the year we just finished.

Starting with average temperatures, we see that '23 was slightly warmer than the 15-year long-term average.

Mostly coming in at about one to two degrees above normal.

Looking at the state by month, we experienced eight months above normal and only four months below normal.

I don't have the official average monthly temperatures yet for December, but we do know that it was very warm, up to five degrees compared to the long-term average.

- Switching over to rainfall, the least amount of moisture was the 19.7 inches reported at Hollis in the far southwest.

The wettest spot was the 65.7 inches measured at Mount Herman in the far southeast.

Comparing this to the long-term average, we noticed that blue areas were where rain far exceeded normal precipitation.

The relatively wettest spot was at Beaver in the Oklahoma Panhandle.

That received 13.9 inches above normal.

The red areas show the driest relative areas of being in the far southwest, and more significantly in the upper northeast counties.

Areas here from Foraker in Osage to Miami in Ottawa were 10 or more inches below what is normally expected.

When you convert rainfall over to a percent of normal, this again clearly points out the two driest zones only receiving about three-fourths of normal.

With rainfall, it is not only how much you get, but when you get it, that counts.

Looking by month, we see that we had six months above normal and six months below normal.

After a very dry spring in April and May, it was good to get some replenishment in the summer months of June, and especially July.

Two months of dryness followed in August and September, but a wet October was just in time for wheat planting.

Unofficial December rainfall amounts came in well above the long-term average for the month.

Another way to look at weather is to divide it up by the state's climate regions.

The state has nine divisions, as you can see from this map, along with where the locations of each mesonet site are.

Starting with the very wet panhandle division, the 23 rainfall amounts are shown by the blue line, and the long-term average is in the fill area.

After starting off very dry, it started raining in May, and stayed above normal from then on.

Comparing that to the relatively driest region, the northeast, we see the opposite, starting wet, but dropping below normal in May, and staying below the average line for the rest of the year.

Gary will be back with us next week for another edition of "The Mesonet" weather report.

- Talking cattle now, and the unique needs of livestock when it comes to water during the coldest months of the year.

Once again, here's Kurtis Hare, this time with Dr. Dave Lalman.

- Winter in Oklahoma can present a lot of issues for cattle producers, and Dave, one of the issues is, you know, with ponds, and as we can see right here, ponds are already starting to freeze over, so you know, ice is something that producers need to be concerned with, you know, in regards to access to their ponds.

- Cattle need access to water, you know, 24/7 basically, and it's interesting that lower quality forage actually increases water intake, whereas high quality forage reduces water intake.

So water consumption is still important in the wintertime.

Cows that, well, when it's below 40 degrees, cows don't drink as much water, of course, as they do in the summertime, and generally, just in case folks need to know if they need to haul water or whatever, a cow's gonna require somewhere in the neighborhood of about one gallon per 100 pounds of body weight, give or take.

If they're lactating, they'll drink more.

If they're dry, they'll drink less.

- So in regards to, you know, ice and having access to water, what are some things that producers can do to make sure that their cattle are safe, and some things that they need to just really consider just for ice?

- Yeah, it can be a problem, and it's just, it's good to be aware for maybe folks that are new to the industry or haven't experienced it, that cattle, you know, our part of the world, don't experience thick ice that they can walk on very often, and so they're not, you know, they don't know the dangers, and tend maybe just to walk out there on the ice.

- [Kurtis] Especially those yearling heifers.

- Especially, because we know they've never seen ice on the water, probably only as little babies, maybe if they're early spring born calves or something, but yeah, and you know, the obvious resolution to that would be to find another source of water, and fence them away from that pond if possible.

But we understand that's not possible for everyone, so you know, really, the only thing you could do in those situations is to make sure you keep the water open so they're not walking around on the pond looking for an open water source.

- And that means breaking ice.

- That just means chopping the ice, do it every day, and make sure you have, you know, an adequate stretch of ice broken so that those cattle have plenty of water access, they don't have to crowd around it, some you know, out there on the edge is falling through the ice.

- Yeah, and you know, as you can see, like we got a obviously drought, huge issue this past, you know, last year, and probably gonna be going into the new year, and you can see the pond right here is, you know, severely drought stressed.

So in regards to water quality, especially in the winter, how does that impact, you know, things?

- Well, unfortunately, it's another impact of drought conditions.

You know, when you have evaporation of water, there's generally, most ponds are sediment, and if cattle have access to the ponds, they're gonna stir that sediment up.

- That increases the total dissolved solids in the water.

And as the water evaporates, you know, the concentration to those total dissolved solids is going to increase.

And so it can get to a point where it's a problem for cattle.

General guidelines, if you have your water tested, it needs to be somewhere below, around 3.000 parts per million is very safe.

And you know, that's a test that's easily done at our Soil, Water, & Forage Analytical Laboratory here in Stillwater.

The cost is about $15 a sample.

- And obviously, producers can always contact their local county extension office for water testing just for help.

- They can help, you know, how to sample the water.

They, you know, they're very familiar with the Soil, Water, & Forage Analytical Laboratory that work with them all the time.

And so, yeah, they can be a big help when it comes to the water testing and forage testing as well.

- All righty, thanks, Dave.

Dr. Dave Lalman, beef cattle specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

And to find your local county office, go to our website, sunup.okstate.edu.

(upbeat music) - So as we enter the colder months of the year, I think it's particularly important to consider how we're taking care of those pregnant cows.

In particular, we need to consider fetal programming, which is the concept that how stress and other influences on the cow, particularly, nutritional influences on that cow, impact not only her, but maybe more importantly, that calf in utero.

And so I think it's important to recognize, you know, for a long time it's been thought, well, the biggest part of growing for that calf in utero is gonna be in that last trimester.

And what we found over recent years is we've got more and more impacts recognizing that organ development and tissue development, placental development, occur throughout the pregnancy.

And so we need to make sure we're maintaining those pregnant cows right from the get go and we're monitoring them closely, particularly, again, in these winter months as nutrition reserves become depleted.

The beginning of the year is a really great time to sit down with your veterinarian and discuss some of your operational goals and how your veterinary practitioner fits into the team for your operation.

What things should we be considering as we go into the next year so that we can have a profitable and successful beef cattle operation?

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

Happy New Year.

This week's topic is basically a list of questions and checkpoints that we want to think about as we plan for a successful 2024.

As always, Cow-Calf Corner is gonna continue to talk about the latest technologies and best management practices, as well as make you aware of some educational opportunities that can work to your benefit and increase the profit potential of your operation.

We're encouraged that it looks like the value of cattle is gonna remain strong in the next year.

First question that we wanna address, since most of us are in a spring calving operation, is our calving toolbox full on inventory and do we know where it is?

It's always bad if we approach calving season and at the point we figure out we need to be assisting that first calf heifer, that's when we start looking for our OB chains.

So let's make sure that the calving box, that toolbox full of everything we need is on hand and ready to go.

Second, along with that, do we have colostrum on inventory?

Colostrum is very important.

Third thing that we want address, are we prepared for the spike in cow energy and protein requirements that's gonna happen once she calves and as we face wet cold weather, potentially through calving season?

Next question that we address.

What is our marketing plan for the set of calves that we're gonna have born this upcoming calving season?

And relative to that, as we look ahead to that marketing plan, does that need to impact the type of bulls that we identify to use this calving season?

And along those lines, are we capturing the full genetic potential of our calf crop relative to our marketing plan?

Or is the genetic potential of our calf crop limiting the profit potential of our operation?

All those questions tend to go hand in hand.

Next question we should address, we're still working our way through drought in Oklahoma.

Are we in a situation at present that we are managing for the long-term sustainability of our grazing ecosystem?

That being the soil, the plants, as well as the cattle.

And the final question, are you capitalizing on the educational opportunities that permits you to be a better manager in your operation?

One example I throw at you, this May, May 22nd and 23rd here in Stillwater, OSU will host our cattle conference, The Blueprint for the Future Part Two.

More information on that cattle conference can be found on the SUNUP website.

- But that and other opportunities are what permit us to not only plan, but to be continual learners and do the best job possible of adding profit potential to our cow-calf operation.

Best of luck to each of you in 2024, and thanks for joining us on Cow-Calf Corner.

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

Kim, in late November, you talked about prices just kinda doing whatever during the holidays, not doing much.

First of all, were you right?

And let's start with wheat and kinda what else we can expect now that it's the new year.

- Looking at wheat over the Thanksgiving through the New Year's, we saw those prices range from $5 and 35 cents to $6 and 3 cents, a 68-cent price move.

And over a month's time period, that's not really bad for a price move, maybe a little high.

You look at the average price around $5 and 83 cents over that period, if you look at the stocks situation in the United States and around the world, US ending stocks are around 22% below average, stocks to use around 16% below average, world stock, ending stocks, 8% below average, so relatively tight stocks.

Our average price during a harvest period's around $5 and 80 cents.

You can forward contract for $5.76, so that tells me wheat prices probably should be a little higher.

Did they track like we expected in December?

Eh, mostly, because they were unpredictable.

- Let's talk about corn now.

How are things looking in the corn market?

- Well, corn was relatively stable.

We had a 24-cent price move during that period.

You went from $4 and 41 cents to $4 65 cents.

The bad news is we've had corn prices broke over the last couple days.

They're now down around the bottom, around $4 and 49, they're coming on down.

You look at the stocks to use, and any stocks for corn, any stocks at 20, at 2.15 billion bushels for the US, average 1.7, lots of corn stalks, The world ending stocks are projected to be right at average.

You look at the average price during the corn harvest, $4 and 80 cents, you can forward contract for $4.73.

That tells me that corn prices right now are probably where they should be, given the situation.

And as we go on out to the 24 crop, unless things change, maybe slightly higher prices.

- How about soybeans?

- Soybeans, you know, they were the poster child coming into Thanksgiving.

I mean, increasing prices, old beans looked good, the harvest was relatively good.

They fell off about 80 cents over this time period, and it was just a downtrend, and they've got that downtrend established.

You look at the price range, $12 and 17 cents to $12 and 97 cents, 80-cent price move.

Not much of a price move for beans, but it's all the same direction.

Average price, $12.61 over that period.

The stock situation, 245 million bushels projected any stocks average 447, tight US stocks, but world, 4.2 billion bushels, The average 3.8 above average and right now, US is trumping the world.

You can forward contract for $11 and 70 cents for 24 delivery.

The average harvest around $10.80, so a bean price is probably where we expect.

We'll have to see what happens on the nearby.

Right now, you gotta be careful with prices, wheat, corn, and beans, because producers, some producers wait 'til after the first of the year to sell into the next calendar year, and the first week or two of a calendar year, you have excess sales, and often you have downward trending prices.

So it'll be another week or two before we get our handle on wheat, corn, and bean prices.

- Last but not least, cotton prices were relatively stable prior to the holidays.

What are you seeing now?

- Oh, they just continued to be stable.

You know, 79.4 cent to an 82.8 cent price move, not much there.

Average around 8.80, that's where it is right now.

You look at the stock situation, 82.4 million bushels on the world versus 87.3, so tight world stocks, US stocks, 3.1 million bales versus 4.0 million, tight stocks there.

You look out to the 24 harvest, around 76 cents.

The average is around 71, 73, somewhere in there.

And so cotton prices, they're just, you know, stable, and I think the stocks and demand situation indicates that they're gonna remain there for a little while.

- Lots of numbers this week as we kind of set the stage for the new year.

What guidance do you have for producers, given what we've talked about this week?

- Well, I think these are the prices that you can use, especially the forward contract prices, looking at that 24 crop to determine how you're gonna use your land, labor, capital, and management to generate a profit, or the highest profit, for the 24 calendar year.

- All righty, Kim, thanks a lot, good to see you, Happy New Year, and we'll see you next week.

- You bet, I'll be here.

- Finally, today, we find out what makes Heather Buckmaster a distinguished alumni in the Ferguson College of Agriculture.

Video production manager Craig Woods put together this story.

(gentle music) - Well, I grew up in Hydro, Oklahoma, on a wheat stalker operation.

And my daily had been in the cattle business for generations.

- [Narrator] Although Heather Buckmaster started Rhodes College in Memphis majoring in International Studies, she quickly realized that agriculture was where her heart was.

- I came back to Oklahoma State, and went into Agricultural Economics.

And because everybody I looked up to at home had ag econ degrees.

- [Narrator] But she still wanted to see the world.

- When I graduated from OSU, I was very interested in international.

I wanted to do something different, something that was challenging, so I did go into Peace Corps.

And so I was excited when I was posted to the Gambia, West Africa.

- [Narrator] Heather worked with women in the area to increase food productions in their gardens.

- A family member sent me a Garth Brooks poster, and I remember looking at it going like "What am I gonna..." I mean "I love Garth Brooks, "but what am I going to do with this poster?"

So I put it on the wall in my mud hut.

The women would come in, and go "Is that your husband?"

And I would always kind of laugh.

And I'd be like "No, if that was my husband "I probably wouldn't be living in a mud hut "in West Africa right now."

I think if there's anything that it does is it teaches you that you can just do anything.

Just get it done.

Figure out how to get it done.

- [Narrator] Heather decided to return to agricultural economics.

After receiving her masters degree, Heather was hired by the Colorado Beef Council as director of marketing.

Heather would be instrumental in introducing new cuts of beef, and critical in helping manage a BSE crisis.

- I love Colorado, but Oklahoma's home, and I always say all of us come home eventually I think.

And so I've been fortunate now to have worked for the Oklahoma Beef Council since 2005.

- Oklahoma is one of the largest beef cattle production states, and so to have somebody like Heather in a leadership role has the potential to really have a profound impact, not just in the state of Oklahoma, but really in an industry that effects our entire country.

- [Narrator] As executive director, Heather helps implement the beef quality assurance in Oklahoma, as well as works with organizations such as the U.S. Meat Export Federation to increase the demand for the state's beef world wide.

- She also works with Oklahoma FFA to get more agricultural educators and their students trained in what's called the masters of beef advocacy program.

- My favorite project would be working with, as the Oklahoma Beef Council, would be the Steven Adams Project.

Steven Adams was an NBA Thunder player at the time, and I remember going to the board, and saying "This is gonna sound really crazy.

"He's from New Zealand, "and what if we did a campaign with Steven Adams "as part of a video work on social media?"

- Mate, I eat beef all the time.

I smash steaks all the bloody time, mate.

- By the fourth day I was able to call our board, and say "This campaign's paid for itself."

And I had to laugh when they said "Well it's big beef."

And I said "Not big beef, it' s small nonprofit."

You know, in Oklahoma with three staff people it was so much fun just to see the results from that.

- [Narrator] In 2010, Heather married.

No, not Garth Brooks, but Mike Schulty, Executive Director at the Oklahoma Wheat Commission.

- I think that Heather and Mike are an amazing couple, and they have the beef and the bread.

- We have probably the two most important commodities in the state in terms of economics in wheat and cattle, so to have Mike and Heather that are able to work together across those two commodities, it's really a valuable asset for producers in the state to really move us forward, and think about opportunities where we can increase profitability, and increase economic sustainability for framers in the state.

- I feel like this aware belongs to so many people.

To my family who have been a wonderful support.

My dad gave me a love for the cattle industry.

My mother's always been a positive force.

One of the things I love about the cattle industry is it really is this massive support system because we all want the industry to be successful, and I've been very fortunate to work for the Beef Checkoff.

So when I think about the award, I'm very honored, but for me it really belongs to so many other individuals.

- [Narrator] Celebrating Heather Buckmaster, 2023 Ferguson College of Agriculture Distinguished Alumna.

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

A reminder you can see us any time on our website, and also follow us on YouTube and social media.

We hope your near year is off to a great start, and we're glad you've joined us.

I'm Lyndall Stout, we'll see you next time at Sunup.

(upbeat music)