(lively music) - Hello everyone and welcome to "Sunup".

I'm Lyndall Stout.

It is a problem that can occur anytime in the summer and early fall months, and it's happening as we speak.

We're talking about prussic acid.

Today OSU extension veterinarian, Dr. Barry Whitworth gets us up to speed.

- There have been reports in different areas of the state of cattle producers losing cattle to cyanide or prussic acid toxicity, and some of those producers have expressed some surprise, since we've had relatively abundance of moisture this year in the state of Oklahoma.

I know there's been some areas that have been dry, but I also think if you look back at some of the Mesonet reports, some of these areas have had some dry periods, 21, 28 days of no rain.

As well during that time, our temperatures were very elevated.

Anytime we get conditions like that, that can stress these plants that are in the sorghum family and especially johnsongrass, so you can have problems with cyanide toxicity, even though you would think it wouldn't be a problem particularly this year.

When the plant gets stressed, that's when we see this.

The precursors to the cyanide and prussic acid are concentrated.

So when we have any damage to the plant, those products are going to be released.

So when a cow comes along and eats some of that plant, that breaks down, that cyanide's released.

It's gonna be absorbed into the bloodstream.

It's going to prevent cells from uptaking oxygen.

So these animals are gonna die of asphyxiation.

So typically the clinical signs you're gonna see, these animals initially are gonna start to get weak.

They're gonna tremble, probably go down.

Initially, they'll breathe rather hard.

That's gonna slow down.

You may see excess salivation and eventually this cattle are going to basically just die because they don't get oxygen to their cells and they're just gonna die.

When we look at plants in the sorghum family, especially like johnsongrass, you're gonna see most of the toxin is going to be in that young vegetative growth.

So if the plant has been grazed or mowed and that new growth that's coming out, that's the plants that are gonna be the most dangerous.

There are other things that can contribute to that toxin, especially if we over fertilize with nitrogen and phosphorus.

We can have more problems with the plant.

When a producer decides that they're gonna change pastures and put cattle out into a new pasture, they ought to go out and scout that pasture, make sure they don't see any signs or any plants in there that they think could be a problem.

Also, remember that to be safe, you may want to turn a cow out and see what happens.

Other thing is don't ever turn hungry cattle out onto a new pasture.

We do have ways of testing the plants to see basically, if they have cyanide or prussic acid issues.

If you will contact your local county extension educator, they can assist you with that testing.

For more information, go to the sunup website.

(lively music) - We're joined now by our beef cattle specialist, Dr. Paul Beck.

And Paul, Barry just got done talking about prussic acid, but nitrates are actually a concern too this time of year that producers need to be considering.

- Yeah, prussic acid and nitrate poisoning are similar in that they show the same symptoms in the animal.

And in a lot of cases, the same forage types or the same species can be accumulators of both.

So, and this time of year, we can have concerns in both of those.

So, the way these nitrates work is it keeps the oxygen from taking up nitrogen, taking up oxygen.

So the symptoms of asphyxiation that the animal shows will be very similar for both.

So rapid death, staggering, and all of those same symptoms.

So, both of them can be a concern.

But with nitrates, it's where these plants, cane-type plants, sorghums, sedans, johnsongrass take up nitrogen.

- And they produce a compound called nitrite or nitrate in the plant.

And it's a metabolic secondary compound on its way to producing plant proteins.

So whenever it produces nitrate, it is broken up in the rumen.

The rumen microbes change it to nitrite and that goes into the bloodstream through the rumen wall.

And this nitrite is what is really the issue caused by the animal, but it occurs by rumen fermentation in the microbes making that switch.

- So when we're talking about these plants like Johnson grass, what type of, you know, situation occurs to happen because, you know, some nitrates, there might be some little presence that's not really gonna do much harm, right?

But when it's that abundance of the nitrates, like what causes that?

- So it's the plant taking up nitrogen, and then it's with drought or any other circumstance that causes that plant to stop growing, those nitrates will accumulate.

And it's usually in the older tissue and higher end stems, similar to Prussic acid where it accumulates whenever we have drought, but it's the regrowth of the plant.

So it concentrates in the new growth, the new leaf, or later on in the fall when we have frosts, it'll be frosted damaged leaves.

So Prussic acid will occur more in leaf and new growth and nitrates will occur more in the old growth or lower down on the plant.

- So we're standing next to hay.

It's the time of the year people are putting hay back for the winter.

Is that a concern at all, that, you know, those nitrates or Prussic acid will be in this hay at all?

- Yeah, so if you have a nitrate accumulator or a Prussic acid producer in your haystand, Johnson grass, Sudan grasses, sorghums, that would be a concern.

For hay, when we cut the plant off and it starts drying, the Prussic acid will volatilize and go out in the air.

So it's usually not a concern with a hay crop that's allowed to dry in the field, nitrates stay in the plant.

And once it's there, it's always gonna be there.

So the best case for nitrates is to let it grow and grow out of that issue.

If you have a plant that's got Prussic acid issues and you're gonna cut it for hay, you know, go ahead and cut it for hay and let it get dried down and it will be safe whenever it's done.

- So when it comes to testing for Prussic acid and nitrates, the local county extension offices, they have the means to test if a producers concerned.

- Yes, so if you have concerns, take your plants to your county office since the Prussic acid is so volative and will disappear.

You need to pack it into a Ziploc bag and keep it wet and get it directly to the office.

Or have your county agent come and do this test field side.

If you have nitrates, you know, take a whole plant sample and they will test it for you at the office and see if you have the presence of those compounds.

And then it can be sent off to determine what levels that compound would contain.

- You know, for some producers who might have been kind of haying right up in, around that time when those plants were getting stressed and have already kind of put this up, is it possible to take a core sample from round bale or square bale and send it off for testing?

- Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely.

If you have concern, you know, we can test the hay for nitrates along with, we can testing, you know, the green plant material and anything that we can sample, we can test for nitrates and it would show up in these tests.

- And I bet this time of year too, it's kind of, you know, hit and miss whether you're gonna have it in your field or not.

Like some producers might have some in their field right here and literally their next door neighbors doesn't have it.

So what's the advice there?

Is it just regular testing around this time of year?

Pretty much always.

- Yeah.

If you have known nitrate or or Prussic acid accumulators, it can be a hotspot in the field.

So it's best to get a random sampling from across the field and a random sampling of several round bales to get an idea of what levels of these toxic compounds you may have.

- Yeah, because I imagine the way people find out is having a dead cow in their field, more than likely.

- Yeah, we would rather do it by testing than let the animals find it by having problems.

- All right.

Thanks Paul.

Dr. Paul Beck, extension beef cattle specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

And if you'd like a link to find your local county office, go to our website, sunup.OKstate.edu.

(upbeat music) - Wes Lee here, and welcome to another edition of the "Mesonet Weather Report."

After a very hot start to the week, a cold front moved in on Wednesday, bringing rain to the northern counties and cooling off the state.

This 2-day rainfall map from midweek shows one to two inch totals at several sites, and over three inches in Buffalo.

The cool down gave us a much needed break with high temperature struggling to reach the 90's on Wednesday.

This cold front is predicted to have some staying power, keeping temperatures at a comfortable range for quite a while.

This is the forecast for Saturday showing, again, mostly 80's and low 90's statewide.

Looking at the long range forecast maps as of Wednesday afternoon, they show a pretty good chance for cooler than normal temperatures for all of next week.

Looking out even further 'till the end of the month, there is even a chance of cooler than normal weather continuing as seen on this map.

As I showed last week, we have been warmer than normal each month from February through June.

With the addition of this cold front, if the forecast maps hold true, then July will likely break that streak of warm months.

That would be great news as on average, next week is historically the hottest week for high temperatures of the year.

Now here's Gary, focusing more on rainfall amounts.

- Thanks Wes, and good morning everyone.

Well, all this rain that's fallen across the state has done one thing, and that's prevented that flash drought from getting outta control.

We still have drought in the state, but we haven't seen the rapid intensification and spread like we've seen over the last couple of summers.

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

So the same basic picture the last couple of weeks, we have this drought centered across West Central Oklahoma.

That's really the only drought to speak of in the state except for the far western panhandle.

But for the really severe part of the drought, it's now centered across parts of Western Oklahoma.

All this yellow, which is known as D0 or abnormally dry conditions, that's not strictly drought, that indicates areas coming in or coming out of drought.

For our case, however, this week a lot of that yellow areas would be areas in danger of going into drought.

So something to keep in mind.

While we don't have a lot of drought in the state, we certainly have a lot of the state that's in danger of going into drought if we don't continue to get these good rain.

So in pretty good shape for this time of year, at least compared to the last few years.

Summer's been pretty good for for many people, not so great for others.

We take a look at the rainfall map from the Mesonet for the summer thus far.

So starting on June 1st, climatological summer, we do see up in the eastern panhandle, parts of Northwest Oklahoma, seven to 11 inches of rainfall.

Certainly great news for that area of the state.

And then across Southeast Oklahoma, Hurricane Beryl, the remnants of that has helped in far Southeast Oklahoma.

But when we take a look at the departure from normal rainfall map, then we can start to see where those deficits really start to take hold.

Parts of Southwest Oklahoma up through central into Northeast Oklahoma.

In cases of Southwest Oklahoma, one to three to four inches or somewhere in that area.

And then also up in Northeast Oklahoma, parts of Central Oklahoma, much more widespread areas of three to four inch deficits.

So we do have those areas of surplus.

However, up in Northwest Oklahoma and down across Southeast Oklahoma.

It's always good to compare where we normally would be this time of the year as a percent.

So, you know, a two-inch deficit in the summer is not the same as a two-inch deficit in the winter.

But for our cases here in the summer, we do see much of that northeastern part of the state, parts of Southwest Oklahoma, less than 50% of normal in many cases.

So certainly not good news for those areas.

Hopefully, we get some rain and alleviate the problems in those areas.

So we are seeing a break in the heat.

That certainly helps as well.

That tends to allow the pressure on the soil moisture to be reduced quite efficiently.

So as long as we get this extended period of moisture and also below normal temperatures, we should be in good shape when we get to that fall rainy season.

We have a lot of summer left to go, however.

We will keep an eye on that for you.

That's it for this time.

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

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

And Kim, after 42 years with the university, it's a bittersweet day for us.

You're retiring.

- Yeah, I'm hanging up the spurs.

You gotta do it sometime.

And I think now is as about as good a time as any.

- You've had a really wonderful career.

You've been to every corner of the state of Oklahoma and back many times, given lots of advice over the years.

But what are some kind of parting thoughts for the viewers in terms of managing risk and making a profit?

- I think the best advice that I could give a producer is to keep numbers, to keep records, know what your costs are, know what your potential production is, know what your production variability is.

Be familiar with the markets.

- I've learned you cannot predict prices, but we can predict price ranges relatively close.

So you need to keep up with latest technology and keep it and write it down on paper.

It's more real when it's on the paper or in the computer than when it's in your head.

- So that pencil to paper theory that we've heard so much about over the years, that guidance - Well, when I started my career, they said, "If you can't make a profit with a pencil in the office, the odds are you're for sure not gonna make it with a tractor in the field."

- That is very good advice, for sure.

What about the one we've heard a lot over the years?

A third and a third and a third.

Does that still ring true?

- Dollar cost averaging.

My research shows dollar cost averaging.

I've learned from successful producers, stagger your sales over time.

I learned it from investing in the stocks or other investments, you need to scatter your investments because you can't predict price.

You don't know if it's gonna go up or down so you stagger it over the time, you get average or better.

And the market, the economy, if you can do average or better, you're gonna make a profit.

- Definitely good advice for any time, right?

- Oh, you betcha, and it doesn't matter if prices are up or down, stagger it in the market 'cause you don't know when they're gonna turn and they turn on a dime, whether they're at their top or the bottom.

And the other thing is, you've got to be in the game.

Some people say, "Well, you know, the weather's bad, the prices are low.

I'll just not produce this year."

The only way you can make money is if you produce a commodity to sell because prices are going to go up.

They are going to give you the opportunity to make a profit and to make a profit, you gotta have something to sell.

- We're gonna get a little bit nostalgic now.

You have been with "SUNUP" from the beginning.

- Yes.

- You've been with me and my "SUNUP" journey from the beginning, including on the day of my interview and audition with the show.

Do you remember that?

- Oh, yes, I was sitting in the back seat, well, wondering if you knew, finding out what you knew about markets and how you would be in broadcasting and in interviews.

- Yeah, so all this time later, hundreds of interviews later, we're winding it down.

Plans for retirement?

And is Catherine ready for you to retire?

(laughs) - I think we're both ready for retirement.

Plans?

I'm a plan guy.

I press strategy, write it down, strategy and plans.

Write it down.

I tried to do that on retirement.

I don't know what's on the other side of that door.

I just know that God has blessed me all my 77 years of life.

I've had fun.

Even when things weren't going well, I've been able to keep a smile, have fun.

And I know on the other side of that door, I've got friends all over the state and nation.

I've got people that I can do things with.

I know that my personality, I'm gonna look for people that I can help and I'm gonna have fun doing it.

I'm not worried about it at all, even though I don't have it written down.

- (laughs) Not yet.

- Not yet.

- Well, Kim, what a tremendous career.

What a contribution to "SUNUP" and the world of broadcasting for sure.

Through sharing information with our viewers all these years.

We certainly, certainly appreciate you and we will really, really miss you.

- Yeah.

- But we wish you all the best.

- Well, thank you.

- Thank you very much.

(upbeat music) This week, nearly 2000 young people descended on the Oklahoma State University campus for the annual Big 3 Field Days.

"SUNUP" intern, Jamie Driscoll, put together this story.

- So today we're gonna be at OSU Big 3 Field Days.

It's a little camp that people go to throughout the summer in order to train and prepare for some of their livestock judging skills that they can use in the future.

So today, on the first day of OSU Big 3 Field Days, we're gonna start looking at the swine facilities and try to look at several different breeds from market hogs to crossbred gilts in order to best figure out ways to evaluate them.

- Each day they have different species.

Today's swine, tomorrow, I believe, sheep and goats.

And then the next day will be cattle.

- [Farmer] This usually lasts about three days.

We have about three half-day sessions throughout the course of the year.

So it usually takes a couple of hours each day in order for us to get all of the classes underway.

But it's been great so far.

- [Hayden] We're judging them on the terms of their quality.

And there's only four in each class.

And so you place them one through four.

- This is actually probably my third year here at OSU Big 3 Field Days continuously.

I've been in at the FFA ever since the eighth grade and it's been a great experience being able to come here every single year.

I would absolutely recommend this to any other members inside of the FFA, whether they're interested in life stock judging or not, just because of the experience and the relationships that they can garner from experiences like this that can help them out in the future.

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

This week's topic is about an invasive pest referred to as the Asian Longhorn Tick.

Now some of you may have read about this.

We've seen some popular press articles and USDA has published some information in the last few years about the Asian Longhorn Tick.

And this has the potential to be a real nuisance to those of us in the cattle business.

This tick has the potential to transmit disease not only to humans, but as well to cattle.

It's actually a tick that is native to East Asia.

- And not native to the Western Hemisphere.

But in 2017, public health officials actually for the first time in New Jersey, identified the presence of this tick outside of a port of entry in our country.

Of particular concern that this tick has now spread to 18 other states, and to those of us in Oklahoma, it's now as close as Missouri.

It's been identified in several counties there.

It's been identified in Arkansas and particularly the northwest corner of Arkansas in a couple counties that actually border Oklahoma.

Now, how and why can this tick potentially be a problem?

Aside from this ability to transmit disease, this is a tick that has a unique potential to essentially produce in a large way, or reproduce in a really large way because a female does not need to have a male mate.

She can actually essentially clone herself and lay a large number of eggs and produce a great deal of offspring in a very short amount of time.

And so, we wanna be on top of this.

We want to control this pest.

We've also got issues in play that is right now in the United States, there are no known natural predators to the Asian longhorned tick.

And as well, this tick is comfortable on a wide variety of hosts, including all mammals, birds and reptiles.

So, typical means of control are referenced actually in some of the reference material that accompanies the written part of this article that appeared in our Cow Calf Corner newsletter.

Just controlling the habitat that ticks like, using some pesticides and being aware as those ticks have encroached and gotten closer to us, that they can get into your operation or into the state of Oklahoma on your clothes, on your equipment, on a host animal.

Any way that they can come in, they have the potential to reproduce pretty quickly, and a large number of them could end up on a host animal in pretty short order.

I hope this helps, and thanks for joining us on Cow Calf Corner.

(upbeat music) - Finally today, we know he said a fond farewell to Kim Anderson a little earlier in the show, but it wouldn't be a proper sendoff without letting Kim himself take the reins.

We'll see you next week.

(bell tolling) - Those are the figures on the markets this morning.

There's some interesting implications to those wheat market figures though, and let's talk with Kim Anderson for a minute about what all that means.

Kim, tell us about the wheat market.

- Well, Gene, as you reported, the wheat market- When I came here in August of 1982, Dr. John Eickert, he was the livestock marketing specialist, had a program with OETA.

He asked me to do the crop portion of that program.

And so John and I started a weekly tape that we'd send down to Wichita, Kansas, and that developed into "SUNUP".

There's been two things in my career that I think have had the largest impact.

One is "SUNUP", the other one is my column in "Southwest Farm Press".

We've tried to provide information.

We tried to bring different choices, different decisions that you should consider.

We've reached tens of thousands of people.

- I have a space bubble.

- I've noticed.

(both laughing) We have had a lot of fun producing "SUNUP".

I thank you very much for sharing your experiences with me.

I thank you very much for educating me.

I thank you very much for allowing me to help you be successful over the last 42 years.

Well, remember a third, a third and a third, and we'll be seeing you later.

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

Kim, wheat harvest starting to wind down.

What are you seeing in terms of prices?

The World's 2019 wheat marketing year harvests are almost complete, and Kim is here to talk about it.

Kim, what's the overview?

- Well, I don't know if they're married right now.

They may be separated.

I don't know if they're divorced.

I think there's some movement there.

Of course, I'm not as certain about that with bluebird's numbers.

Hello.

- I've got other stuff to do today, Kim.

- Big deal!

Not my problem!

- I can't understand you when you whine.

- Prices.

You know, we, oh gosh.

Okay.

- Take two.

- And as far as you know, all of this is just BS.

(gentle music)