- We have a lot of really great information for you lined up this week on Sunup.

The results are in, Dr. Silva has results from OSU Wheat variety trials around the state to help you decide which ones to plant, plus what all the rain we've received is doing to some trees in the state.

And the new reconciliation spending bill sorting out what it means for agriculture with our ag policy specialist.

Grab your cup of coffee, sit back and relax because an all new setup starts right now.

We're diving right in this morning with Dr. Amy Hagerman, our OSU extension AG policy specialist with the latest in Washington.

Always an interesting topic.

Amy, why don't you get us up to speed?

So a - Lot's been happening in the last month.

We've had a lot of movement.

A couple of programs came out that we've been waiting on and then also we had the reconciliation bill that made its way through the house and then the Senate and was signed into law here at the end of, or at the beginning of July.

And so a lot of moving parts and pieces right now and we'll continue to have new programs and new information rolling out in the near future.

- Talk about the reconciliation bill, what's commonly called the big beautiful bill.

And kind of break that down.

You're, you're analyzing everything and you're kind of chunking this out into segments that we can start wrapping our heads around.

- Exactly.

There's a lot in this bill and it addresses responsibilities that are under various committees and that's part of the purpose of a reconciliation bill.

It's purpose is to address things near the end of a budget period, which we are currently in, and make some very targeted changes over time.

So the agriculture committee was tasked with reducing overall spending coming out of their committee by a certain amount.

And so what that has resulted in is some decreases in the nutrition title using nutrition title programs from the Farm Bill.

This isn't a farm bill, it's the reconciliation bill, but they, they made some addresses within the reconciliation bill for those nutrition title programs resulted in about $290 billion worth of reductions overall.

There were also some increases on the agriculture side, smaller than that for some of the different commodity programs, crop insurance and conservation as well.

Some rural development activities happened under that as well.

So that was a, a very slight increase as compared to the overall decrease on the nutrition title side of things.

- There were also some tax implications that you and the team are sorting out.

What do you know so far?

- So the, the tax cuts and Jobs Act from the first Trump administration was coming up as for expiration in this year.

And so some of those cuts were extended in some cases permanently.

So for producers, they're gonna be sorting out changes in their taxes in in those tax implications, but a lot of those are continuations of what was already available under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and just preventing those from expiring in this year.

So there'll be a little bit to sort out on the tax side of things and then some things to sort out of course on more the the agricultural programs, commodity programs side of things.

- Talk about the disaster assistance funds and kinda some of the latest there.

- So that's actually separate from the reconciliation bill.

In December a bill was passed that put additional funds for those affected by wildfires, hurricanes, and drought in 2023 and 2024.

Livestock producers already saw their first round of payments come out earlier this year.

That was a direct payment that came into their account based on their livestock forage program applications.

Now it's crop producers turn with applications coming out for the supplemental disaster relief program, SDRP where livestock producers just received a payment without receiving an application.

Crop producers will receive an application pre-filled out for them.

So just check that information very, very carefully, make sure it's all accurate.

It's based on their crop insurance losses that they received or their nap losses if they got that coverage through Farm Service Agency.

Just in this phase one, just like other disaster programs have been the last few years, there's gonna be a phase one and a phase two with phase one based on that initial amount of money that they have available.

And if there is available beyond this first round of applications, then we'll see a phase two.

- You mentioned briefly the farm bill.

Any other information coming in or, or word on a timeline there?

- So most of the changes in the reconciliation bill are associated with the Title one commodities and then also Title two conservation, title four nutrition and Title 11 crop insurance.

There's 12 titles in the farm bill.

So there's still a lot of programs that are up for potential expiration as of September 30th.

So there's still a farm bill that needs to be under discussion that needs to happen.

I've heard some in Washington calling it a skinny farm bill coming forward in into this fall, we have a September 30th deadline for getting that skinny Farm bill discussion underway or once again extending our existing farm bill programs outside of what has already happened in the reconciliation.

- And of course come back on sunup anytime too and keep us up to speed.

Amy, thanks a lot, we appreciate your time and we'll see you again soon.

- Thank you.

- Talking Wheat harvest now, which is pretty much wrapped up across Oklahoma, including the harvesting of OS U'S variety trials for the year.

Today's sunup Curtis Hare is with Dr. Amanda Silva to talk about some of those results.

- Well it's that time of year we check in with Dr. Amanda Silva to find out about her variety trial results.

But first, Amanda Wheat Harvest is pretty much finally wrapped up.

And for, for your variety trial fields as well.

- Yes, most of the state we're, we are done finally.

It took us a long time to get started and then it the, it just took so long for us to be able to get into those muddy fields and get done.

But I think we're mostly wrapped up by now.

- So kind of talk a little bit about the challenges and maybe even recent challenges 'cause that rain still, you know, like stuck around and what were you hearing throughout the state?

- Yeah, it was just so wet.

The rain would not give us a break.

So anytime we were getting ready, so basically the wheat was red in most cases, but the ground was just so wet and that rain would not stop and so farmers had to deal with muddy fields, a high moisture, very high moisture.

So they couldn't really in, in cases where they could get in the field, they couldn't really start very early.

Yeah, so may they they very short and yeah, those, those are really big issues in our state.

This, this harvest, - Let's go ahead and dive into the variety trial results.

Was there anything in there that kind of surprised you at all?

- Well it's, it's, it was surprising to me to see the yield levels in some of the locations like our plots at HO with very high average yields.

And we see that some varieties in our standard management plots that is just kind of getting, simulating some of the practices that we see in the state averaging 90 bushels and then in the intensive management plots we reached up to a hundred bushels and we could see that some of those varieties that you did high were also able to keep up with that high protein and good test weight.

So we have very good comparisons for those varieties in, in high intensive management plots, but also in some of those standard management plots.

So that was surprising to see such high yield levels this year.

- So what about test weights?

- Yes, we, we were very afraid to start seeing that test weight drop.

You know, as the wheat's ready we start delaying harvest, we could see that test weight really reducing overall in the state.

I think we kept a good average in the, in our plots we saw that drop severely, some varieties were able to hold that test rate a little better than others.

That's a lot to do with some range, you know, if, if you have a very early maturing variety that is sitting there ready for a longer time, you may see that test rate dropping more than some others and some is just genetic.

So some varieties just have a better test weight than others.

But overall in this state I think we, we were able to keep a good average.

So around sixties, maybe 58 or so.

But yeah.

- And one interesting aspect of this data is that there, it reflects some shattering when it comes to wheat as well.

So talk a little bit about that.

- Well what we do is we take the opportunity in any location we, we had an issue, we take an opportunity to get ratings and get more information on this varieties.

And so Cherokee for example, that we saw some late season storms coming up near the plots and that caused the wheat to shatter and that is a genetic component of the wheat but of course the environment can that causes that.

And so we got some ratings on that and farmers can see that.

And in some cases, in some varieties we saw up to 40% of losses, let's say due to shattering.

And so that can cause yield losses and, and it's something, it's a good information for us to have on the varieties.

And so any data like lodging, anything that we see or disease issues that we see in the varieties, we try to rate that and then we put together with the harvests results - And obviously producers can access this information right away right now because you have a lot of this stuff online.

- Yes, we put everything online so everything is posted is posted on the wheat do OK state.edu website.

If they go to the tab that says the latest harvest results, they can see the harvest results for each location.

What happened, what is the management that we have for each location, soil type, nitrogen management, fungicide, everything that we did in those plots, it's listed there.

See the variety, side by side, grain use, test, weight and protein.

- Alright, thanks Amanda, it was great to see you and we'll see you in again a couple weeks.

You know, we will go back over this variety trial data 'cause you know producers are gonna want that information as they get ready to plant.

- Thank you all.

- Thanks Amanda.

Dr. Amanda Silva, small grain specialists here at Oklahoma State University.

And if you'd like the link to Amanda's dataset, just go to our website, sun up dot OK state.edu.

- Hello Oklahoma, this is your Mezzanine agricultural outreach specialist and welcome to the Mesonet weather report.

This week we are going to focus on navigating the Mesonet so that you, the word mesonet comes from the words mesoscale, weather events from one to 150 miles in size and network.

Thus the idea is for stations to capture the dynamics of mesoscale events.

For example, thunderstorms are mesoscale weather.

The Oklahoma Mesonet has 120 stations across the state, which report data such as temperature and precipitation every five minutes.

It takes about five more minutes for the data to appear on the website.

If you go to mesonet.org, you'll find the homepage on the top right, the map cycle every few seconds.

You can change the station by clicking the station name on the top left of the page.

If changing the site, be sure to click select.

Towards the top of the page, click into the weather section under local weather, scroll down, click on station information and you can find information about your Mesonet site, soil and instruments.

Click into a new section towards the top called forecast.

In this section you can find forecast information for temperature, precipitation, fire, severe weather, and winter weather.

Many of these products come from NOAA and the National Weather Service.

Next to the forecast section is the past data section.

Mesonet resources is a useful tool within this section In the Mesonet resources, long-term averages on graphs and maps are two useful tools.

Click into the graph long-term averages and the tool can plot meteorological variables such as temperature and precipitation.

To make your own graph use the clear graph button.

Then for example, click the down arrow with add customized data to graph select rainfall for product category and total rainfall for product.

Then select in the year box, the average 2010 through 2024.

Click the fill line and choose a color.

Add to the graph, then keep everything as is.

But change the year to 2025.

Uncheck the fill line, click the bold line and choose a new color add to the graph.

The graph should now show how the 2025 precipitation compares to the average precipitation from 2010 to 2024.

Clearly the precipitation in 2025 is higher than that 10 year average.

The drought section on the Mesonet provides information from sources such as the drought monitor.

There are also maps of consecutive days without rainfall.

Under the agricultural section there are several hidden tools.

Select the crop option, then select a specific crop and that location is information about irrigation, drift risk and growing degree days.

Under the livestock option are tools such as the cattle comfort index and odor dispersion.

For the K through 20 education section, there are many resources, particularly for teachers, including learning modules that showcase several instructional videos.

The Mesonet Ok fire section homepage.

So information about the status of important burning metrics for Mesonet Station.

You can change that station though by clicking on the station name.

Finally, the Mesonet also has an app for Android and iPhone that has many of the website features on it.

It is particularly useful for on the go information whether you are running errands or you're in the field.

Thank you for watching the Mesonet weather report.

- We are here now with our OSU extension livestock marketing specialist, Dr. Darryl Peele and Darrell, we're getting into mid-July, kind of getting into the heat of the summer.

What's going on with cattle markets?

- Yeah, you know, cattle markets actually came down a little bit at the end of June heading into the 4th of July and it wouldn't be surprising seasonally to see them soften up a little bit through the heat of the summer, at least move sideways.

But yet, you know, this last week they tried to show some strength again, the feeder cattle markets were all up fed cattle markets picked back up and I think that really is a testament to the underlying supply tightness that's gonna continue to drive this market.

So we may move kind of sideways here for the summer with sort of seasonal pressure balanced against tighter supplies.

But I wouldn't be surprised.

I think we'll hold pretty close to where we are and and potentially move up even a little bit earlier than usual as we head towards the fall.

- Yeah.

So speaking of seasonal changes, there's a lot of people grilling right now.

Obviously it's summer.

Is that gonna change beef demand at all?

- You know, typically beef demand weakens just a little bit between 4th of July and Labor Day, kind of the summer doldrums it gets really hot and so we don't, and we don't have any holidays in that period.

So it's not uncommon to see beef demand weaken a little bit.

But same story there.

Supplies are tighter.

Beef production's been falling now for through the second quarter and continues to.

So we've got that balance between seasonal pressure and tighter supplies.

Box beef prices actually have dropped quite a bit since the 4th of July, but that's a seasonal move for the most part.

I don't look for them to go a lot farther.

So I think it'll be kind of the same story there.

We'll probably kind of mark time here through the heat of the summer until we get closer to Labor Day and then we'll pick back up again.

- Yeah, so speaking of other timely events, there's some more news happening with the new world screw worm, right?

- Yeah, the, you know, it continues to be a very dynamic and evolving situation.

USDA had announced a plan to slowly reopen the border port starting in the west side of the country and working their way east.

Two days after they made the, after that was supposed to begin, another detection of new world screwworm was found substantially farther north in Mexico, much closer to the US border.

So they closed the border again and will stay closed now for the foreseeable future.

At some point in time, once we can demonstrate that we've got some control on this thing, they'll probably continue that process of reopening the border.

But that might take several months now given the, the proximity of the, the new world screwworm to the border and the threat that poses.

- Yeah.

So what are we seeing in terms of heifer retention and herd rebuilding?

- You know, we really don't have any real evidence yet that it's happening anecdotally, I think it's probably happening, we're waiting for some data.

We will at the end of July getting two reports that may help.

One will be the monthly cattle on feed report, but that will include quarterly breakdowns of steers and heifers on feed.

So we'll see what that shows about the number of heifers in feedlots.

We will also get a mid-year cattle inventory report, which will give us a direct inventory estimate of, of cows and heifers and so on.

Unfortunately we didn't get that report last year, so it's gonna be a little difficult to interpret what it means, but it will be information, we'll, we'll make the best use of it that we can to try to get a sense of whether or not we can actually verify that heifer retention is beginning to happen.

- Yeah.

So looking forward into the fall, what should producers be keeping their eye on?

- You know, cow calf producers, obviously these markets are essentially at record levels.

I don't expect that to change very much so cow calf producers, you know, if you, if you got calves to sell, you're gonna do pretty well.

There are things you can do to add even additional value to that.

So it's not too early to start thinking about preconditioning programs and weaning programs.

Those do add additional value and they do work even in high prices.

So producers might wanna start thinking about that.

But all in all, you know, we're just kind of enjoying these markets right now from a cow calf standpoint, stocker producers, it's a little more challenging given the margin situation between calf prices and feeder cattle prices.

But again, there's opportunities for everybody in this market.

- Yeah.

Alright, well thanks for the updates Darryl.

We'll talk to you in a couple weeks.

- Continuing on the topic of the new world screw worm, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture food and Forestry is also staying on top of the issue.

- Dr. Rod Hall, our state veterinarian is leading a working group in regards to our response to New World screw worm.

A lot of people have probably seen that.

We have seen some movement of that in Mexico, which certainly is very concerning for us.

And you've seen that response from USDA of adjusting what can and can't move across the border.

We are really working in lockstep with the team here at Oklahoma State University.

They're a big piece of us being able to respond to new world's crew worm if we have to.

Our greatest hope is that we do a lot of preparing and planning and communicating and not have to deal with that here in the state of Oklahoma.

But in the case that we have to, we're being as prepared as we possibly can with this working group.

And then also making sure to share information with producers across the state.

- Good morning, Oklahoma and welcome to Cow Calf Corner.

Our topic this week is to address the question, is it time to pull bulls?

We all have probably heard sometime in life in cattle production.

The old rule of thumb about subtract three months and add seven days.

Meaning if we pulled our bulls on July 14th, 2025, we would expect our last calf to potentially be born about April 21st, 2026.

And that's a handy rule of thumb to keep in mind when we consider whether or not it's time to pull bulls.

We know that short breeding seasons equate to short calving seasons.

Short calving seasons result in a more uniform calf crop that's more valuable when we market it.

There's a lot of upside with regard to bull management of pulling bulls early, particularly on young bulls as we think about maybe being able to go into a dry lot situation, providing a little bit of supplemental feed, recharging their batteries, so to speak, so that they're primed and ready for that next breeding season.

But we've also gotta consider some other things relative to the practicality of just trying to shorten that breeding season.

One of them is, when was our last calf born this spring?

If we have got cows that calved within 60 to 75 days, we know that even cows in good shape, good health status are gonna take about 60 to 75 days to be ready to breed back and maybe have that first fertile postpartum heat.

Another consideration is just how long have we actually had bulls out?

If we are, if we've had bulls out for 40 days plus and we're seeing a lot of return heats on the cow herd, it may be time to address some other things or give consideration to maybe rechecking that bull, having him undergo a BSE, maybe checking on the cows or considering what our nutritional plan has been for that cow herd for the past year, how thin they actually were at the beginning of calving season this year.

Maybe an indicator.

We've got some other problems there.

We also have to get, give consideration to what is our plan for open cows.

We know that the sooner we pull bulls out leads to more timely preg checks on the cow herd, but what our plan is for those open cows actually matters.

We ask ourself another question.

Do we have a fall calving part of our operation that we may roll those open cows into?

If we identify those open cows now and intend to cull 'em, we know that we get the upside of a higher market right now as opposed to what those coal cows will be worked later in the fall.

And while we want short breeding seasons and there's a lot of upside, the reality is that a bred cow in the current market we're in has more value than a cull cow and we'd like us to keep as many cows bred and in production is possible to capitalize on this current market.

So consider those things when you decide if it's time to pull bulls this year.

And as always, thanks for joining us on Cow-Calf Corner, - OSU Extension's, popular Ranchers.

Thursday lunchtime series is back.

Join the OSU Beef Cattle Experts experienced ranchers and scientists to learn and share production management and marketing tips.

The Zoom webinars are all on Thursdays at noon and they're free, but you do need to register so you can receive the zoom link and more details.

Just scan the QR code on your screen, contact your county extension office or go to the sunup website for a direct link to registration.

- Oklahoma's received a lot of rain over the past few months.

Some places around Stillwater are 150 to 250% of normal precip.

That's led to some flooding concerns and some people have concerns about trees and root systems that could be undermined by flooding.

So I'm standing in front of a cottonwood tree.

It's the large tree behind us.

Cottonwood grows really well in floodplains.

Now we need to distinguish that between where it grows and something like bald Cyprus, which grows in a swamp, constantly inundated by water.

Cottonwood grows in places that flood periodically, but the, the, the water eventually drains.

So it usually grows in places with poorly drained soil.

Often scouring floods will expose bare mineral soil, which is really good for cottonwood regeneration.

The seed is able to germinate and bear mineral soil and it will also root sprout.

So Cottonwood does well in this kind of environment.

I'll, I'll probably mention this a few times, but really the right tree for the right place is critical here.

So cottonwood will grow, will grow well in places that flood and typically the root systems will be fine even during flooding, during extreme flooding.

Of course, if the root systems are undermined, then that can be a concern, especially followed by strong wind events.

Now, cottonwood does well in this type of soil pines do not.

So make sure you plant the right tree in the right place.

Also, make sure that when you're planting the root system goes straight down.

It doesn't j root, in other words, it doesn't curve back up again after it hits the bottom of the hole you've dug.

When you're planting the root collar of the tree will look quite different.

So it'll, it'll, there'll be a little piece of the root system that's a little bit wider and you can see the taproot extend down from that.

And where you see that root collar is where you want to plant that right at the, the soil surface.

So make sure that that's not showing once you firmly seed it in the ground.

Also make sure that it's not too deep, so have it at the right height in the hole that you're planting.

And if you plant trees that way, right tree in the right place, then they should do fine.

Certainly mortality will be higher with really strong floods and winds.

But generally flooding alone is not enough to push over trees.

You'll take really strong winds for a tree to fall over.

Trees that are growing in the wrong place or that you've planted in in the wrong site often will exhibit a lot of different signs of poor tree health.

So sometimes that could be sclerosis, so the leaves could be a little bit lighter in color sometimes they could start to to lean or tip.

Often trees like that will need to come down.

If they're hazard trees, you may wanna take them down yourself.

But certainly planting again right tree in the right place is critical.

- That'll do it for Sunup this week.

Remember, you can see us anytime on our website.

Follow us on our social media and stream us anytime at youtube.com/sunup tv.

By the way, thanks for all the new subscribers we've been seeing lately.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

Have a great week everyone.

And remember, Oklahoma Agriculture starts at Sunup.