(upbeat music) - Good morning, Oklahoma.

I'm Kurtis Hair.

And welcome to "SUNUP."

With the recent release of the 2022 Ag Census, a lot of people are interested to see what's changing throughout the state.

OSU Extension AG policy Specialist, Dr. Amy Hagerman, gets us up to speed.

- The 2022 Census of Agriculture came out this spring with information on how Oklahoma compares to the rest of the country and also trends in how Oklahoma agriculture is changing across the state.

And we saw some really interesting trends come out of this census of agriculture as compared to the last one in 2017.

Of course, 2022 was a drought year, so we have to be a little careful interpreting those numbers as compared to 2017, especially when we think about it in terms of cattle numbers that may have been reduced because of the drought, or in terms of harvested acres.

But if we just look at the trends in the number of cropland and pasture land acres, the numbers of producers and the makeup of those producers across the state, we can kind of see where we might be going across the state.

Now, we saw a decrease in the number of cropland acres and the number of producers across the state, but we also saw some consolidation with crop land acres reducing at a lower rate than the number of producers reduced, an average crop land per producer going up across the state.

Now, we also saw less of a reduction in pasture land acres than crop land acres.

This is to be expected.

We're a livestock state.

And in this last census of agriculture, beef cattle production ranked our number one agricultural commodity in the state, followed by poultry and hogs as well before we get into the crops.

Producer mixes have changed across the state with young producers increasing in the northwestern area of the state where we see more of our crop production.

We've also seen some changes in the numbers of female producers across the state.

And while it's not in terms of totals across the state in terms of proportions of male to female producers, women are making up a higher portion of producers as compared to the 2017 census of agriculture.

This is all good news for us across the state in terms of longevity of our agricultural industries, especially in some of our agriculture dependent counties.

And we have a large number of agriculture dependent counties in the state.

If you'd like more information on census numbers in your county, go to sunup.okstate.edu.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to the Mesonet Weather Report.

I'm Wes Lee.

Wednesday morning was the first sighting of rain the main part of the state had seen in about three weeks.

It brought some much needed moisture to the eastern third of the state and a smaller portion in north-central counties.

If you were outside of these areas, then absolutely no rain for you.

The northwest and panhandle areas are still living off the great rains that they got over a week ago.

You can see this on this change of fractional water index at 10 inches over a week map.

This map is for data on Tuesday before the rain that came on Wednesday.

Green areas can be seen from Cherokee to Watonga and most areas westward.

10 inch fractional water index after this week's rain can be seen here.

You can clearly see the infiltration from Wednesday morning's rains.

The brownish red areas show where virtually no rain has fallen in about three weeks.

Looking back a month, you can get an idea of how fast things can change.

Here, the driest areas were in the panhandle and most of the main state was in great shape.

Exactly one year ago from Wednesday, after a fairly wet June, we saw less problem drought areas.

With this incredible heat, it doesn't take long for shallow soil moisture to completely disappear.

Now here's Gary, discussing the latest drought map.

- Thanks, Wes, and good morning, everyone.

Well, we might as well get straight to the heart of the matter.

We have flash drought building once again across the state of Oklahoma.

We've seen this the last couple of summers where we've seen an abrupt end of precipitation and a rapid onset of summer heat.

And there you go, drought and heat go hand in hand, and that's what we're seeing right now.

Let's get straight to the new drought monitor map.

Well, we now have a larger area of that D1 moderate drought across west, central and northwest Oklahoma.

We also had some improvements up there in the panhandle where we had those 500 to a thousand year rainfall events, but unfortunately, we relieve it in one area and we increase it in another area.

And we also see a large increase of abnormally dry conditions in the yellow.

- From north-central, all the way through the border area with Arkansas, across northern Oklahoma, so drought is on the increase.

Until we see significant rainfall and until we see a cooldown of, you know, below those triple-digit temperatures, I'm afraid we're going to see this drought continue to strengthen and intensify as we go through the rest of June and July.

Here you can see the consecutive days with less than 1/4-inch rainfall map from the Oklahoma Mesonet.

You know, we're up to about three weeks for much of the southeastern 2/3 of the state, and that's where the flash drought is building.

We did see that relief across northwest Oklahoma.

Some cases, it was enough, and some cases, it wasn't.

But again, this is the flash drought situation in a nutshell.

Also from the Mesonet, the percent of normal rainfall map for the last 30 days.

Again, you know, less than 1/4 or less than 25% of normal rainfall up there in around Kingfisher and Watonga and those areas.

But a large area of less than 30% of normal, less than 40% of normal from southwest Oklahoma, all the way up into northeast Oklahoma.

So again, flash drought building over the last 30 days.

I'm afraid it's just going to get worse before it gets better.

Finally, let's take a look at the Climate Prediction Center's temperature outlook for July 2nd through the 8th.

And again, increased odds of above normal temperatures, especially across the eastern 1/3 of Oklahoma.

So again, that's flash drought central right now.

Unfortunately, when we see these temperatures up, we see the drought increase.

That's it for this time.

We'll see ya next time on the Mesonet weather report.

(light country music) - The Oklahoma heat has arrived, and sitting in front of a fire in your house is probably the last thing on our minds.

But OSU forestry specialist Ryan DeSantis says, if you're looking to burn this winter, now is the time to start preparing.

(light country music continues) - Summertime is a good time to start thinking about firewood.

Firewood's not the primary heat source for most Oklahoma households.

About 2% of Oklahoma households use firewood as the primary heat source, but a lotta people use it in their backyard, in their fire pit, and for other purposes.

When you're thinking about processing firewood, it's good to think about trying to get it down to a diameter of at the most five inches and a length of 12 to 16 inches at the most.

This helps fit it into your fireplace.

It also helps you make sure you have a low enough moisture content, so it's easier to burn the wood, and you get a higher heat value.

When you think about the moisture content of your firewood, it's important to think about the process of combustion.

The first part of that is really removing the water from the wood.

So basically, the less water content in the wood, the lower the moisture content, the easier it is for that firewood to combust and provide heat.

So the part of the process for firewood production is drying it.

People refer to this as, at first, when you buy firewood, as green firewood when it's still wet or when it's first cut down.

Eventually, you wanna make sure your firewood is processed and dried.

You can stack it.

You can also dry it before stacking it, but it's important to remember to have your firewood dry before burning it.

When you're burning firewood, the wetter the firewood is, the more smoke you're gonna get, the less pleasant it's gonna be.

It's also, like I mentioned, it's gonna be harder to combust.

So a lotta the preheating process when you're trying to get the fire started is really just trying to remove water from the firewood.

So the most efficient way to burn the wood is to try to remove the water first by drying it.

That can be done setting it outside and making sure it gets plenty of sunlight.

The way that you stack it, make sure that there's plenty of air circulating around it on all sides.

So the smaller the piece of wood, generally, the lower the moisture content under comparable conditions.

So here's two pieces of firewood.

The smaller piece here's really an ideal size for firewood.

Less than five inches diameter, less than 12 to 16 inches in length.

This is gonna be a lot easier to combust, and it's gonna provide heat faster than this other piece.

(wood thumping) Now, this piece of firewood, you probably, if you can, want to chop this up into smaller pieces so that you can get this combusting faster and providing heat faster, so you can burn more efficiently.

Another important consideration when you're burning firewood is creosote management.

So basically, you wanna keep your chimney clean.

You wanna make sure you're sweeping it.

And before you even burn, you wanna make sure that you're burning wood without any kind of additives, any treatment to the wood.

You wanna make sure you're burning the right species of wood, and you wanna make sure you're burning wood that's been properly dried.

So in Oklahoma, we have a really wide range of species of specific gravities.

When I say specific gravity, what I'm really talking about is the density of the wood.

Wood density is really related to how much cell wall material is in the wood that you're burning.

Basically, the higher the density of the wood, the more cell wall material.

It's also gonna be harder to dry out that kinda wood.

As an example, bodark, or Osage orange, is a species that has a really high density, really high specific gravity.

It also produces the highest heat content or heat value of any wood that's native to Oklahoma.

- On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have eastern red cedar, which is the least dense wood that's native to Oklahoma.

It also produces the least amount of recoverable heat value when you burn it.

So think about species and size.

When you're picking species, if you have a choice, a species like cedar or even cottonwood are species that are gonna burn and not provide as much heat as something like a hardwood.

We'll be providing more information on firewood in the future, but for now, go to the Sunup website for more information.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - We are here now with Kim Anderson, our grain marketing specialist.

Kim, wheat harvest is pretty much out of Oklahoma and well into Kansas.

So what does this mean for the pressure on wheat prices?

- Well, there's some strange things going on in the market right now.

Now back to the harvest.

We've cleared Oklahoma, Texas Panhandle, well into Kansas.

We got a relatively good idea of what's gonna happen to the hard red winter wheat harvest, but we got a lot left to get in the bin, so we don't know about harvest pressure there.

You look at the world, what's going on there.

Normally June one, we've got about 25% of the world's 24-calendar year harvest done.

We get another, oh, 17% or 20% in June.

So that puts us relatively close to that 40%, 45% percent done level, so we got a lot of wheat to harvest around the world.

You look at Russia, there's some strange things going on there.

We started out at 3.4 billion back in January, February.

Saw a report this week that has it down to 2.9 billion bushels.

You look at the US WASDE report for June, had it at a little over three billion, so there's some uncertainty with that Russian crop.

And a Russian crop at 2.9's gotta give us some help on wheat prices.

You look at the stocks-to-use ratio, United States right at average.

You look at the world, for the fifth year in a row right now, the stocks-to-use ratio for the world is projected to be lower.

So those strange things keep happening.

Like India, they're harvesting a record crop, or they've harvested a record crop and they say we've got a supply problem with wheat.

That's a little strange there.

You look at Norway, they say, "We're gonna start building stocks 'cause we're concerned about the war, we're concerned about disease, we're concerned about, so we're gonna increase our stocks."

Is it, you know, harvest pressure over?

Probably not, but I think there's a good possibility we could see higher prices.

- So what can we expect to see with wheat prices?

- Well, you look at prices.

We came in June 1 around $6.65.

We'd peaked out at $6.85 in mid-May, June 1, $6.65.

End of June we're down around $5.35, so they went down.

Average harvest price for Oklahoma $5.85, that's June, July and August for since 2009, average that.

If you'll take our high price, $6.65, subtract $1.85, that's the average range in prices in that 15-year period, you get $4.85 on the bottom.

If you take our lowest price, $5.35, and add $1.80 to it, you're getting lost in these numbers here, that gives us $7.20.

So it gives us a range of prices, $4.85 to $7.20.

June averaged $5.80.

So we could easily see prices coming up.

With the stocks-to-use ratio and with a short rushing crop, I think that could happen.

But if I'm selling wheat, I'm gonna have a mechanical strategy and I'm just gonna move it in the market over time.

- Yeah, moving into summer crops, what are your predictions for corn and soybeans?

- Just look and see what's being offered for forward contract for corn, around $4.25.

The average for your harvest price for corn is about $4.80.

It's been up to $4.75.

You look at the stocks-to-use ratios for corn, U.S. well above average, world well above average.

So you'd expect below average corn prices.

So that $4.25 may be a little low.

There's a crop planting report that came out this week.

I'm gonna have to see what the market thinks of the corn acres and the bean acres to see what's happening there.

Look at soybeans.

You can forward contract now around $10.35.

You go back earlier in the year, it's $11.55.

Stocks-to-use ratio, U.S. well above average, the world above average, so you'd expect below average price.

Maybe not as low as $10.35, but somewhere in that range.

- And what about cotton?

- Cotton.

We picked up three or four cents on cotton this week after talking about how negative it was last week.

That ice is up around 74 cents.

You look at the average price for cotton on that ice, It's 70, 75 to 78, somewhere in that range.

Look to stocks-to-use ratios, U.S. well above average, but the world average to below average, right at average.

So you'd expect cotton prices to be in this 70 to 80 range.

- Alright, Kim, thanks for the updates.

We'll see you next week.

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

Our topic this week is summer management to protect our assets and potentially improve value.

We set at an interesting time right now in the cattle cycle.

Since the cyclical high a beef cow inventory of about.

- 32 million head in 2019, we have been in a liquidation phase.

And we've stabilized at present at around 28 million head of beef cows.

Now, that's a historically low inventory.

We go back to the early 1960s since the last time we had this few of beef cows.

Liquidation has primarily been the result of drought, but also influenced by a lack of profitability up until about 2023.

The lack of profitability has corresponded with not holding back a great deal of heifers to become that next generation of cows.

So where do we stand at present?

We've stabilized.

It doesn't look like we've got any data that shows we're gonna be expanding the cow herd anytime soon.

And so, these robust prices that we've enjoyed for the past year, it looks like we're gonna continue to enjoy for several calf crops to come.

And while high interest rates and age of producers and lack of available labor force, as well as a long-term forecast for a potentially drier weather pattern in the late part of the year, all are at odds with expanding the cow herd.

As we look for things we can do this summer to protect those assets and potentially drive up the value of that next set of calves that we sell, what do we typically take inventory of right now?

First, is let's manage our fly and tick control programs and make sure we're doing something to control anaplasmosis.

We want to give some thought to when we pull bulls.

If we pull bulls this summer, we're ensuring a shorter calving season next spring, potentially helping the value of that next set of calves we market a year down the road.

If we've got native grass hay meadows to harvest, we want to be getting that done by early July.

Typically, the most optimum trade off between quantity and quality of forage that we're gonna produce.

And if we do get hot and dry later in the summer or into the fall, we wanna monitor our water supply.

Water is the most critically important nutrient that we provide to beef cattle.

And the final thought is just the management of herd health, and particularly getting that first round of vaccinations into calves by the time they're two to four months of age.

Primary concern of the buyer of weaned calves is health.

There's a lot of differing types of VAC45 programs that can add value to weaned calves, but all of those start with getting that first round of vaccinations in, particularly for respiratory disease and clostridials at the time those calves are still nursing cows in two to four months of age.

Also, I encourage producers to consider as the days get hot and we're looking for more things we can potentially do inside, it's a good time of year to get beef quality assurance certified.

That certification can be documented and also a contributing factor when marketing calves and trying to derive those premiums (upbeat music) later in the fall.

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

- Today, I thought I'd share a little bit of info about the different types of scales used in food manufacturing.

Scales ensure ingredients are weighed consistently and the finished product weighs a specified amount.

This is extremely important because inaccurately measured ingredients can be a source of variation in product appearance, flavor, and texture.

Additionally, finished product that is underfilled may be deemed misbranded and subject to recall.

There are three styles of scales that are commonly available.

Electronic top loading, mechanical, and electronic analytical.

Electronic top loading scales are found throughout food processing environments, in labs or on the production floor.

Electronic top loading scales, found in labs, may be used to measure ingredients that weigh several tens or hundreds of grams.

These scales are compact and can be positioned on countertops so that small sacks or containers may be easily placed on them.

Electronic top loading scales found on the production floor may be used to measure ingredients that weigh several tens or hundreds of pounds.

These are typically large and positioned near or on the floor to allow sacks and barrels to be easily placed on them.

These units are constructed of aluminum or stainless steel for durability.

Additionally, they may be waterproofed to operate in high moisture areas and to withstand wet cleaning procedures.

Mechanical scales are also known as single or triple beam balances.

They're sometimes used in laboratories and pharmacies.

While these scales are usually less expensive than electronic models, they require more skill and time to calibrate and read.

These features often make mechanical scales unsuitable for use in food manufacturing facilities.

Electronic analytical scales are identical to electronic top loading scales.

However, they're used for measuring extremely small weights.

These scales are often used in laboratories that perform chemical analysis.

However, due to their relatively low maximum capacity, they would probably not be used for routine measurements in a typical food-manufacturing facility.

So just a little bit of info about scales.

For more information, please visit sunup.okstate.edu or food.okstate.edu.

(upbeat music) - Finally today, we're headed up to the Oklahoma capitol with a group of parlor students who are getting a special look at what it takes to be a leader in their communities.

There's really nothing like your first trip to the Oklahoma capitol.

For the hundreds of kids who toured the capitol every day, walking past these towering white columns may feel like walking past a building that would be more at home in Rome than Oklahoma.

- [Narrator] And like those kids, that wonderment is definitely not lost on these middle school students from Hollis.

Though their mission today is definitely different from the regular end of the school year trip to the capital.

- So today we have brought 18 students from Hollis, Oklahoma to the state capital to learn what civic leadership and public service looks like.

These students have been a part of the Hollis Leaders class, which has been a pilot program partnership between Oklahoma State University through the Rural Renewal Initiative and Hollis Middle School, focusing on civic leadership and entrepreneurship.

- [Narrator] Lauren Klein is an OSU Extension Agricultural Leadership Specialist.

She says The Rural Renewal Initiative is a research program focused on rural communities and the issues they face.

- And so our project is a part of that and we are focusing on the youth.

What can we do to help youth in rural areas learn what it takes to make their town work and learn what it takes to solve and make decisions in their communities?

- [Narrator] This capital trip isn't just a few hour ordeal.

The group began their journey yesterday stopping at rural communities along the way to Oklahoma City to see the leadership of these communities in action.

- We then stopped in Oklahoma City downtown to look at remote working spaces because one of the ideas that the students have is trying to find a way to really advertise and incentivize people to move to Hollis and really trying to target those people who may work remotely.

- [Narrator] Hollis Leader Hannah Oress says the class has taught her so much about the different ways you can help.

- So our leadership class is sixth and eighth grade boys and girls who were trying to become leaders of Hollis and help benefit the community and help with economic development in our town.

- Sculpted by (indistinct).

- [Narrator] Today's agenda started with an appetizer of the tour of the building, learning about art history, and a quick lesson on how our state government works.

- [Tour Guide] 1982- - [Narrator] But the main course was hearing from the folks who do this job daily.

- It is possible, it doesn't matter where you're from.

I mean, we can- - [Narrator] Dedicated people like our Secretary of Agriculture, Blayne Arthur, who put into perspective just how important civics and agriculture are to everyone.

- It's a very great opportunity.

- [Narrator] Secretary Arthur says, experiences like this one are invaluable.

- They start asking questions about, are you passing a bill that impacts me?

Do I maybe want to be a legislator?

Do I want to come with a group and talk about what's important to us in education, or athletics, or transportation?

So I think just the exposure to it is tremendous, especially students from areas that are a little further away from Oklahoma City and especially from a rural area.

I think that makes them realize that people care about what happens in their hometown and wanna make good decisions for 'em.

- Yes sir.

- [Mentor] So our goal with bringing the students to the capital today is to help them to see that they're not forgotten about in Hollis, that the people they elect to represent them here in Oklahoma City really do care about the issues and the problems and challenges that they see in their community.

- [Narrator] And if anyone could get that message across Oklahoma, governor Kevin Stitt would be the one to do it.

- There's no way, I didn't know any governors.

My parents weren't rich or didn't come from a political family.

- [Narrator] And Hannah says, this program has made learning, well, fun.

- It's fun to get to go and do these things where we get to learn more about our state.

And it's fun to learn more about our community and town and just get to help.

It's fun to be a part of getting to help our community be better.

- And I think that's one of the things the students are taking back.

Just conversations that I've heard as we've been eating meals or been on the bus, is honestly coming to Oklahoma City, coming to the capital has given them an even stronger appreciation for where they come from.

- [Narrator] And who knows, maybe one of these young minds was sparked today and a calling for civic duty was found.

- Yes, sir.

- Have you ever been to Hollis?

- I have been to Hollis, stayed in a little motel right there.

- [Narrator] But if not, a little learning can go a long way.

- [Student] Sports.

- Sports.

- In Oklahoma County, I'm Kurtis Hair.

- [Photographer] Perfect.

(bright upbeat music) - And that about wraps it up for us today.

Now remember, if you saw something on the show you liked, you can always visit our website or follow us on social media.

I'm Kurtis Hair, and remember, Oklahoma Agriculture starts at Sunup.

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