- Hello everyone and welcome to Sunup.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

We begin today with an update on Oklahoma's wheat crop with our OSU extension small grain specialist, Dr. Amanda Silva.

- Well, the, the stands are very variable around the state.

So with all the drought we had in the fall, we had a lot of wheat that were planted late.

Some emerged, emerged well, and some had issues with standing water.

The seeds were just sitting in wet and cold soils for a while and, and did not emerge well.

So right now in this state we have wheat plants or wheat fields that are growing well, looking good and some that are not so good with emergence issues.

So, for example, in one of our fields in a, the dual purpose plot, so that we planted late is, is looking, is looking good.

Now our grain only plots are, are, are not looking so good.

So after we planted that field got almost like seven inches of rain and, and we have emergence there varying from 30% emergence to maybe some 80%, 90%.

So it's really, really variable and I think that represents some parts of our state.

- This time of year we usually talk about first hollow stem.

Where are we in terms of that, that time of year and kind of how it moves from, from south to north across the state?

- Yeah, it's, it's, it's moving.

It's going slow just because of all this cold temperatures that we've been seeing.

We are measuring it.

We, we started measuring it early February and it's still, it's moving very, very slow.

So I know farmers are still, still have the cattle out there, so we're still trying to, to get some more out of that wheat that we have left.

Yes.

And, and with all this weather, nice weather and then cold temperatures, it's, it's being a little bit of a stop and go for, for wheat growing.

- Some of your research does look at grazing and how that affects the plots.

Talk about that and how it's set up.

- Yes, we do so in, we do have a comparison of plots that are grazed and non grazed.

So then we can look at the varieties performance and there are those two systems.

And here in the Stillwater this year we are implementing a new way of measuring first hollow stem.

So we used to measure first hollow stem on non grazed plots.

And so this year we are comparing first hollow stem on plots that were non grazed and also with the simulation of grazing.

So then we are really interested in seeing whether, how much that grazing impact we development and also how varieties differed in reaching first hollow stem when they are grazed versus non grazed.

- So are you getting some, some data that you're gonna put out pretty quickly for folks to take a look at?

- Yes.

Every week we measure first hollow stem in this plot here in Stillwater in the forage trials and we put on the blog.

So we've started already measuring it and like I said, it's going slow just because of the weather, but we can already start seeing differences on the wheat development when you compare a non grazed versus a, a grazed, a simulation, a simulated grazing system.

- And even though it was extremely cold with the wind chills and and the actual temperature, the soil temperatures didn't get that cold.

Right.

- Yeah.

So when we look at the Mesonet data for soil temperatures, it seems like in most cases the, the soil temperature never got below 30 Fahrenheit.

And it's very likely because in a lot of places where we had very low windchill, we also have goods, no coverage.

So that helped to insulate the crop and buffer that that temperature and, and actually it helped to protect our crop from, from worse damage that we could have had.

Something to keep in mind, we wheat is more tolerant to, to low temperatures at the youngest phase of growth.

So let's say from December to February.

So especially after producing a few leaves until before joining, which is where most of our wheat are.

So low temperatures that would affect, that would damage our wheat.

That is tillering would be below 12 Fahrenheit to actually cause damage to a tillering, to a wheat that is tilling.

- Okay, great.

Thank you for explaining that and let's hope for nice mild temperatures from, from March 1st until harvest, right?

- Yes.

- Okay, good moisture.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Well thanks for your time.

I'm sure we will see you again very soon.

And for a link to Amanda's blog that she mention mentioned, we have a link for you at sunup.okstate.edu.

In Vets scripts this week we have some advice on buying chickens amid disruptions in the poultry and egg industry because of bird flu.

Here's our OSU extension veterinarian Dr. Barry Whitworth.

- So if you're a consumer and you've been to the grocery store, you know that egg prices have been fairly high this year and that's due to high path avian influenza.

If you look from January 1st, 2025 up into mid-February, we've lost 25 million egg layers in the country due to high path influenza.

Now this may be an incentive for some of you decide you're gonna buy some chickens and put 'em out in the backyard and I would just make sure that if we are gonna do that, do your homework.

Before you make any purchases, one of the first things that I would suggest to you is contact your local municipality and make sure whatever rules and regulations they might have that you can abide by that you sure don't want somebody knocking on your door and telling you you can't have chickens after you've bought them.

In addition to that, you're gonna have to select the breed.

Not all chickens are the same.

We have meat breeds, we have egg laying breeds and we have dual purpose breeds.

Obviously if you want eggs, you want to get an egg laying breed.

You also should remember that certain chickens do better in certain environments.

So think about where you live and and choose a breed accordingly.

One other concern that you'll have is housing.

Most birds need four square feet and indoor housing.

Remember that chickens will have health issues.

So when you purchase birds, you need to buy from a reputable breeder.

One way you can know the breeder's reputable if they are a certified breeder with the National Poultry Improvement Plan.

These birds, these farms undergo testing routinely and this will give you some confidence that you're getting healthy birds.

Remember that certain diseases are more prominent in backyard poultry.

Mar's disease is the most common cause of death in backyard poultry.

Mycoplasma is seen in Oklahoma and it's been increasing recently.

And always remember the parasites can cause problems as well.

Diseases like mycoplasma can be prevented by vaccinations.

I would suggest you have a conversation with a veterinarian or a poultry expert about what diseases you might wanna vaccinate for.

Most of these vaccines can be given at the hatchery before you get the birds and that will protect your birds in the future.

Certain diseases like high path Abin, influenza and mycoplasma, we do not have good treatment regimens for these diseases and we currently do not have vaccines available to use to prevent these diseases.

So these diseases will need to be prevented by biosecurity.

You can find a fact sheet AFS 8 3 0 1 with Oklahoma State University extension service that will give you some information about biosecurity.

Last thing I'd like to say, if you're new to chickens, be aware that chickens can look very healthy and they can shed organisms that can infect you.

So be sure and practice good hand hygiene around chickens.

Certain individuals need to be especially careful around chickens.

Children under the age of five older people, women who are pregnant and immunocompromised need to be extremely careful around chickens so that they do not pick up one of these diseases.

Eating eggs from chickens that are in your backyard may save you money or it may not, but it is a rewarding experience.

Producers need to be sure that they learn all they can about poultry productions.

There is a great interactive course from Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension Service for backyard poultry producers.

This course will give you information about nutrition, health biosecurity, and much more.

For more information about this poultry course, please go to sunup.okstate.edu.

- Are you new to farming and ranching and want to learn more about managing your operation?

The upcoming beginning Farmer and Rancher lunchtime learning series is a great resource for you.

This series will be held on Zoom each Wednesday starting March 5th from noon to one.

You can learn more about things like business planning, farm taxes, enterprise budgeting, grants and loans and much more.

This event is free of charge.

For a link to register or for more information, go to sunup.OKstate.edu.

- Good morning everyone.

This is state climatologist, Gary McManus with your Mesonet weather report.

I don't know about you, but I say that I've had enough of winter, so if we could just go right into spring, that would be lovely minus the tornadoes of course, but that last week was ridiculous.

Now that we've regained our warmth, let's take a look at the latest drought monitor report and see where we are there.

Well, it's not good news either.

Of course, we do see lots of more color on the new drought monitor map.

Now that yellow is D zero or normally dry conditions that signifies not drought, but areas coming into or going out of drought.

In this case, it signifies of course areas going into drought and it covers most of the state.

We also have an increase in that moderate drought down in southwest Oklahoma and up in north central Oklahoma.

Those are the tan colors.

And also just a smidge over there in west central Oklahoma is the Wasaw Custer County area and a little tiny bit up in the northeastern Oklahoma.

However, this is not good news and this is a consequence of our extended dry period that we see.

And if we take a look at those Mesonet maps, looking at those consecutive days without a quarter of an inch, we do see now basically we're at a hundred days or more as we look at this map.

So, and that covers basically the Western two thirds of the state also up into northeast Oklahoma.

And if we take a look, if we lower the category a little bit and go down to a 10th an inch, unfortunately, again across the Western, basically third to around a half of the state, we do see that dry spell extending even in the lower category.

So not even a good wet moisture event for that part of the state over the last in, in some cases, 50 days or so, in some cases a hundred days or so.

Again, these are just the consequences of this extended dry period.

Now we do acknowledge that winter is the driest period in Oklahoma.

So when you're dry here in this timeframe, you're extremely dry.

How about if we take a look forward and maybe gauge our rainfall chances as we look into the next week or so and also out through basically the end of spring.

So these are from the Climate Prediction Center, and this is for next week.

We do see increased odds of above normal precipitation.

That's good news.

We do acknowledge once again that this is the part of the dry time of the year.

So if we're above normal, it doesn't necessarily mean a a goalie washer or two, but we will certainly take anything we can get considering how dry we've been over the last a hundred plus days.

Now let's take a look at March.

Now, this graphic, we see the top two graphics.

Those are the march outlooks from the Climate Prediction Center.

And basically you see the, the La Nina type of outlook and that's above normal temperatures across most of the state and also below normal precipitation across the western half of the state.

At least increased odds of these outcomes.

Again, that's generally what you'd expect at the end of a a La Nina event.

Now, the bottom two graphics, those show the spring outlook, so the March through May period from the Climate Prediction Center.

And they expect to see, again, increased odds of above normal temperatures across the southern two thirds of the state or so.

And also increased odds of above normal or below normal precipitation, rather across the eastern three quarters of the state.

So not good news.

As we look into the future, again, we are approaching spring and that's a time when we can see that drought really get eradicated quickly with some good rainfall and storms.

But we do have some good news and that is, it's not zero degrees out anymore.

So we'll take that as well.

That's it for this time.

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

- Well, it's been a while since we checked in with our OSU Ag economist Dr. John Michael Riley about what's happening with the grain markets.

So John, Michael, what's been going on?

It's been about a month since we talked to you.

- Absolutely, since that time we got a New World World Act Supply and demand estimates report came out.

It's a little bit, it's a little bit stale now because it's been a while since it was released.

But in that no big, no big changes from, from the January report, it was mostly in line with trade expectations, but inevitably you get a little bit of bounce in the marketplace.

And that's why I've always said and continue to say, if you can stay outta the market, stay out of, you know, making any pricing decisions when that report is in the midst of being released, try to do your best to do that.

- Well today we have a warm Oklahoma windy day, which is really welcome for us after coming outta that cold snap.

But did that cold snap have any impact when it come to the wheat market?

- Absolutely.

If you, you know, I don't wanna dly get too deep in the, the agronomics and the production side of it.

Let's stick with the markets.

But the market is, I, as I see it, the market is, is expecting there to be some impact on wheat yields for our winter crop.

Again, the, we started getting that cold weather about the time that the, the report was released since then, you know, the market really, really rallied for a couple of days following the report.

A lot of that had to do with the, the winter freeze and the, the cold snap across all the us and also we're getting a lot of positive news from exports.

Our exports for wheat market is, is on pace with normal, but it's, it's really beating expectations.

I think there was a, a thought that exports were gonna be a little slow given all of the, you know, upheaval in some of our, our trade trade talks.

So all of that's really having a, a positive impact.

It's come down since then, but at the moment it's, it's, look, it was looking pretty bright and I think it's still mostly there.

- So let's talk a little about the corn market right now.

- Well, corn's really interesting.

We've seen a, a big strong push in corn prices.

One of the key factors that we look at is that bean to corn ratio, which is the soybean price relative to the corn price on a typical year, that's about 2.4, meaning $2 and 40 cents per bushel for soybeans, for every $1 of corn price.

We're well below that, which gives us the indication that that corn prices are much stronger than soybean prices.

Right now, a phrase that we use in the industry there is the corn's trying to really buy acres.

And so that's been happening.

It's, it's, we started seeing it in late, late January, early February.

It's still present in the marketplace.

It's not nearly as strong as it once was, but that's something that we're looking at as farmers are making their decisions.

I think that we're gonna possibly see some of that strength in the corn price, play a role and play out in, in our, in our acreage numbers.

Some early numbers with regard to acreage.

We don't, won't get that report till the end of March, but CoBank has come out and said corn acres are gonna be up about 4%.

That's gonna, you know, the loss there is gonna be soybean acres.

So I think we're seeing that strength in the corn price play out there.

So what about with cotton?

CoBank also said that came out with an estimate for their cotton expected cotton acreage, 10.3 million is what they, what they're projecting that to be.

That's gonna be down from just over 11 million acres last year.

Also, national Cotton Council released their acreage, acreage projections.

They're a little bit lower than CoBank at 9.6 million acres.

So all of this is really in flux as, as producers are making their decisions for the spring.

- So with all of that, like what are the, what is your main message to producers as we're kind of hopefully getting out of this stretch and, you know, really the wheat's gonna hopefully start coming up really nice.

What are some, what is your advice as they're really kind of looking at their crop at going into harvest?

- Well, one of the continuing factors that, that all of us in, in the, the business and economics side of agriculture are seeing is a lot of, a lot of concerns about the farm economy and, and just prices and being low.

So at, still gonna stick to the my guns on pay attention to, you know, your records, your cost, do everything you can to, to do everything as efficiently as possible and not necessarily cut costs, but just be, be conscious of the co of, of your expenses.

- Alrighty, thanks John Michael, John, Michael Riley, OSU Ag Economist here at Oklahoma State University.

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

This week's topic is extreme temperature variation and the impact it can have on newborn calves.

And we're talking about this this week because we've had some serious cold and a lot of calves born in the last week or two across Oklahoma have probably been born with single digit temperatures.

And the signs of cold stress are pretty apparent, particularly in those newborn calves.

And as good managers, we take precautions, we get 'em warmed up, we make sure they've had colostrum and we know that baby calves are born with a certain amount of brown adipose tissue, which they can use to generate metabolic heat.

Interestingly enough, as we think about how much impact ambient temperature has on the health of young calves, heat stress can result.

And as we look ahead and think about what we've got in our forecast here near term, we've got some highs coming up of around 70 degrees, potentially even higher.

And so those same calves that were born that we were concerned about keeping warm enough, we probably need to keep an eye on now just to make sure that they don't go out and stretch out and soak up the sun and manage to get a little dehydrated off appetite and get a little overly heated up.

We know the thermo neutral zone for younger calves is from the mid fifties up into 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

We have the potential to be at the upper end of that.

The signs of heat stress are not always quite as apparent, but extreme variation in temperatures can be just damaging as extremely hot or cold weather all by itself.

And so in the weeks and days to come, as we move into more of this pleasant feeling weather, keep an eye on those newborn calves.

We don't want to go to all that effort to save them when they were born in the extremely single digit cold just to turn around and potentially lose them later on.

Thanks for joining us on Cow-Calf Corner.

- This time of year, farm stress and seasonal depression can really start to set in for some people for some guidance on this.

Sunup's Elizabeth Hokit caught up with our OSU extension mental health specialist, Ty Gregson.

- We're here now with our OSU extension mental health specialist, Ty Gregson.

So Ty, we've been in a period of time where a lot of people have been sick because of the flu.

We were kind of stuck in our houses probably for the last couple of weeks because of the weather that can kind of affect our mental health and especially because of seasonal depression, which not a lot of people probably know about.

So can you tell us a little bit about what that is and why it happens?

- Sure.

So seasonal depression is a real thing.

So it does exist.

It's in a diagnostic manual.

So when it happens, we know that it does.

There's little unknown about seasonal depression.

Actually.

There's some kind of guesses that researchers have about seasonal depression.

It has a lot to do with the lack of sunlight that happens during the winter seasons.

We have less sun, therefore it says that it can affect your serotonin or melatonin levels.

Serotonin affects your mood, melatonin affects your sleep.

So if you're noticing yourself struggling with sleep, eh, that might be a symptom of seasonal depression.

If you're noticing yourself being a little more irritable, frustrated down might be some symptoms of seasonal depression.

- Yeah.

So what kind of period of time do we normally see this between?

- Yeah, I think because of the lack of sun.

So probably around daylight savings.

I'm not gonna say that's your official start time, but I'd say we see less sun over that period.

So then until maybe the, even the next daylight savings period.

- Yeah.

So is it kind of affected by weather at all too?

- Not so much weather.

I think a lot of that is just kind of normal irritable frustration.

'cause again, research shows that it's sunlight, but if you're talking about weather, it's colder.

I personally don't love the cold.

So I mean you're, you're having to deal with more things as far as, well, are there icy roads?

Are there gonna be snow?

What kind of clothes do I have to wear?

Do my kids have the right clothing on?

What about crops?

There's so many extra stressors that come in with the cold weather that that might just be some of the effects.

- Yeah.

And what are some of the ways that you've seen that maybe can help with seasonal depression?

- Yeah, so there's a few treatments I'll go through the four that, that I'm aware of.

There's a light therapy, which I don't know a ton about, but it does exist and it's out there.

But then there's also psychotherapy.

So normal counseling and therapy, there's medication and then exercise.

Those are your probably your 3 1, 2, 3 punch.

And so if you feel like you're experiencing maybe lack of sleep or struggling to sleep, maybe your mood feels a little different, I would start there.

Those are some things I can start to exercise, which is probably a little bit harder to do in the winter.

So that might be another reason why you see some of the seasonal depression symptoms.

But that might look like, you know, maybe I have to go get a gym membership for that season, or maybe I just get on YouTube and do a few exercises in my home just to get my blood pumping and kind of feeling fresh again.

But then you can also, you can receive medication and usually that's gonna go towards medication that affects serotonin levels.

Obviously talk with your doctor about it, go to the doctor, see if they recommend it or not.

One thing important to think about, if you do take medication, it's about 30 days before you're gonna see any effects anyways.

And seasonal depression's a short time relatively, so again, it could be something that may or may not help.

But then again, psychotherapy.

So if you feel like it's really hard and you're not knowing how to manage, reach out and talk to a mental health professional.

- Yeah.

And this is the diagnosable disorder, right?

- Yeah, it's called seasonal effective disorder.

And so again, little is known about why, but it's, it's real and it happens.

And one of the things to be aware of is maybe you're experiencing some before and even some after.

I think more of the after could be something to to watch for.

I mean, we're coming out of this seasonal time, it spring's gonna happen, we're gonna have more light.

So you might see some of these things naturally fade as far as your mood or sleep symptoms.

But if they're not going away, this is where, okay, maybe I really should tap into some of those resources.

- Yeah.

And especially with producers and farmers and ranchers during this time, you know, wheat farmers are kind of waiting for the crop to come up.

That anxiety might also add to some of this.

Can you touch on that a little bit?

- Yeah, so there's so many things as far as you know, I'm worried about my crops, I'm worried about my finances.

Oh, we just got out of this, the cold, my crop's supposed to be growing, maybe it's not growing.

Maybe there's storms.

These are all just stressors.

And so I know that in whatever setting, whether you're a farmer, you're a teacher, whatever setting you are in, it's important to recognize that stressors are always going to exist.

And so as a mental health professional and specialist, how do I try to decrease these stressors if I have any control over 'em?

And if I don't, how do I manage or moderate some of these things that I'm experiencing?

So learning how to cope with some of these struggles, naturally you are gonna see some decrease in seasonal depression.

So if you felt cooped up or you're feeling down feeling irritable, this is a good time to see, Hey, does anything change for me?

We're gonna have more sun, the weather's gonna get nicer, we're all gonna want to be outside.

Take advantage of those opportunities.

And maybe within a few weeks or a month or so, you might naturally feel better in and of itself.

And again, if not, then let's go back to the resources.

- Yeah.

And so what are some of the resources that we have available?

- Yeah, so Extension has a a great plethora of resources that we have for mental health, for exercise, as well as if it's not under the extension umbrella, there's always mental health resources available online or even in our community.

- Yeah.

Alright.

Thanks Ty.

- Thank you.

- And for those resources, just go to sunup.Ok state.edu.

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

A reminder, you can see Sunup anytime on our website.

And also stream us anytime at youtube.com/sunup tv.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

Have a great week everyone.

And remember, Oklahoma Agriculture starts at Sunup.