- Hello everyone and welcome to Sunup.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

Spring is almost here, which means horse owners will be getting their pastures ready for the season.

To kick things off this morning, sunup Kurtis Hair catches up with our OSU extension equine specialist, Dr. Chris Heney.

- Well, it's warm and windy, which means it's March here in Oklahoma.

So Chris now's probably a really good time to think about pasture when it comes to horses.

- Yeah.

So we're starting to see the, the grass or the weeds start to green up.

So now is the time to prepare if you want your pasture to actually provide a source of nutrition for your horses.

- And as you said, things are starting to green up and you mentioned that they're weeds and I'm sure a lot of pastures probably like, like this and this isn't actually grass.

- Right?

Right.

And so those are typically what we're seeing if our pastures are overgrazed.

Right.

And so we always talk about, in cattle, we talk about stocking density in horses, we tend to ask people to be a little bit more strategic.

And one of our great ways to improve your pasture utilization is to use rotational grazing.

And that simply means moving the horses into smaller lots every week, two weeks, and just keep those paddocks essentially moving.

We generally recommend when we do that, we also have kind of a central sacrifice area and that's where you're gonna put the horse's, water, their shelter, other feed that you may be feeding and again, leaving just those grazing areas for the grass to grow.

- Now is there any difference, I know we won't need to get too, too much of the weeds when it comes to like with for cattle, but in regards to, you know, just actual pasture management, what, what do horse owners need to do?

- Yeah, so there's a lot to it other than just making sure there's a safe fence for the horse, right?

So we might be this time of year thinking about fertilizing our pastures.

We typically do that during the growing season, but if we're gonna buy fertilizer, we would like our owners to actually know what they need to fertilize with.

And that means it's soil test.

So it does mean you have to do a little pre-planning in order to know what you should even be fertilizing with.

- And as the grass is coming up, it's probably a good idea to make sure what's growing outside of the fence too.

Because as we know, horses, long necks can get around things.

- Yeah.

Unfortunately a lot, if you're gonna confine horses, then you also have to pay attention to what's on the exterior.

So we can have weeds, toxic plants, shrubs that grow up or grass that grows up and shorts out your electric fence.

So the reality is the closer quarters the horses are in the more fence maintenance and the more fence line maintenance you may actually need to do.

- And your local county extension office can obviously help when it comes to, you know, fertilizer and things like - That.

Yeah, absolutely.

Again, they're gonna be a key resource on your soil test and they can even help you interpret that.

They may also be able to provide you advice on herbicide.

So remember that's always a piece of the puzzle.

We want our grass to be healthy and outcompete the weeds, but if you have a lot of weeds and you're only using fertilizer, well you're just fertilizing the weeds too.

So it kind of is a multi-pronged approach if you want to have a good quality stand of grass for your horses.

- So as I mentioned, it's March.

The wind we all know is Oklahomans is really windy in March.

Just yesterday we had a high wind day.

So in those events, wildfire is obviously an issue.

Is now a good time to kind of think about some disaster preparedness when it comes to horses?

- Yeah, absolutely.

So one, you always wanna be weather aware, right?

So that's a key in Oklahoma and paying attention to where there are fire alerts, there are various apps that will kind of keep you appraised of that.

But a lot of that's pre-planning, right?

And so if you know that hey, you're in an evacuation area, do you have your go bagg, your go kit for your horses, do you have photographs of them, food, water supplies, halter trailers ready to be hooked up so that you can leave at a moment's notice?

We always want our, you know, obviously think about human safety, so if you are not able to move them, can those horses be placed in an area that's on dirt, right?

So where those rapidly moving grass fires can essentially go through those dry lots sacrifice areas, making sure that your perimeter is mowed short and tight to the barn or your house.

All of those are things that we can do ahead of time to try to prepare for wildfire season.

- Well, hopefully this spring would be a pretty mild one in regards to fire and storms, but who knows, it's Oklahoma.

She'll throw whatever she has that just, - I assume it's coming.

- Yeah.

All right.

Thanks Chris.

Chris Heney, OSU Extension equine specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

- We're wheat management now with Dr. Brian Ane our OSU extension Soil Nutrient Management specialist.

Brian the wheat has really taken off these last couple of weeks.

- It really has.

It's, it's enjoyed the moisture and it's enjoyed the, the warm weather and we're really starting to see it pick up and grow rapidly.

- In terms of management guidance this time of year, what kind of questions are you getting and what kind of answers are you providing?

- So, so the big question is nitrogen management, 'cause everything else is kind of nutrient wise is is already been done, decided.

So we're really into the nitrogen management realm when, how, how much, what sources and, and what I'd say is that, you know, where we're at, we've got some of the bigger wheat, it's early planted in behind us, we've, we've got some good biomass to it.

It's growing rapidly, it needs nutrients.

There's still a lot of wheat out there that was at really late planted wheat that's just now starting to take off.

Both of them have time, a little wheat's got a little bit more.

And so we still have opportunity to guide and gauge what the environment's giving us.

And I say that because you know, a lot of our research has showed that we can delay nitrogen until we get really good weather up to hollow stem a little bit after.

And that lets us say, okay, is it going to rain again?

Right?

If, if it stops raining right now we might have all the nutrients we need in the soil to get the crop that we're going to get with the moisture we have.

But if we get another good rain chance coming, you know, the end of March, early April, that's a really good opportunity.

It's like, all right, we're gonna have more moisture, we're gonna have more yield potential, let's invest a little bit more into this crop to make sure that we can produce as much as we can.

- How are things looking overall in terms of, of wheat quality and some of the challenges we had around planting time?

How's that translating now when things are really taking off?

- You know, if you drove around a couple weeks ago when it was still cold, a lot of the early planted stuff, you saw a lot of areas that were really hit hard with winter kill and hit hard with abiotic stress.

It's the, that's the drought and the heat and all the other things.

We're starting to see that kinda liven up and starting to see what I'd say the mosaic patterns starting to feel in a little bit.

We're seeing, seeing some of that fill in on the wheat that I've been on that was a little bit later planted we're, we're hit and miss on our stand.

Like some of the stands aren't just perfect, they're not bad, but, but they're not perfect.

And so the wheat's starting to grow.

The great thing about wheat is it can tiller, it can make up for the absence of stand by adding extra tillers in this next couple months and getting the guild.

So overall the wheat looks pretty good given the, the fall that we had the late planted the dry and then really we've been quite cold, right?

We're just now starting to warm up and the, the soil starting to go.

- What are the ideal conditions we need with in terms of nitrogen application and and weather conditions to get us to the finish line and have a great harvest.

- So, so right now we really need a couple more rainfall events.

That's for nitrogen, that's for, for grain yield.

We still got some pockets that have missed the rains.

I was, I was up at the Kansas line around just south of Caldwell, Kansas and it hasn't rained there in quite a while.

Now there's at least soil moisture, but it's gonna have to have some soil moisture.

If we wanna apply nitrogen, we're definitely going to need some rainfall to incorporate that nitrogen, right?

So we need a couple rainfall events that we usually get in April if we get those April May rainfall events, you know, in a season that we need fungicide because that means we have moisture that allows the pathogens to grow well.

So we need that that year that we want.

We're gonna have spray fungicides and then as we get into grain fill, we need the temperatures to be cool.

We need that greenhouse effect, we need it to, to warm up but not be 90 degrees and we need some decent humidity so that those berries can fill to the full potential.

We can get all that and get all the grain we can out of it.

- You have a lot of fact sheets.

The top dress one would be really relevant this time of year.

- Yeah, definitely check out the fact sheets.

We've got a lot of fact sheets on top dressing about sensors about using the enriched strips right now, which is still an opportunity.

So we do have a lot of information through the OSU fact sheets.

- Let's switch gears now and talk about corn for just a little bit.

Yeah, it's really, it's really time to already start thinking about spring crops.

- Absolutely.

A couple of the early birds have been rolling.

I've seen a few planters dropping some seed in the ground.

It's a little little early for me, but you know, we're really making those plans and so right now it's, there's a lot of folks that already put out their pre-plant nitrogen for corn, added their phosphorus, but you know, so now we're in the decision, am I going to do in furrow?

That means that fertilizer with the seed, how much, and a lot of that is still dependent upon soil tests and so there's still a week or two available before you really have to start going, make sure you know where your soils are at, have, have your old soil test or something.

If your phosphorus or pH is a little off, make sure you have some phosphorus in furrow.

Got some great opportunities and options as far as products we can use for that, that, that are cost effective, that, that get the job done.

So just make sure that corn crop has a good start and, and that it's not so much nitrogen, it's really about the phosphorus for me to get that good corn start.

- And then right on the heels of corn talking about the other spring crops, what kind of guidance do you have there?

- Yeah, we've got, you know, right after corn now we're dropping soy, sorghum, and cotton in.

It's very much the same.

Let's take care of the big things.

Make sure that the, the seeds in good soil moisture, you get good planting and you have that phosphorus and the potassium and, and the, the elements it needs in place so that crop has a really good start and can take off - And you update content on your blog pretty regularly.

- Absolutely and we, we've got some, some new blogs out.

One is about Inocular soybean that Dr. Lofton wrote and I've got a blog that was also recently released about nitrogen and sulfur applications in wheat.

- Lots to talk about.

Lots to as usual.

Brian, great to see you.

Thanks a lot.

- Alright, - Thank you.

And for a link to the fact sheet that Brian mentioned as well as his blog, just go to sunup .OKstate.edu.

- We want to take a minute to highlight our sister show Oklahoma gardening as they celebrate a major milestone 50 years of broadcasting - From our simple beginnings in 1975 to becoming Oklahoma's trusted source for research-based gardening solutions.

- Congratulations Oklahoma Gardening and here's to 50 more.

Be sure to tune in on Thursday, March 27th on OETA to catch their documentary celebrating this milestone.

Or you can catch it on their regular scheduled broadcast that weekend.

- Good morning everyone, this is state climatologist Gary McManus with your Mesonet weather report.

Well as usual, it's one step forward and two steps back with the drought.

We did relieve some of the drought conditions across central and over in the parts of Eastern Oklahoma, Northeastern Oklahoma.

Unfortunately we increased the drought up in northwest Oklahoma and I'll show you why here in a second.

And we also have some droughts starting to show up in the far western panhandle.

So you know, we had some areas of improvement, some areas of increase.

We will just have to see where we go from there.

Now I mentioned we got some rainfall with all those storms and all the other things we had, we did get a good two to three inches across much of southern and eastern Oklahoma.

Now some areas had less than two inches and just a little bit over an inch.

But if you look up there in northwest Oklahoma into the panhandle, those are places that generally had less than a half inch of rainfall over the last 10 days while the other parts of the state were getting those good rainfall amounts.

I guess another good news, bad news map is the consecutive days with less than a quarter inch of rainfall map from the Mesonet.

Here you can see most of the area now below a week for those days without, but if you go up into northwest Oklahoma again, it's now up to over 110 days.

In fact, it's probably up to about one 15 now.

So we definitely need rainfall in northwest Oklahoma and again in the western panhandle where things are just getting very serious.

How about a feel-good map?

The consecutive days with less than a 10th of an inch of rainfall, those are all less than 10 days, consecutive days at least.

So that's good because that was also getting up there into the bad colors in some cases up close to a hundred days.

So I'm very good to reset this map.

So why do we still have drought if we just got good rains?

Well, I showed you why northwest Oklahoma, but even over the rest of the state we still have deficits reigning supreme unfortunately.

So if we go back to December 1st and look at our rainfall amounts from the mesonet, you know, again around an inch to less up in the northwestern corner and into the panhandle, then it goes from two to four inches as you go to the southeast.

And then finally we get up into the 18 to 20 inch ranges down in far southeast Oklahoma.

But if you take a look at that from the departure, from normal rainfall map, then you start to see the deficits.

Not too bad in some parts of the state, again, southwest Oklahoma, less than an inch, but two to three inches over much of northern Oklahoma.

But again, you know, when we, when we look at this map, it's always what do we expect this time of the year?

That's why we take a look at the percent of normal rainfall map again since December 1st and here we see the deficits at least percentage wise of you know, generally 50% or less over much of the northwestern half of the state or so.

And that also extends over into northeast Oklahoma and south central Oklahoma.

The only, I guess you'd call it good area of the state is again that southeastern corner where they're above a hundred percent of normal rainfall since December 1st.

So basically over the last four months or so, the only good part of the state again is in far southeast Oklahoma where they're above a hundred percent and close to 150% of normal over that December 1st to current timeframe.

So basically over the last three and a half months or so, we take a look at the significant wildland fire potential outlook.

This is from the, the National Interagency Fire Center.

We do see that significant wildfire risk is above normal for the basically the western two thirds of Oklahoma.

And again, much of the southern plains, this won't come as a shock to you, but the cure for many of our ills right now with simply rainfall, it'll green us up and it will moisten those soils and it will keep drought away and relieve drought.

So it's pretty simple.

Let's get some rainfall.

That's it for this time.

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

- We are joined now by Dr. John Michael Riley to talk about the latest in the crop markets and John Michael, a lot of stock market stuff in the news this week and the question top of mind for me was any impact on crops?

- Absolutely seeing some, some topsy tur this in that, in that market, but luckily for the most part at the agricultural farm level, we don't always see that spill over into, into what we experience with our ag market prices.

It is, it is impactful, no doubt.

I don't wanna, I don't wanna shy away from that, but for the most part the the biggest impact is how these events are playing into the value of our dollar because that is where it is most impactful in, in our crop markets.

Cotton generally the most impacted by changes in how our dollar is valued to others across other, other currencies.

We also export about any GI given year, about half of our wheat, about half of our soybeans, but very little corn.

So cotton typically the most impacted.

- So let's kinda run the numbers for crops and there is kind of some, some good news for, for some of them to talk about this week.

So let's start with wheat.

- Absolutely.

Wheat has seen a lot of strength over the past few days.

It's up about 20 cents from middle of last week and a lot of that has to do with some optimism as it relates to, to exports.

We're seeing, continuing to see some strength in exports.

We're obviously, you know, kind of starting into the where, where the crop is really important in its in its growth and development for, for winter wheat and in Oklahoma, 46% rated good to excellent, this most recent report, only 21% poor and very poor.

So those are, you know, I would say on average and, but still shows showing signs of, of some, some hope there - In terms of corn prices, what are you seeing of late - Last time I, last time we visited, talked about how corn was trying to buy some acres, some, some strengthened corn relative to soybeans.

That's still present, not nearly as strong as it as it was at the beginning of February, but certainly corn is is one of those that is continuing to sew strength as opposed to soybeans.

That again has to do with, you know, again, not, not as strongly exported, but showing some signs of strength there on the export market.

- So talking about soybeans, a bit of a downturn, - Well it's, it's been up and down but mostly down over the, over the past few days, strong supplies, not just here in the US but but globally.

And that's putting a little bit of pressure on the soybean market and again, a lot of the strength that we're seeing talking about cornine acres is mostly due to some weakness in soybean prices.

- You mentioned cotton and some of the pressures with the value of the dollar.

What does that look like?

A little bit more in depth?

- Cotton has has improved over the past few days as the dollar has weakened relative to those other currencies.

Again, we export so much of our cotton and that has cotton has buoyed off of the weakness in the dollar and we, we have seen some, some upticks in price there, - The WASDE being released this week.

Any big themes you're keeping an eye on - At this time of the year, certainly no real big changes that USDA is implementing into the report, but right now I think the biggest thing they're keeping an eye on is, is how trade policy is impacting our markets.

- Alright, great information John.

Michael, thanks a lot.

We'll see you again soon.

- Good morning Oklahoma and welcome to Cow Calf Corner.

We've reached a point in the spring where those of us that plan to start calving early next January are only a few weeks away from bull turnout and in making preparations for breeding season.

Among the things we wanna make sure of is that we've got ample bull power and so we talk a little bit today about bull to female ratios and what we can expect outta bulls based on the age that they're gonna be when we turn 'em out.

It's important that we've got ample bull power out.

We know that each heat cycle earlier we can manage to get females bred.

In general, we're gonna bump weaning weights about 40 pounds.

And so based on the age bulls that we're looking at at the time we turn out, there's a certain expectancy we should have.

And the general rule of thumb, I like to keep in mind if we're looking at a yearling bull that has passed a breeding soundness exam, which is also another key component in knowing that we've got bulls that are ready as well as a bull that is in a body condition score six and is charged up in terms of body condition so that he's got the the staying power to go out there and get cows bred for us in a defined breeding season.

That general rule of thumb is that for every month of age the bull is at turnout.

He should be good to service about that many cows.

So if we're turning out 15 month old bulls at the beginning of May, we should expect those bulls to be good for about 15 cows or heifers in a given breeding season.

That generally holds true between the ages of 12 to 24 months of age in bulls give 'em about one cow or heifer per month of age that they are.

And at the age of two, when we've got bulls that are fully mature or getting closer to it from about two to six, it's not unreasonable to think that those bulls are gonna be able to service 25 to 35 cows a breeding season.

We typically think about the prime of life in bulls as being between the ages of yearlings up to six years of age and keep those things in mind as we plan ahead.

Think about how many bulls we need, take inventory of the females that we're gonna be breeding this spring and make sure you've got your bull to female ratios where they need to be to ensure that you're gonna get those females bred up as soon as possible.

Hope this helps.

And as always, thanks for joining us on Cow-Calf Corner.

- A new artificial intelligence chat bot with all kinds of useful information is now up and running.

The OSU extension bot answers questions based on more than 400,000 extension publications, articles, and fact sheets, as well as content from different educational programs.

And it's all sourced exclusively from 30 different extension networks and the US Department of Agriculture.

The chat bot gives you unlimited access 24 7 to accurate and practical information in all areas, including agriculture and natural resources, gardening, health, nutrition, and family resilience.

Check out the extension chat bot by scanning the QR code on your screen or going to sunup .OKstate.edu.

Finally, today we're heading to LeFlore County where the ad community is coming together to help some very special students.

Once again, here's Kurtis Hair.

- Fairgrounds are a special place, thousands of warm memories that will eventually settle into nostalgia made in these exhibit buildings all over the state.

And that's no different here at the Leflor County fairgrounds though today these memories are gonna be extra special for everyone involved.

- This is a, a program that's been started for special needs students to be able to get involved in something that is amazing.

- Justin Kennedy is the superintendent for Leflor county public schools.

He says this is the second year for the section of this livestock show and it's a wonderful opportunity for these kids.

Let's give - Kara a round of applause for these kids.

Get a opportunity that they have special needs that they may not be involved in anything and they can get out here and show an animal today, have a lot of fun and and get some exposure, maybe find something that they like and want to get involved with.

- Nearly 90 special needs students from all over Leflor County are showing today.

Each competitor has a volunteer waiting for them with an animal ready to show a trip around the ring with nonstop encouragement from everyone here.

And it wouldn't be a livestock show without a prize.

- And we've grown.

Last year we had 80 kids, so I'm hopeful that we just keep growing this program.

- Leanna Palmer is an OSU extension AG Educator for Leflor County and this was her idea to put this event into action.

- Yeah, so as the AG educator, I do school enrichment across our county.

LeFlore County is a really large county.

We serve about 17 schools.

And so getting in those classrooms, I immediately saw a need.

I met with these special needs kids, I actually take farm animals into the school and I saw these kids' reactions and how excited they were and how they were so engaging with what I was trying to teach them.

Just having that animal as part of the program and that's, that's really how I got the idea.

- For example, though, cheers and excitement are of course welcome.

It's pretty easy to see that there's a lot going on here, which can be extremely overwhelming for some students.

So Leanna set up a sensory station.

- It's hard to have an area where these kids can be spotlighted.

And so I decided to just make this tailored to their needs.

I wanted to meet them where they were at.

I didn't want them to feel like they had to change where we had to make it difficult for them.

I wanted this to be completely inclusive for them and I wanted them to have a moment where they were in the spotlight.

They're the only one in the ring.

We read what's special about them, what's important to them, and it's just their moment where they're involved in their sound support and clap.

- You see, for some special needs families finding inclusive activities like this is a challenge.

Some are forced to travel to other towns or cities to find these types of resources because their communities barely offer any of these experiences, if any at all.

- In our county.

We're very rural, we're on the state line with Arkansas and we do have the Special Olympics event, but that's kind of it for these kids.

- Pause there.

There are so few things for kids with special needs to get involved in and that's really focused on them.

And so I think this is extremely important to have something for kids that can grab a hold of something in life and and really find something that they enjoy and like.

And so many kids with special needs, they really love animals.

- And this is something that Justin knows a lot about, not just as a superintendent or an educator and as a parent - To be able to see your kid be excited and want to be involved in something like this.

It's incredible.

- One thing about the ag community is we are all very inclusive and we're all very supportive.

And I think when you come here, that's just so evident.

You see that everybody is excited about it.

Everybody wants to support these kids and it's a very heartwarming program - For Peyton McAllister.

Today was a big day because she loves spending time with animals, especially pigs.

What's your animal's name?

I - Forgot socks.

Socks is my favorite.

High five, - Let's go.

And pistol Pete is cool and all, but he wasn't the most important person in attendance.

And who did you meet today?

Ninth grader are you?

Leanna says she hopes this livestock show can inspire other county educators and community organizers to start their own events.

Because at the end of the day it's all about inclusion.

And that goes a long ways.

I'm happy.

I'm happy for you.

Good job.

Peyton in LeFlore County, I'm Kurtis Hair.

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

A reminder, you can see sunup anytime on our website and also follow us on social media and stream us anytime at youtube.com/sunup tv.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

Have a great week everyone.

And remember, Oklahoma Agriculture starts at Sunup.