(upbeat music) - Hello, everyone, and welcome to Sunup.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

The weed is really taking off and, of course, it is spring green-up, meaning many cattle producers are eager to turn their cattle out on pasture for the year.

But as OSU extension beef cattle specialist Dr. Dave Lalman tells us, that may not be the best idea, at least for now.

(upbeat music) Here's Dave with Sunup's Kurtis Hair.

- So Dave, for a lot of producers out there, that's obviously pretty exciting to turn cattle out on there, but for spring calving operations, that might not be the best idea, so what do you have for us?

- Well, we're just thinking about, you know, the transition period here, and we have more and more people all the time adopting reproductive technology, artificial insemination, synchronization, and so on.

And it turns out the timing of drastic changes in cattle's diet with that technology, you know, if you're gonna AI a set of heifers or immature cows, that timing can be critical, and so we just wanted to let producers be aware of that and think about what they might be able to do to minimize any negative impacts.

- Before we get into how producers can manage this, first, let's kind of really just address the issue.

So what is the issue and what can happen?

- Well, any time when artificial insemination occurs at about the same time as a radical diet change, you can, the literature research shows that you can expect a reduction in that first-time conception rate.

- And it's pretty obvious, like with green-up like here, that's a drastic change in an animal's diet.

- I mean, it is if they're going from let's say a native pasture with very little green in it to, over a period of a week or two, to lush green, or you have a cattle in a sacrifice pasture or a dry lot where you're feeding hay and a little bit of supplement and then you turn them out on a really lush pasture, that is a radical change in their diet.

- So it just kind of, you know, just, as you're talking about this, I just imagine one of the main kind of management strategies is just timing, right?

- Oh yeah, I mean, for sure, and, you know, it's not gonna be a problem for a lot of people that, you know, where green-up occurs earlier.

And let's say, well, let's just take an example from a calendar standpoint, Kurtis, if, let's say you intend to breed your cows to calve about March 15th and you intend to breed your heifers around two weeks ahead of the cows so they can get more attention at calving time.

That means that, if you're gonna calve your heifers around March 1st, the AI or start of the breeding season needs to happen about May 23rd, okay.

And so we think that, and the literature indicates that adaptation to lush pasture needs to start about 45 days ahead of that, which is April the 8th.

- Well, and with these warmer days that we're getting so early in the, it's not even spring yet, this green-up's gonna happen a lot sooner.

- Yeah, I mean, we're gonna have a lot of this early, you know, annual forage growth that greens up a little bit, but those perennial forges, the warm season perennial forges, will be a while coming on.

- Obviously, there's some producers who you might just hold their cattle as well, right?

- Yeah, you know, access to the animal handling facilities is critical, of course, for synchronization and artificial insemination because the cattle have to come through those facilities several times.

And so if someone were to do that, and in our May 23rd example for breeding, if they hold them until then, you know, there's probably gonna be a pretty drastic change if they're held on hay and supplement, for example, in the dry lot.

You know, the idea though would be just to try to create a scenario where you either can turn the cattle out on pasture about 45 days ahead of AI to give them time to adapt or make that change gradual.

So maybe turn them out on a little bit bigger pasture where they can pick at some of that annual forage coming through and gradually reduce the supplementation rate, something like that.

Another thing we know for sure, Kurtis, and that is there's a time period usually every spring where you don't have very much forage availability and the cattle are picking at the green stuff and ignoring what they've been eating all winter long and actually losing weight.

And so you wanna make sure that that's not occurring because that will definitely negatively impact, that happens right ahead of artificial insemination, could reduce your conception rate also.

- Obviously, producers can go into their local county extension office for guidance as well, right?

- Yeah, sure, and, you know, the extension educators can help them with, you know, their supplementation program, keeping the hay out a little bit longer, so they have the option, if they do run out of forage dry matter, they can go consume a little bit more hay and keep them from losing weight right ahead of that critical time period.

- All right, thanks, Dave.

Dr. Dave Lalman, OSU extension beef cattle specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

(upbeat music) And just a quick reminder about the upcoming 2024 Oklahoma Peanut Expo.

- [Announcer] The event will be this coming Thursday at 9:00 AM at the Stafford Air and Space Museum at the O Airport there in Weatherford.

The peanut expos a great opportunity for growers to come learn about the latest research, development and market trends.

For more information about this event, just go to sunup.OKstate.edu.

(upbeat music) - Hi, Wesley here and welcome to the Mesonet weather report.

I shared with you last week just how warm we have been lately and the streak continues.

Looking at this 30 year map of average days below freezing and comparing it to what we have encountered so far this year is dramatically different.

All areas of the state are all well behind what we would normally expect in a winter.

For the central part of the state, the last killing freeze occurred late last month.

A killing freeze would be minimum temperature somewhere cooler than 30 degrees.

Our plants are well into spring green up in most regions, and a killing freeze now could set back forages, devastate the fruit crop, and maybe even damage our wheat.

According to our average last spring freeze date map, we still have several more weeks to go before we can feel safe from freezing temperatures.

And if you look at when the last 10% of the freezes occur, we still have over a month to go.

On peaches, their tolerance to freezing temperatures depends upon their stage of development.

We are probably in first to full bloom in the north and at least petal fall in the South.

Expect most other fruits with maybe the exception of apples to be similar.

Now here's Gary with two words that you never like to hear put together, flash drought.

- Thanks Wes, and good morning everyone.

Well, we continue to dry out across much of the state, but especially across western Oklahoma.

Flash drought is a growing concern.

Let's get right to the maps and see what we're looking at.

Well, the Mesonet consecutive days with less than a quarter inch of rainfall map continues to grow.

We're now basically right about nine days in parts of Beaver County, but much of West Oklahoma from two to three months time span without that critical significant bout of moisture.

So that's an area we're continuing to watch.

And if we take a look at the newest drought monitor map, well that area of abnormally dry conditions continues to spread down into the Texas panhandle up into parts of Oklahoma all the way across now, across the northern border counties with Kansas, from Beaver County all the way over past Osage County.

So growing areas of concern, but also across eastern Oklahoma, which has gotten a little bit more rainfall but have a little bit more in the way of longer term deficits.

Let's take a look at rainfall over the last 60 days or so.

You know, we do see some good amounts in some areas, at least when you look at the map just at a whole, lots of areas of two to three to four inches of rainfall.

However, if you look at that on the departure from normal rainfall map, a lot of those areas are deficit.

So we do have some of those good surplus amounts from southwest Oklahoma up through central Oklahoma, at least over the last 60 days.

So we are still concerned, especially across northwest Oklahoma with that continuing dry spell.

It's compounded by the fact that we spend so much warmer than normal over the last 30 days plus, you know, that certainly compounds the difficulty when we see drought conditions starting to form.

Increases that evaporation, but also kicks that vegetation into high gear wanting that moisture.

So this is something that we're going to continue to watch and hopefully we can get some moisture in here before we get to full blown drought.

- We're joined now by Dr. Meriem Aoun, our small grains extension pathologist and and Dr. Aoun, let's talk a little bit about the wheat crop this year.

We see that it is looking pretty good and you're also seeing the same thing, right?

- Yes, it's looking way better compared to the last two seasons.

The wheat is looking good in most part of Oklahoma.

- So how does that translate in terms of wheat diseases, fungus, viruses, all the things that you study?

- Yeah, they usually go together.

So if we have high yield potential, that's usually when we see high disease pressure.

So as the environmental conditions are conducive for the wheat growth, they are also conducive for more fungal diseases as well.

- So at this stage in the growing season, what are you seeing in terms of disease pressure?

- So in terms of disease pressure, it's very low right now.

We got yesterday a few samples from La Hona variety trial that were infected with septoria tritici blotch, it's a fungus.

And here in Stillwater we are seeing symptoms of virus.

The wheat soilborne mosaic virus, and wheat streak mosaic virus.

So that was late in February, early March, start rating some varieties for their reaction to this virus complex.

So if, if the weather conditions continue to be conducive, then we may have (indistinct) this year in Oklahoma.

- So with these warm windy days, it's more likely to spread north?

- Yes.

So with the wind and with the environment being conducive, we may have the inoculum coming here to Oklahoma.

- So the pressure's low at this stage, but in terms of management guidance, we don't wanna scare anybody, but it is important to be scouting your fields.

- Yes, it is important to start scouting the fields, especially that we have good moisture over the last months, and weather is conducive for diseases.

So it would be a good idea to look at the field and see what's happening there.

- And what's the best way to get samples to you here on the campus in Stillwater?

- We have county educators, so you can take the samples or just send it to the Plant Disease and Insect Diagnostic Lab at Oklahoma State University.

- Well, let's talk about your new fact sheet and this kind of new issue that you're keeping an eye on recently.

Tell us about the fact sheet and what you've been seeing.

- So the fact sheet that I got recently is on Septoria nodorum blotch.

So this is a somehow more recent disease that we see in Oklahoma.

So over the last five years, we start seeing an increase in incidents and severity of this disease.

Last year in 2023, after the rain that we got late in April and early May, that's when we saw it in many fields in Oklahoma.

So it usually appears when the temperatures are warm, between 68 to 81 Fahrenheit, and also when we have moisture.

And that was the condition that we had late in April and in May last year.

So this is something new that we are dealing with.

Most of the varieties look susceptible to this diSease.

So that's something that we are watching closely in this year and see how the disease is progressing in the state and do some research as well on this disease.

- So what does this disease look like?

How can I identify it in my field?

- So the disease usually starts on the lower leaves, and you can see dark lesions, brown lesions, and they are usually surrounded by yellow halo, that's because of the toxins produced by the fungus.

And then later, as the lesions start to expand, we see more grayish center.

And as the disease progress, the lesions, they will coalesce and then the leaf will die.

- How is this newer disease different from some of the other diseases that you've mentioned?

- The symptoms can be confused sometimes with Septoria tritici blotch.

So because they usually, they can co-occur together and the symptoms are very similar.

But Septoria tritici blotch usually occur when the temperature are cooler, usually 50 to 68 Fahrenheit.

But Septoria nodorum blotch, it occurs when the temperature are warmer between 68 and 81 Fahrenheit.

That's the optimal temperature for the disease.

- And are theresome management options available?

- Yes, Septoria nodorum blotch, like the fungi that works also with Septoria tritici blotch, They usually also work with Septoria nodorum blotch.

So we have many fungicide that are available.

For cultural practices, we can't do much because we cannot do tillage here.

We are in a no-till system in Oklahoma, so that will leave a lot of crop residue in the field and that increase the inoculum in the next season.

But we can control volunteer weed and some white grasses that can be alternative hosts for the this fungus.

- So it is important for growers who maybe spot something unusual in their field to really engage with the county extension office and send that sample in because that information can help with future variety development.

- Yeah, so we want to understand what do we have.

So that will help the grower to understand what they are dealing with so they can know if they are going to apply fungicide or not.

Also, it will help us to understand what is the genetic and virulence variation of this pathogen that we have in the field.

And that will guide us in terms of variety development.

- Okay.

Well some great information.

Thank you very much, Miriam.

And for a link to the new fact sheet, just go to sunup.okstate.edu.

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

This week, we address a question that I got recently from a producer.

This is an Oklahoma commercial cow-calf operation.

They need to add a couple of Angus bulls this year.

This producer had been through the country, looked at several seed stock operations, and had narrowed down his selection to five bulls that he was considering.

So you can see on screen the five bulls that this producer had narrowed his selection decision down between.

- Their EPD values and the private treaty sales price for each one of these bulls.

As we talk through this particular situation, what I would learn is that this producer plans to use bulls on four to 6-year-old mature cows, and the marketing plan is that all the calves will run on wheat after they wean them.

These are spring calving cows and they will sell all the calves sired as yearlings.

So in this case, as terminal sires, we can identify one economically important thing, that being yearling weight.

And so as you take a look at those numbers on screen, we identified bull number five as the least expensive bull to purchase, purchase price of $5,500.

And he's got a yearling weight EPD of 108.

So using bull number five as our baseline at $5,500.

And with that 108 yearling weight EPD, we're gonna take a look at every other bull in comparison that's on this producer's list relative to what profit potential they create or take away relative to their initial purchase price.

So bull number one with a yearling weight EPD of 120 is gonna sire eight pounds more yearling weight per calf.

That value multiplied by 135 calves sired is gonna result in an additional 1,620 pounds of pay weight that he generates as opposed to bull number five, that 1,620 extra pounds of yearling weight at a value of $2 per pound results to a dollar figure of 3,240 that bull's purchase price is 4,500 more than bull number five.

So we take the $3,240 that he generates in extra revenue, we subtract the $4,500 additional cost of that bull right now, and that bull nets out costing us $1,260.

And so in comparison to bull number five, bull number one is a poorer choice to the tune of costing an additional $1,260.

Bull number two, with a yearling weight EPD of 141 is expected to sire 33 pounds more yearling weight per calf that multiplied by 135 calves sired, that results in 4,455 additional pounds of yearling weight.

That 4,455 pounds at $2 a pound equates to $8,910.

And that bull costs 2,500 more than bull five.

So the 8910, subtract 2,500 gives us a value of $6,410.

So bull number two, as compared to number five, even with the higher purchase price, is superior by $6,410.

Bull number three is expected to sire 27 pounds more yearling weight per calf, that multiplied by 135 calves results in 3,645 more pounds a yearling weight.

That extra yearling weight multiplied by $2 a pound equates to $7,290.

The purchase price of that bull is actually $7,000 more than bull number five.

So the 7290 subtract 7,000, by $290 bull number three is at an advantage to bull number five.

Bull number four is where it gets pretty interesting that bull's expected to sire 49 pounds more yearling weight per calf, multiplied by 135 calves, results in 6,615 pounds, by $2 a pound that bull generates an additional $13,230 over his lifetime.

He's gonna cost $2,000 more.

So we subtract that from the 13,230.

That bull nets out at an advantage of $11,230 and is a vastly superior choice to Bull five by that margin.

So profit potential created relative to the purchase price of the bulls.

Bull number four, creates the most profit potential, is the best revenue generator, followed by bull number two.

I encourage producers to set a budget, evaluate your operation, take a look at your marketing endpoint and factor in these things as you make considerations on what a good bull's worth, but in particular, what bulls you're looking at can generate the most profit potential relative to the purchase price you invest in genetics in the spring of 2024.

If producers would like to take a closer look at the math and the calculations I've worked through in this particular segment, please take a look at our March 11th Cow-Calf Corner newsletter where we spell this out in detail.

And if you're interested in signing up for the Cow-Calf Corner newsletter, scan the QR code at the bottom of the screen that we'll get you in touch with Darrell, Paul and I, and we'll get you on the mailing list.

Thanks for joining us on Cow-Calf Corner.

(upbeat music) - I'm Kim Anderson and this is Tailgate Talk on Sun UPS Market Monitor.

Now it's not news that wheat prices have been in a downtrend since late July when prices were around $8 and 40 cents in Northern Oklahoma.

Prices trended down into early November, it hit $6 and then moved by December one down to $5 and 40 cents.

- Went back up over 6.00 for just a little while by mid-December, and they've been going down ever since until early this week when wheat prices hit $5.00.

Wheat prices are now up around $5.40 to $5.50.

Looks like they've been trading between that 5.00 and 5.50.

We'll have to break the 5.50 for it to move on up.

I'd be surprised if it did.

Now the big surprise is why have prices been trending down when the stocks-to-use ratios for both hard red winter wheat, all US wheat, and world wheat are average, and the average price is $5.80?

You'd expect the price to be around 5.80.

Well, if you'll look at exports, it might tell us something about what's going on in these markets.

If you look at US hard red winter wheat exports, for 2022, it's 224 million bushels compared to an average of 372 million.

The 2023 hard red winter wheat exports are projected to be 135 million bushels.

That's over 200 million bushels below average.

I think our answer is in the Black Sea area.

Russia, on average, exports about 1.4 billion bushels.

They're projected to export about 1.9 billion bushels this year.

You look at Ukraine, their average is 660 million bushels.

They're exporting 588.

Both Russia and Ukraine came in with excess stocks of wheat.

And Russia had a banner crop this year, and Ukraine had a relatively good crop, and they have been exporting at whatever price it takes to get it out there, and that's killed the world hard red winter wheat price and that's killed the price in Oklahoma.

I don't think this can go on forever.

If you look at our average stocks-to-use ratios, our current price for a forward contract for '24 harvest around 5.35.

You'd expect that price to be up closer to 5.80.

And I think your June, July, August price will be up, maybe that 5.65, 5.70 level, close to that 5.80 average price.

I'm Kim Anderson, and I'll see you next week on Sunup's Market Monitor.

(upbeat music) - Today, I thought I'd share some tips on how to improve the quality of food frozen at home.

There are three factors that generally affect the quality of frozen foods.

The first factor is the treatment the food receives prior to freezing.

Enzymatic actions in fruits and vegetables does not stop after they've been frozen.

Enzymes such as peroxidase, catalase, and lipoxygenase can cause discoloration, nutrient loss, and soft texture during frozen storage, unless they're deactivated.

Blanching or scalding produce in boiling water or steam for a short period of time followed by immediately submerging it in very cold water can be an effective tool to inactivate enzymes in fruits and vegetables.

Meat products can suffer from rancidity during extended frozen storage.

However, the elimination of oxygen within the container by vacuum packaging can help prevent this.

The second factor that affects the quality of frozen foods is how quickly the food is frozen.

Keep in mind that pure water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, zero degrees Celsius.

However, water in a food system is not pure and the freezing point is often lowered by several degrees.

Faster freezing results in a higher quality product because there's less disruption to the structural material of the food, and it decreases time available for microbial growth.

However, it's important to remember that freezing does not kill bacteria.

And in fact, some bacteria are capable of growing at temperatures that are only slightly above freezing.

The third factor that affects the quality of frozen foods is how it is stored.

Use containers that are appropriate for freezing.

For example, the container should be airtight, moisture proof, capable of withstanding freeze thaw, and capable of being labeled with a date that the item went into the freezer.

Keep the contents of the freezer organized.

Remember, the first items placed in the freezer should be the first items to come out, rather than pushing them farther back.

So just a few tips to help improve the quality of foods frozen at home.

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

Stay frosty.

(upbeat music) - That'll do it for our show this week.

Remember, you can see us anytime on our website, and also follow us on YouTube and social media.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

Have a great week, everyone.

And remember, Oklahoma Agriculture starts at Sunup.

(upbeat music)