Good morning, everyone.

I'm Lyndall Stout, and we have a great show lined up for you today on SUNUP.

Some farmers in Oklahoma are seeing this pest in their wheat fields.

Find out how to manage it.

And spring management guidance for your cattle herd from our extension veterinarian.

And we're raising the question, just how much will overseas conflict impact cattle markets?

Grab that hot cup of coffee because SUNUP starts right now.

We begin this morning with Kelly Seuhs, one of our OSU extension entomologists, talking about an insect we're starting to see in wheat fields this year.

Kelly, tell us all about it, what you're seeing and kind of where.

We've got some reports the last week or so from central Oklahoma.

Some of our colleagues put out a fact sheet last week, our e-pest alert last week, talking about green bugs in wheat.

It's a pest that we see throughout the Great Plains and Oklahoma and the wheat belts.

It's sporadic.

Sometimes it doesn't affect every year and it may not affect the entire field, but it can cause some significant problems if it develops like we're starting to see this time of year.

What do you think the conditions are, why we're seeing it this year?

It's kind of a lot of different things lining up together.

We had back in early February, early March, late February, early March, we started seeing some transition from the cooler weather to the warmer weather.

Temperatures got into that 65 to 75 degree range and that's prime optimum conditions for green bug development.

Conjointly with that is that's a little bit early for any of our beneficials or natural enemies to help with control.

Compound that with the lack of rain in some areas and it just escalates the problem.

We don't have any natural enemies to control this pest.

What is the damage potential if it becomes more widespread in a field?

The damage potential this time of year is a little bit different than in the fall.

We're talking about a newly planted stand.

We're talking about the toxins being introduced into the plant, starting about chlorosis, starting out yellowing of the leaves, and then finally the necrosis or deadening of the plant, death of the plant.

The problem in the springtime is we're also dealing with the flag leaf.

We're at a late vegetative state and so if we have a lot of population build up this time of year, then if it damages the flag leaf, that's what feeds the energy and the nutrition of the plant to develop the seed head.

If we have a lot of damage right there during this time of year, it can cause some significant yield loss.

That obviously is concerning.

What kind of guidance do you have for producers, I guess, get out in the field and see what's out there?

You bet.

We just need to be out scouting.

One of our best tools that we have, once you identify your pest, is a glance and go system that was developed by some entomologists several years ago.

It's a simple app.

It's a free app that you can download on your phone.

Once you get it downloaded, you input some information like the cost of your control for that field per acre, the value of the crop per acre, and you put the timing of the season.

We're in the spring, so we didn't put that.

Start scouting, make a zigzag appearance throughout the field, make different stops throughout the field to get a good representation.

We look at about three tillers.

We're also looking at any kind of aphid mummies where they've been parasitized by a parasitic wasp.

The app will actually tell you if it's time to spray or keep sampling, or if it tells you to stop, then you can come back several days later and do the same thing.

If you don't want to go the app route, you can go the old-fashioned way of just going out and throughout the field, same zigzag pattern, sampling.

The old rule of thumb was around this time of year, about 300 to 500 aphids per linear foot.

And so if we start seeing that kind of activity, that kind of population building, then it might be time to make some kind of a spray decision.

So you and the team have a fact sheet that helps with kind of that piece of it, right?

If the spray decision is made that we need to spray, then there's a fact sheet, current report 7194, that talks about not only aphids, green bugs, but also other insect pests and small grains that they can choose from different products.

There are several of them that are pyrethroid in nature, which are broad spectrum, which are going to cover a lot of different pests, even the beneficials.

And so there's other products like a Cervanto or a Transform that are a little bit easier on beneficials.

So that might be an option.

One thing to keep in mind with the products is depending on what you're going to do with the crop, whether you're going to hay it or graze it or harvest it, grazing restrictions.

Grazing restrictions are going to be different on every product.

And so, and the harvest intervals are going to be different on every product.

So we've got to read the label depending on what product you're using, read the label to make sure that you're following the rules.

And so do your homework.

Do the homework.

Do your homework.

Study your fact sheet.

That's right.

All right.

Kelly, thanks so much for the updates.

You bet.

And for a link to the fact sheet that Kelly mentioned, we have it for you at sunup.okstate.edu.

OSU agriculture's field day season is right around the corner.

First up is the wheat and forages field day at the South Central Research Station in Chickasha on April 24th from 830 to one.

Field days are a great opportunity for the community and for producers to talk directly with extension specialists and see the research firsthand to learn how it applies to you and your operation.

If you would like more information on the event, just scan the QR code at the bottom of your screen or go to the SUNUP website.

Good morning, everyone.

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

Well, like many of you, I took last week off for spring break only to find out it was summer break.

The temperatures have been out of control and now drought is once again as well.

Let's take a look at that new drought monitor map.

It's not looking pretty at all.

We now have a substantial area from southwestern up through central Oklahoma covered in that extreme drought, the red colors, and then that's surrounded by another large area of severe drought.

But most of the state is in some form of drought, moderate to extreme, only far southeast Oklahoma still in those abnormally dry conditions.

And that won't last long if we go without rain for much longer.

So not a good picture at all for drought across the state as we look at it right now.

Again, it's not hard to see why.

Let's take a look at the Mesonet's consecutive days with less than a quarter inch of rainfall map.

And we can now see most of the state now going from two weeks to three weeks.

But we have that area across western and central Oklahoma getting close to 40 and sometimes 60 days.

And out in the Panhandle, completely out of control, now going close to 125 days in some cases without a quarter inch of rain in a single day.

And that accounts for melted snow as well.

So just dire times across much of the state as we go through spring.

Now to go along with what's going to end up is probably the warmest March on record.

It's also exceedingly dry.

Look at this departure from normal rainfall map for the last 30 days.

This does account for some part of the end of February.

But by and large, March is below normal across nearly the entire state, about one to two inches, in some cases more, some cases a little less.

But everybody's in deficit except for far northeastern Oklahoma and a few spotty areas across southeastern Oklahoma.

Now take a look at the percent of normal rainfall map for that same time frame.

It's not looking good at all.

The large area of the state, less than 25 percent of normal.

In fact, a lot of those places are less than 10 percent of normal for the month, at least for the last 30 days.

Now again, we do have those surplus areas across southeast Oklahoma and up in northeast Oklahoma, also far west Oklahoma, one small part right there.

But again, this is what's fueling that drought, causing it not only to spread once again, but also to intensify.

Let's take a look from space down at the vegetation drought response index.

This looks at the vegetation response to the drought.

And we can see this is basically a picture of the winter wheat crop from southwest up to north central Oklahoma.

Much of that winter wheat crop is showing moderate to severe drought, at least on this vegetation drought response index.

Well the $64,000 question, do we have rainfall in the forecast?

Yes, maybe later next week.

We take a look at the Climate Prediction Center's 8 to 14 day precipitation outlook.

This accounts for that first week of April by and large.

We do see increased odds of above normal precipitation, especially across eastern Oklahoma.

But we also have increased odds of above normal temperatures, which won't help the drought situation.

The longer we go with those above normal temperatures, that's going to put pressure on the soil moisture and also the vegetation.

Finally, let's take a look at the seasonal drought outlook from the Climate Prediction Center.

This goes from March 19th through June 30th.

So what will the drought look like at the end of June?

We do see the drought persisting across basically the western three-quarters of the state.

Maybe some improvement or removal across the eastern quarter or so.

But it does show drought persisting or intensifying across those western areas and central areas of the state.

So summer's come early.

We definitely need some rainfall and we need a lot of it and we need it quick.

That's it for this time.

We'll see you next time on the Mesonet Weather Report.

It's starting to look a little bit like spring and we're noticing some green up.

Cattle producers are paying attention to lots of new things coming at us.

One of the big things that cattle producers are watching right now is the drought situation.

It looks a little bit concerning right now.

We've continued to get drier and drier in recent weeks.

And the forecast, at least for the foreseeable future, looks a little bit scary.

So producers are watching that.

Whether you're a cow-calf producer thinking about getting on with your summer production plans.

Maybe in the broader picture, we're thinking about whether we're retaining any heifers and thinking about a little bit of herd rebuilding.

Or in Oklahoma and Southern Plains, we see some spring demand for stocker cattle.

So volumes at auction markets have been down a little bit the last couple of weeks.

But for the year, we're still pulling a lot of cattle into markets because of these cattle markets that continue to be very, very strong.

And we've had a lot of volatility in the market.

That's an issue as well for producers.

We've got all kinds of external factors, geopolitical events, and other things impacting the markets.

We continue to watch lots of different data, including the trade data.

The January data showed that we continue to see increased beef imports in the U.S., decreased exports.

And that's been the situation that we've seen happen and expect to happen in this kind of a market environment.

There's been lots of political talk about high ground beef prices and the fact that imports are part of that picture.

So that continues to be something that we're taking a look at as we go forward.

Still have a lot of concerns, or at least we're keeping an eye on things like the Mexican border and animal health situation.

We've got the possibility of some additional infrastructure adjustments.

So just a lot of things that producers are keeping an eye on right now.

But through it all, cattle markets continue to be very strong.

They're moving forward.

We expect, on average, higher prices as we go forward as cattle numbers continue to tighten.

All right.

So we're in spring, and although we've had unseasonably warm temperatures, it's time to think about a few things for our cow-calf operations.

First, we need to be thinking about, do we have facilities that are able to handle processing both of our cows as well as our calves?

And in particular, with the threat of New World Screwworm being very close to the U.S.

border, we also want to be thinking about it from that perspective.

Do we have our operations set up to apply or administer treatments as well as preventatives should we see New World Screwworm?

So good time for producers to be thinking about, are my facilities adequate, and putting that on the list of things to do as we finish out spring into summer.

With our heat, it's always a good idea to be thinking again towards those later summer months when we'll have our extreme temperatures.

Looking at our Cattle Comfort Index and becoming familiar with that particular tool, as well as thinking, do our cattle have access to water, space, as well as shade?

From a welfare standpoint, we want to make sure we're prepared for that before those sizzling temperatures hit.

With our calves on board, we're probably finishing up for many calving season.

And so we want to think about, you know, getting those cows bred back.

We want to make sure that our bulls are having those breeding soundness exams, making sure they're ready to go and rolling, evaluating our cows from a culling perspective too, to make sure that they're ready to enter the breeding season, getting that breeding season defined.

And then for our calves that we've had earlier this spring, we need to be thinking about health protocols for those guys.

And in particular, our vaccination protocols, as we look at our traditional branding time of about three to four months of age, sitting down with our veterinarian, evaluating our current protocol, and then making changes and adjustments as we need them there.

Additionally, one thing we oftentimes think about in the spring on into summer is typically our high time for parasites.

And we want to think about internal parasites and which protocols are going to be appropriate and how we're going to apply those to our different classes of animals on an operation.

And then we're already starting to see the flies and ticks.

So we want to think about our preventatives, visiting with our veterinarians.

We've got great resources from our livestock entomologist to take a look at those so that we can be managing flies and ticks well before we reach summer.

We've got various resources to help producers kind of tackle and learn more about these issues.

Certainly, we've got fact sheets.

Visit our websites as well as reach out to your respective county educator for more information.

And always don't forget to visit the SUNUP website.

Good morning, Oklahoma.

Welcome to Cow-Calf Corner.

Our topic this week is really selection pressure and how we apply it.

Cow-Calf operations, when we're making selection and mating decisions, need to have a clear objective in mind.

We live in a time that there are 20 to 30 different genetic values reported on any bull of any breed that we want to take a look at.

And how we go about using those tools that are available to us, and particularly how we spend our bull buying dollar, has a lot to do with the profit potential we create in the next calf crop.

Selection pressure is a precious commodity.

It shouldn't be squandered, particularly on things that we're not going to see a big return on investment for.

This really gets down to answering a handful of questions as far as how we're going to use a bull, how do we intend to market the calves, maybe even potentially looking at some past production records.

So, when we think about how we're going to use a bull, one of the big questions is a bull going to be used on heifers or mature cows?

Has a lot to do with how much selection pressure we may need to put on calving ease.

Second to that, is the bull going to sire the next set of replacement heifers for us that we're going to live with as cows for 10, 12 years down the road and really live with those maternal genetics for generations as those cows are going to impact the calves that they have.

That's going to determine how much selection pressure and at what levels do we want things like milk, mature size, what is the foot soundness, the environmental fit of those daughters going to be based on where we're going to put them in production.

If we're not going to keep daughters and bulls are strictly going to be terminal sires, we need to give thought to the marketing end point for those calves.

Are we going to sell them at weaning, as yearlings, or potentially retain ownership all the way through finishing?

Each one of those things puts a slightly different angle on the traits that are going to return more to our bottom line if we think about the bulls as terminal sires.

Final thought is really if we've got them at our disposal, taking a look at past production records that have came out of our operation.

What is the mature size of our current cow herd?

What kind of percent calf crop weaned have we seen in past generations?

What's the post weaning performance, the weaning weight, the potential carcass merit of the calves been that have came out of our operation?

We can even take a look at things like the genetic values of the bulls that we've been using in past generations to get a good feel for how to look at what level of EPD might be most beneficial to us as we think about the future.

All these things can be distilled down to a number of priority traits, maybe one or two, maybe just a handful of things that we know are going to maximize our return on investment in genetics that we use in purchasing bulls this spring.

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

We just want to take a break in the show to remind you about the upcoming ranchers Thursday lunchtime series.

This edition will cover the tug of war in the cattle industry regarding increasing carcass weights and escalating costs with maintaining beef cows.

The next session will be held on Thursday, April 9th and will cover selection pressure to get the most out of your cows.

If you're interested in finding out more about the series, just scan this QR code at the bottom of your screen or go to our website, sunup.okstate.edu.

Finally today, a second look at a recent segment that generated a lot of interest about a deadly deer disease in Oklahoma.

Here's Kurtis Hair.

As Lyndall just mentioned, a case of chronic wasting disease was found in Oklahoma.

So Mark, where exactly was this case reported?

Well, the most recent case that was just found in a hunter harvested mule deer was reported in Cimarron County.

There's a couple of different places in Oklahoma where CWD has been found both in the panhandle as well as a little bit more downstate of that.

ODWC, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation has excellent resources in terms of those areas.

I think that they're calling them selective surveillance areas, which basically would be an area that we might expect to detect CWD and also a place that the state is providing for testing.

And you mentioned mule deer, and we actually have a story later in the show about mule deer.

What type of deer does this affect?

Yep.

So CWD affects any animal within the cervid family or the deer family.

So in Oklahoma, that would include whitetail deer, mule deer, and elk.

Pronghorn, on the other hand, are not infected by CWD.

So just members of the deer family.

So let's take a step back.

You know, I've been with SUNUP for a little bit and we've been covering this over the years and I think even going back as far as 2017.

So it's always been something that we've been thinking about.

What exactly is chronic wasting disease?

So CWD is an always fatal prion-based disease that's caused by misfolded prions that eventually long-term lead to death always.

There's no cure for it.

There's no vaccine for it, unfortunately.

It's most similar to, in humans, Crutchfield-Jacobs disease.

In cows, obviously a lot of folks know about mad cow disease.

And then in sheep, there's also scrapie.

So these prion diseases are a very different type of disease compared to either bacterial infections or compared to viral infections.

They're kind of their own thing.

And unfortunately, right now, these are always fatal.

There's no cure.

And these are things that are just always in the environment as well, right?

Right.

So there's a lot of new information coming out about how these diseases spread.

They certainly spread between animal to animal transfer.

But yes, if an animal dies, that actual location can have prions within the soul that then could be taken up by plants.

A deer could come along and eat it.

And then they would become infected, potentially.

So yes, it's very much so in the environment.

And there's a lot of new information coming out.

And there's a lot of work being done to try to better understand it.

Because again, it's very different than any other class of disease out there.

And correct me if I'm wrong.

Over the years, from what I remember about this, is that one of the main things that's concerning isn't just for the deer population.

It's just maybe in theory that it could be transmissible from deer to human.

Right.

So thus far, there's no data to suggest that CWD is transmissible to humans.

There's been a lot of people eating deer meat for a long time, including areas that would have CWD and have had CWD for several decades, in fact.

And there's thus far been no known case that we've directly linked CWD in a deer to Crutchfield jacobs in humans.

However, there certainly have been cases with mad cow disease.

And so that gives us a little bit of pause.

And we would not recommend eating meat from an animal that's infected with chronic wasting disease.

And in fact, we also would recommend if you're in an area where chronic wasting disease is known to occur, take the time to test that deer.

Again, within Oklahoma, there's great opportunities within the state for free testing.

Is there any kind of biosecurity measures when it comes to harvesting the deer that hunters can actually just kind of take to keep in mind of like just, you know, just kind of self-cleaning actually type of thing?

Absolutely.

So CWD, you know, obviously from deer to deer, but deer really in general on average don't move all that far throughout their life.

So CWD jumping long distances predominantly is happening from people moving deer, either live deer or harvested deer.

And so certainly for hunters, if you're hunting in a place with CWD, and in fact, in most cases, depending on state to state regulations vary, most places you actually can't transport whole deer or specific parts of deer, such as bones, the spinal column, the brain tissue, those parts of the deer that have more infectious material.

It's illegal to transport that from one place that has the disease out into other places.

And certainly even if it's not illegal, just a best practice is if you're hunting in an area with CWD, debone all of your meat, you know, at the site of the kill or relatively close to the site of the kill, dispose of those bones and those waste parts again, either at the site of the kill or at a landfill.

Again, regulations vary a little bit depending on where you're at, but simply avoiding moving animal parts except for deboned meat outside of places that have CWD is a great step that hunters can take to help contain the disease and keep it from spreading.

Because if you harvested a deer in a place with CWD and that deer had CWD, you moved it to another place, maybe hundreds of miles away without the disease, and you dumped the carcass out on your property, certainly it's very possible that you could have just infected some animals or at least, you know, added some environmental contamination that could lead to animals being infected with the disease down the road.

All right.

Thanks, Mark.

Mark Turner, OSU Extension Wildlife Specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

And if you'd like a link to find out more information on chronic wasting disease, just go to our website, sunup.okstate.edu.

That'll do it for our show this week.

A reminder that you can see SUNUP Anytime at our website.

Follow us on social media and stream our content anytime on our YouTube channel, youtube.com slash SUNUP TV.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

We leave you today with some great pictures captured by our chief photographer, Mitch Alcala at a recent site visit to Tanglefoot Farms in Bridge Creek, participating in the OSU Extension Beginning Farmer and Rancher Program.

Have a great week, everyone, and we'll see you next time at SUNUP.