(upbeat music) - Hello everyone and welcome to SUNUP.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

If you're like me and your friends here at SUNUP no one is complaining about muddy pastures.

The rain has certainly been a welcome site, but it means we need to be prepared for mosquitoes and other summer pests.

For some guidance, we caught up with Dr. Justin Talley, our livestock entomologist.

- Yeah, as we've gotten these recent rains, the things we need to consider are mosquito populations increasing and as they increase they're not necessarily all bad mosquitoes.

We just have more activity.

And the main activity we have are what we call floodwater mosquitoes, or what we call the large mosquitoes that everybody sees bodying on them.

And the thing that we really need to be concerned about on that is the dog heartworm.

And so, when it comes to your pets you really need to make sure they're up to date on all their medications.

This is the time that they certainly will be at risk from mosquito bites because of increased populations as well as just the increased activity of the dog heartworm cycle.

- You mentioned pets.

Let's talk about people now and some prevention measures and things to keep in mind.

- Yeah, people are certainly gonna start noticing increased bodying activities, especially around the, or, you know, morning and evening times when they like to enjoy sitting outside.

The main thing they needed to understand is that any kind of repellent will limit activity, but not prevent a hundred percent of mosquitoes biting or feeding on them.

The main things that we've seen, both through peer reviewed science as well as just through actual demonstrations, is these diffuser devices that you can either sit on your table that you're gathering around or clip them on to yourself.

These diffuser devices do kind of emit this plume of repellent.

And as always, the most, the highest quality repellent seems to be DEET still.

Some individuals do not enjoy DEET, because it has a different kind of smell to it.

But at the same time, it's still our most proven repellent.

- Let's talk about ticks now.

We've been an extended drought, but hopefully we're getting some relief.

Talk about kind of the change in weather conditions and and what we need to be prepared for in June and July and beyond.

- Yeah, as we've experienced the drought, sometimes that can limit some of our tick populations, but as we have our increased humidities, increased rainfalls and it just, it provides a lot of resources for wildlife to be more prolific that it provides resources for ticks to be prolific.

And so, when we think about tick populations even though we're coming off of a drought, they're still gonna be abundant, they're still gonna be active.

And even more so, even out in areas that we may not traditionally see them, certainly even like in Western Oklahoma, we see a western expansion of certain type of tick species and it's mainly due to Eastern red cedar.

- So, prevention measures for ticks, are they similar to mosquitoes?

- They're similar methods.

DEET is still a good repellent for ticks, but it's more of a less increased awareness.

And when you go through any kind of environment that there's gonna be a lot of ticks, whether it's trails or pastures or just hiking or walking anywhere that you're kind of coming in contact with a lot of vegetation, then you need to do what we consider a tick check.

In the tick check you need to do within a eight to 10 hour period of when you were in those environments because we know that even though the tick may become attached, that if you're removing those ticks within that timeframe, it reduces the risk.

It doesn't eliminate the risk, but it reduces the risk.

- And then how do you know something's wrong and you may need to go see your doctor after a tick bite?

- Yeah, so when we have a tick bite, the main thing that is very helpful is if you could keep that tick.

Put it in a Ziploc bag, put it in a freezer, and you can contact your local county extension educator and then they can kind of figure out the risk with that.

And the other thing is, if you start developing any symptoms anywhere from five to 10 days after that tick bite then you need to go seek a medical professional and specifically detail that, hey, this was from a tick bite, so they can have an understanding of what kind of diagnostic tests that they need to run.

- And they can do blood work and really kind of hone in on the types of illnesses that we might experience here in Oklahoma specifically, right?

- Absolutely, you know, traditionally, it can be called a tick panel or anything like that, but they can run specific tests to look for specific tick-borne disease.

In Oklahoma, we have a lot of our ehrlichiosis, a lot of rickettsia, which includes the rocky mounted spotted fever.

And then of course our, kind of our newest thing is the red meat allergy from lone star ticks.

- Okay, you and the team have some fact sheets that would be available for our viewers?

- Yep, so we have a couple of fact sheets on mosquitoes and important mosquitoes, and then we also have a fact sheet on ticks and tick-borne diseases that is very helpful on kind of, not only detailing the the disease risk of certain ticks within Oklahoma, but also preventative measures.

- All right.

I bet a lot of people wanna see those this time of year.

All right, Justin, thanks a lot.

And for a link to the fact sheets Justin just mentioned, go to sunup.okstate.edu.

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

I'm Wes Lee.

Rain chances seem to have improved recently, with many chances of rain each week.

Last week, all 120 Mesonet sites received rainfall, seen on this seven day map from midweek.

There were more in the east than the west, but some rain statewide.

The central Lahoma site received the most with almost five inches.

As expected, you can see great soil moisture levels in the east on this 10 inch fractional water index map.

Remember, one is as wet, and zero is as dry, as the center can read at that depth.

Still showing up are the very dry soils in the west and most of the panhandle.

Looking back to a week before the recent rains began, you can see some level of improvement in many areas.

A lot of the yellows representing mid levels of the index are now gone in the eastern two thirds of the state.

Also, the greens got a little darker, as the index moved up to near one.

However, it shows the driest western counties with very little improvement at this depth.

Ironically, exactly one year ago, the same map looked almost exactly like the one does today.

Before we celebrate the recent moisture too much, remember what happened after it quit raining last spring and drought set back in.

Now here's Gary with a view of the longer term rainfall.

- Thanks, Wes, and good morning everyone.

Well, we've certainly turned the corner on the drought over the last two or three weeks.

Our rainy season has actually come through for most of the state, although we still have some parts of the state needing more rainfall.

Let's take a look at the newest maps and see where we're at.

We've had a large reduction in drought across the north central, northeastern, down into southwest Oklahoma, down into central Oklahoma.

So we didn't have a lot of that area covered by the red and the dark red.

Now we're just merely in the browns and the tans, meaning moderate to severe drought, but we're certainly going in the right direction as we look at the map.

Take a look at some of these rains that have fallen over the last three weeks.

This is through Wednesday of this week and we do see over mostly central Oklahoma, down into southeast Oklahoma, a large area, of four to five to even more than six inches of rainfall.

And of course the radar indicated areas show a little bit more than that.

So we do see those lower amounts.

However, up in the northwest Oklahoma and the panhandle, parts of southwest Oklahoma, parts of east central and northeast Oklahoma.

So it's scattered around, the consequences of that drought, well, we've certainly seen a green up as well over the last few weeks.

We look at the week ending in April 26th, the relative greenness map from the OK Fire Program.

We see much of that northwestern half of the state still a little bit on the not so green side.

Fast forward to this weekend, we see much of the main part of the state, much greener.

Now we get up into the far northwestern part of the state in the panhandle and far southwest Oklahoma, still a little bit under the greenness level we'd like to see.

Finally, as we look at the Climate Prediction Center's Seasonal Drought Outlook for the summer period, basically now through the end of August, we do see almost all of the drought in the state of Oklahoma that now exists is expected to improve or actually be removed even, all except maybe a little bit out there in the far western panhandle.

That's it for this time.

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

(upbeat music) - It's time to check in on the livestock markets with our livestock marketing specialist, Dr. Derrell Peel.

Derrell, so the rain keeps coming.

So does this change the overall drought outlook and you know, the implications that could have on the cattle markets?

- Well, you know, the rain certainly helps the producers who are getting it, we're getting, you know, reasonably widespread rain in parts of Oklahoma and we're sort of chipping away at the broader area of drought.

But the fact of the matter is, we still have a lot of drought.

So at this point in time, I don't think this really does change the overall market situation that we're seeing right now.

You know, we're still trying to figure out exactly, who's getting it and who's not, and how much impact that has.

It's a very timely rain, very beneficial where it's happening, but we still need a lot more is the bottom line.

- Is the cattle industry at all, beginning to build back those, you know, the cutbacks that they have been doing in the past?

- You know what, we're really not, in fact, coming into this year, just given the numbers that we had, in terms of replacement heifers and so on, it looked very likely like we would continue to see at least a limited amount of liquidation this year.

- It depends or depended on the drought.

And we do see continuing drought.

So I think at this point it's highly unlikely that we could actually turn this thing around and stop the liquidation completely.

Now we don't expect a lot of liquidation, but it does depend on what happens to the drought as we go forward.

- You know, even though a lot of the state is still in drought, you know, I had the opportunity to drive up north and some of the areas that were really heavily affected by drought earlier in the year but the pastures are looking green.

So what's the forage situation looking like?

- Well, you know, I think, in some cases it's a little deceiving.

I've had producers tell me, yeah, it looks green out there but there's really not a lot of growth yet and so on.

And that's kind of reflected.

USDA released the first May pasture and range condition report, you know, this last week.

And these run from May to October.

And if you look at it, you know, Oklahoma, for the first week of these reports is still 54%, in poor to very poor condition for our pastures.

And more importantly, again, talking about that broader drought area, Kansas, Nebraska and Texas along with Oklahoma are all states that had over 50% poor to very poor ratings for their pasture and range condition.

So, you know, again, we still have an awful lot of drought out there.

Now again, we're getting more rain in some of those areas so that'll chip away at that.

But I don't think we're, you know, we're certainly not taking the drought completely away at this point.

- So given all that, can herd rebuilding begin at all this year?

- Well, you know, I think it kind of depends.

I, you know, it looks like what with the rain that we're getting and the kind of overall change in the weather patterns, and that's what the meteorologists have been telling us that we were going to transition through the year to some more favorable conditions.

So I think what we're doing is setting up the idea of being in better shape for next year.

But in terms of herd rebuilding, you know, we might start saving some heifers this fall.

We're not doing that yet.

In fact, if you look at, you know, cow plus heifer slaughter so far this year, it's even higher than it was this time last year.

And so, you know, beef cow slaughter is down, dairy cow slaughter's up, kind of offsetting that and heifer slaughter continues strong.

So, you know, we haven't stopped getting worse yet before we can start talking about, you know, beginning the rebuilding process.

I think that doesn't happen until certainly the second half of the year and maybe late in the year at the earliest.

- And more rain couldn't hurt.

- Absolutely, it's critical to see more rain to stop getting worse.

- All right, thanks Daryl.

Dr. Daryl Peele, livestock marketing specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

(upbeat music) - I'm Kim Anderson, this is tailgate Taco Market Monitor.

This time last week, the USDA released the May WASDE report and NAS released the 2024 crop production report.

The news concentrated in on the hard red winter wheat crop which is 513 million bushels, only 3% less in last year.

However, it was significantly lower than the 800 million bushel average.

It's the second short hard red winter wheat crop in a row and hard red winter wheat stocks are tight.

The market concentrated in on Oklahoma's crop at 49.5 million bushels.

Second low crop in the row.

Texas had a short crop and Kansas had a disaster, at 1.91 million bushels, in the week, immediately we saw a 35 cent increase in prices.

If you go back to the 1st of April, we've had a dollar and 65 cent increase in hard red winter wheat prices.

And if you compare hard red winter wheat prices to soft red winter wheat prices, hard red winter wheat prices are about $2.50 higher than the soft prices.

Normally that's only a 50, 60 cent price premium range.

And three years ago, soft red winter wheat was higher than hard red winter wheat.

If you look nationally, we're predicted to produce another 1.6 plus billion bushel crop.

The third US wheat crop below 1.7 billion bushels.

You got about a 1.8, 1.85 billion average.

So the third below average US crop in a row, and that's one reason we're seeing the forward contract price for hard red winter wheat prices in Pond Creek Medford area at about $8.50 a bushel, if you look at corn and beans, those prices have fallen with soybean prices more than a dollar lower and corn prices 50 to 75 cents lower and that's because corn planting and soybean plantings are above average.

They're looking well and we're looking at an above average corn, soybean crops coming in.

Let's go back to wheat, in the world, we're looking at another record wheat production at 29 plus billion bushels.

Now it's only a few million higher than last year's 29 billion bushel record.

And what that implies is that there is adequate wheat in the world.

And so if you look at the potential export market, the export market could result in lower prices in Oklahoma as the world wheat harvest in June and July and August moves in other parts of the world.

So it looks like we may have high prices through, early through our harvest and maybe all the way through our harvest but I believe as the world wheat harvest continues, there's some opportunity for prices to fall, now.

- Argentina's in a drought situation.

And if we have a short Argentina crop in the fall and Australia production is below expectations, we could see our price stay relatively high.

And if we have crop failures or short crops in Argentina and Australia that would mean that we'd have a relatively good price as we get out to the 2024 harvest.

Right now, 2024 wheat prices are about 80 cents below current prices.

Only time will tell what prices are going to do and really only time we'll tell how much wheat we put in the bin this year.

I'm Kim Anderson, this is Tailgate Talk.

Looking forward to seeing you next week on Market Monitor.

(upbeat country music) - Good morning, Oklahoma.

Welcome to Cow Calf Corner.

I'm Mark Johnson and this week's topic is internal parasites and particularly the deworming process.

And when we get the most bang for our buck in a cow calf operation and particularly some of the benefits we get from doing that about this time of year.

If we operate our cattle production system like a business, we wanna weigh every production input and expense against the potential that it gives us for profitability.

And as we look at certain practices, it's the time of the year where we know that first round of vaccinations for calves, getting 'em dehorn, getting 'em castrated, and particularly deworming, can have a lot of benefit and a lot of financial upside and bottom line do a lot to improve our profit potential over the next few months.

And so if you're like me, we're coming out of a long winter of drylotting, a lot of feeding, a lot of unusual type hays, a lot of things that, now that we've had some widespread moisture through the state of Oklahoma, we're about ready to turn out on warm season grass pastures.

Comes kind of with a sigh of relief at this point of the year.

And so as we think of those typical management practices and what we ought to be doing, let's talk a little bit about internal parasites in the deworming process.

We know that adult cattle, or particularly cattle we would categorize as adults over two years of age, over time will develop immunity to actual internal parasites and they can handle a parasite load and we don't really see it negatively impact their performance to a large extent.

Baby calves when they come along, and if we think about spring born calves, typically for the first few months of life the primary source of nutrition for those calves is milk coming from their mother.

Now, within a few weeks of age they learned to mimic their mother's eating habits and they're out grazing on grass.

And typically by a couple months of age that rumen is functional and then begin to transition to a milk and grass-based diet.

As such, typically at about two months of age or about 200 pounds, is when baby calves are gonna start to see a heavier parasite load.

Now we get into some unusual circumstances.

Let's say that calf is not getting enough milk.

Maybe the cow that's raising the calf is drought stressed.

Those calves will potentially start grazing even earlier in life and pick up a parasite a little bit sooner.

So young calves get a great benefit from the deworming process and knocking out those internal parasites.

And in fact, it is pretty well studied that the biggest financial benefit we get from de-worming, and particularly the control of internal parasites, is about this time of year when we de-worm both the cow and that young calf before we turn out to warm season grass.

It's not just primarily beneficial to improve the re-breeding performance of the cow, like I said earlier, but it is rather the reduction of the parasite load she's gonna be shedding on pastures to reinfect young calves.

And so for all the best management practices we can address and think about it, is the time of year, deworming the cow and that calf at side, as we go out to grass, is gonna pay some financial dividends for us and increase our profit potential over the next few months in our cow calf production system.

That's a word on a typical best management practice for this time of year.

I hope all of you are continuing to see some moisture and kind of as a final call, the blueprint for the Future Cattle Conference is next week.

It's Wednesday, May 24th and Thursday, May 25th.

We've talked about it in past cow calf corners a lot of great speakers, a lot of really important topics that are currently challenging the beef cattle industry.

If your schedule permits, I certainly encourage you to join us for that conference that will start at the (indistinct) Arena Wednesday morning at eight o'clock, May 24th.

Thanks for joining us this week on Cow Calf Corner.

- Finally today, find out what makes Joe Williams a distinguished alumnus in the Ferguson College of Agriculture.

Video production manager, Craig Woods, brings us this story.

- [Ron Hayes] Joe Williams involvement in both economics and international travel began at an early age.

- When I was in eighth grade I started delivering newspapers on a motor scooter.

I won a trip to Disneyland in 1958.

In 1960, I won a 10 day trip to Switzerland.

- [Narrator] After completing his military service, Joe started on a degree in agricultural economics at New Mexico State University.

- And then I worked for the Ag Econ Department every summer and part-time during the school year.

And I developed a real passion for working with students and working in the department.

- [Narrator] Joe also met Sue at the school, his future wife.

- I met Sue on a dance floor at New Mexico State.

We've been dancing for 54 years.

- Joe completed his doctorate degree at Iowa State University before becoming a professor at Oklahoma State University in 1975.

He quickly became the favorite professor of many students.

- So many students remember fondly how much he influenced them.

At a time when they were being challenged as a student, he was able to help them find their way through whatever challenge it was that they were facing.

And that dedication that he showed to them persists today in the way they reflect back on him.

- [Narrator] As part of his research examining economics in small towns, Dr. Williams put together the "Okie Guide to Fine Vittles" with the help of his students.

- I've always in interested in eating places, good eating places, and I had students put down their two favorite eating places in their hometown.

And when Dr. Halligan came, his first year, I told him about that and he said, "Joe, I want a copy of that."

- [Narrator] Dr. Williams expanded his teaching and mentoring expertise to help those already working in the industry by becoming the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program director in 2002.

- OALP is a organization for leadership development.

We take up to 30 students, people that are involved in agriculture.

It can be production, it can be marketing, sales, banking, anything connected to agriculture.

- [Narrator] Before becoming director in 2010, Edmond Bonjour was an OALP member of the 2006 class.

- He was very passionate about looking at agriculture not only in the traditional sense of, you know, wheat and beef are the big two in Oklahoma, but broadening your background and looking at things that you not necessarily knew were a big part of agriculture in the state.

- [Narrator] And Dr. Williams was able to see his impact from teaching for nearly 20 years.

- Directing the Leadership Program, I was able to go out all over the state and visit farms, ranches, business, or commodity organizations where former students were directors or leaders.

- [Narrator] Throughout their careers, Joe and Sue have been great supporters of OSU, especially by providing scholarships.

- Anytime a student receives a scholarship, they build confidence and we're telling 'em they're doing a good job and doing the right thing.

And it really, those scholarships recognize excellence and I hope more excellence than need, but a lot of students need scholarships.

- It's really been fun to see that spirit that he has, that excitement that he has about everything that he does, his family, the horses his daughters had and his interest in hunting and fishing and his love for his home country in New Mexico.

So it's great to be able to recognize (energetic guitar music) and honor Dr. Williams, who has been the favorite of so many former students and current alumni.

- [Narrator] Celebrating Dr. Joe Williams, 2022 Champion for OSU Agriculture.

- 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."