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

I'm Lyndall Stout.

It's definitely that time of year again.

We're at the North Central Research Station at Lahoma for the annual Wheat Field Day.

First up, we're talking about variety trials.

Here's SUNUP's Kurtis Hair with Dr. Amanda Silva.

- Yeah, so today I'll be here at the variety trials, so talking with producers about the different characteristics of the varieties we have in the program.

So these varieties that we plant here, we have about 47 varieties from different breeding programs to show producers what are all the materials that are commercially available for them to plant.

And the characteristics involve disease resistance yield potential, grazability, lodging tolerance.

So they can see all here with their eyes and they can kind of walk the plots and see the differences of those varies, not only in one replication, but several times.

Another thing that is different from this experiment is that it is a comparison with intensive management and standard management practices.

So here they can also see the performance of varieties when we apply fungicide, additional nitrogen rate, and also planting those varieties in a seeds per acre basis.

And at the end of the season, they will see the results on our website, so yields, protein, test weight, and anything else that we find here that we'll rate during the season.

Another thing that they can take advantage on while they're here, all the signs here have QR codes, so they can come with their cell phone, their camera, and that takes them directly to the website and to the varieties' characteristics on their own website so they can take that home as well.

- Yeah, and one of the great things too, is probably especially this year in the North Central Research Station they get a chance to see how these varieties are holding up in really dry conditions.

- Yes, yes.

That's a great opportunity to see in some and also to see the ability of some of these varieties to bounce back when coming from that drought period and now with moisture conditions.

So that's a great opportunity to see variety performances, especially, in dry conditions and rebalancing from that.

- Yeah, so you know like kind of spreading out throughout the state, you know, we're here, you know, just a little west of Enid, how's the wheat looking right now?

We've gotten a lot of rain.

Viewers can probably see it's really moist-- out here.

- Yeah.

- So how is that, you know, impacting the wheat crop overall?

- Yeah, we are really happy to see the rain in the past week especially, in some areas in northwestern Oklahoma.

And overall, like what we've said in the past is a mixed bag.

So we have some places that we did not even have a crop.

In places where we had a field still, it was not up to the potential that it could be, but the rain is really benefiting that, it's going to benefit the grain field, is going to benefit test weight.

So overall, we had some areas where the wheat's very short very thin, it didn't tiller.

We had some stand issues.

You know, the potential is really reduced this year, the yield potential of most of the fields that are out there.

We have a lot of fields that were cut for hay.

But overall, I think for the wheat that is still out there like this one here at Lahoma, I think we are gonna have some decent yields.

So we were very surprised to see this experiment, specifically, here at Lahoma.

It was struggling in the fall.

It was struggling until we see all this rain, but it's actually looking pretty good at this point.

- Any storm damage at all?

- We haven't seen much, but still we might need to scout more, but we haven't heard much of a storm damage yet.

- And this isn't the only place you're gonna be out here with Lahoma talking with producers, you're actually got another setup over here.

What are you gonna be talking about there?

- Yeah, so we have another stop with my master student, Israel, Syrianel, from Brazil also.

So he's looking at the difference in variety performances at late planting date.

So we'll show producers today the impact of increasing seeding rate at a late planting date scenarios and the difference in varieties' performance in their optimal in the late planting date.

So that includes a OSU short-season wheat varieties and some other varieties there that we are also testing in this late planting scenario.

- All righty, thanks Amanda.

Amanda Silva, OSU extension small grain specialists here at Oklahoma State University.

And if you'd like a link (upbeat music) to see how these variety trials do, just go to our website, SUNUP.OKSTATE.EDU.

(upbeat music continues) - This is the Mesonet Weather Report and I'm Wes Lee.

May is usually the time of year that many herbicide applications are applied.

Due to rainy days in high spring winds, finding a suitable day to spray is often hard to find.

- The revised Mesonet drift risk advisor can help define those days when the weather is suitable for pesticide applications.

The Advisor found in the Ag section of the website has three buttons to choose from, Current Conditions, Forecast, and Past Data.

Current conditions show the latest five minute data from your site, including wind speed and direction, temperature, and whether or not you are experiencing an inversion.

Avoiding inversions is critical in reducing herbicide drift.

If currently in an inversion, the box will say yes and be red.

The second Forecast button on the main page will open a fillable form.

You can leave the default information or change for your needs.

When you get data, an hourly forecast will be printed, based on the North American Forecast Model.

There is no inversion data in the Forecast section.

The Past Data button allows you to look at historical weather conditions for your spray record keeping.

It includes all the needed weather information, including whether an inversion was present.

All the tools in the Ag section work great on any smartphone.

Now here's Gary with the latest version of the drought map.

- Thanks, Wes, and good morning, everyone.

Well, we certainly have a much better drought monitor map to show you this week.

We are improving slowly but surely, and of course Oklahoma still has drought, but we are headed in the right direction.

So let's get right to that new map and see where we're at.

Well, we have a large improvement far up into the northwestern corner of the state.

Now we have moderate to severe drought.

It's not really the type of moderate to severe drought we've seen previously, because we are improving.

These are mostly long-term impacts we still see with the greening up and our soil moisture improving, but at least the northwestern half the state looking better.

We do have a little bit more of a problem area down in South Central Oklahoma.

We do see that new D0 yellow area down close to the state border with Texas, and that's an area heading into drought, if we don't see improvement in that region as well.

So just something to keep in mind.

Far Northern, far West Oklahoma out in the Panhandle, still some pretty serious drought in those areas.

We definitely need more rainfall.

The last 30 days, this rainfall map looks absolutely wonderful for most.

We do have a few areas still needing more rainfall: that area in South Central Oklahoma the area in Southwest Oklahoma, and then up in Northeast, up in the Panhandle regions here and there.

But by and large, we've had 5 to 10 inches of rainfall over much of the state.

So certainly good news over the last 30 days.

And this is the rainiest time of the year in the state of Oklahoma.

And so when we look at the percent of normal rainfall map where we see these lovely blues and greens, the above-normal precipitation, that's pretty significant because, again, if you're above normal at the wettest time of the year, you know it's doing some good for the state of Oklahoma.

And look at the Panhandle.

Some great rains out there, but we do need more, of course.

So as we look out over the next week and then into the first week of June, we still see increased odds of above normal precipitation from the Climate Prediction Center's 8 to 14 day precip outlook.

So hopefully that brings us, once again, ample moisture over that timeframe and we can really start to eradicate this drought once and for all.

So as we enter the wettest time of the year in the state, we hopefully will get more rainfall, more drought eradication, and have better news next week.

That's it for this time.

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

(snappy acoustic music) - We're joined now by Dr. Brett Carver, our Wheat Geneticist here at OSU.

And Brett, this variety was released earlier this year and one we're really excited about.

- Oh, yes.

I'm very excited about it.

It was, it was in the making for quite some time as we normally say for wheat breeding, but it was worth it.

And used a name that just has a good meaning, you know, and it's not about cotton it's not about being tall, as we can see by this variety.

It's quite short, and that's one of the telling characteristics of it.

We can get that yield up with high cotton but not have to worry about the height being too high and therefore lodging on us.

So good straw strength, just it really works all across the state of Oklahoma under grazing, under just grain-only intensive management type conditions.

So a very wide-reaching variety.

- And let's talk about the parents a little bit and some of the background about this variety as people learn more about it.

- Yeah, and that's something I have learned as I prepared the release material on it is I didn't realize just how much the former pioneer program was was prominent in the pedigree of High Cotton.

One variety stood out to me, the old variety 2180.

I remember when I first started here at Oklahoma State University, we talked about 2180.

A lot of people grew it.

It's a really good variety, a good short variety.

And it's the linchpin of this High Cotton variety.

But as a great grandparent, it's way back in the parentage.

We also brought in some germplasm from Turkey the CYMMIT program at Turkey that- - International wheat breeding program.

First time I've been able to do that.

And then also we have Ruby Lee to finish out the package.

- [Interviewer] Ruby Lee's been around a while too, right?

- Sure has.

And now we're starting to see some of Ruby Lee's descendants.

- This, as we've talked about also has a bit of a dual personality.

- Yes, it does.

And we often don't get this kind of combination.

We talk about grazability being a really important part of our genetics, and it still is, but we also like to have that high yield ceiling.

In other words, it can reach for the stars for yield, and it can do both.

So it has that dual personality.

You can graze it, graze it hard, or if you really want to baby it and just get the most yield out of it, it will respond to those conditions quite well.

- You have lots of varieties here.

Some released, some you're looking at releasing in the future.

So let's take a look at some of those others you have your eye on.

- All right, let's do.

- [Interviewer] So this one right here, let's talk about it.

- Yeah, it's got a lot of numbers in it, but that just means we've spent a lot of effort on it.

And this is an improvement upon Smith's Gold.

How did we improve it?

Well, the number one way was to bring in barley yellow dwarf resistance.

It's the same kind of resistance that we have featured in the variety Uncharted we've talked about on this show and is now out in production.

And that's a special kind of resistance.

This is a kind of genetic package that you won't see barley yellow dwarf on this variety, and on Uncharted.

So the canopy stays green and green for long.

It also has some other disease resistances.

So it's a good disease package, but it's basically Smith Gold plus an amped up disease package with one extra thing.

And that is Hessian fly resistance, which is becoming more and more important.

We're hearing more about it now, especially to our south in Texas.

This line has held up to Hessian fly here in Oklahoma and to the new biotype in Texas.

That's really important moving forward.

We need more of that kind of resistance.

- We have one more we want to talk about this week.

I'm just going to step backwards, and it's this one.

Tell us about it.

- Yes, this, this started out as an effort with, a cooperative effort with Pioneer, Corteva now, as we call it.

And Pioneer made some double haploids.

I say some, in the neighborhood of 3000, from our germplasm back in 2013, somewhere in there.

And of those 3000 double haploids which are like immediate inbreds, we have one left over.

And this one is not just special because it's not the only one.

It is special because it can do the same things we talk about as Butler's Gold can do.

This is a fast-maturing variety.

And so we want to see how it might be used, not just in conventional grain-only production or even dual purpose.

I want to see how it's used when it's planted late.

And I mean really late.

Late November, early December, like we would normally in North Central Oklahoma not normally, but abnormally in North Central Oklahoma.

And that allows us maybe to control some weeds.

Maybe it allows us to have a second chance on a crop if we lose the first one.

Heaven forbid if that's to happen.

But at least we have a second chance with this.

And the only reason I'm talking about this is because Butler's Gold is really good for that kind of situation, but I don't think it tillers as much in the spring as it could.

And we want something that really tillers in the spring, and that's what this variety will do.

But still finish fast.

Another Gallagher derivative, so we see Gallagher more and more in our program now.

- Thanks for giving us a little bit of an overview of the varieties you're keeping an eye on, and we'll catch up with you again soon.

- Great.

(catchy, harmonica-led music) - Good morning, Oklahoma.

I'm Mark Johnson, and welcome to Cow-Calf Corner.

This week's topic, as we think about spring breeding season, we've had these nice rains across the state of Oklahoma.

We probably have got bulls turned out, or we're ready to do so, is just thinking a little bit about your production system, analyzing your particular farm and ranch, relative to when you intend to market calves long term.

And think about this holistically, relative to the genetic investment that you make in a set of bulls or even what kind of AI sires we're going to use or which herd bulls we turn out with which set of cows.

And there's a lot of depth to that question, but as we think about things that influence your marketing endpoint for a set of calves, and how you're going to use a particular bull, I always say the bull-buying dollar is a precious commodity.

We don't want to squander it on just anything.

And so in an era that we live in, where just about any beef breed actually gives us 20 to 30 different genetic values in the forms of EPDs or dollar values and selection indices, we want to spend that bull-buying dollar on genetic potential that gives us the most bang for our buck.

And it's important for operations to take this into consideration.

We realize that future marketing plans on calves might change, weather, climate, certain issues are gonna dictate.

Maybe we end up selling more of a calf crop earlier than what we intended to.

But that long-term plan and and thinking about what's going to be going on in our operation for the next two to five years should really have a lot of impact on how we spend our bull-buying dollar.

Interestingly enough, this morning here, as we tape.

- We've got a Cow/Calf Bootcamp extension program takin' place.

You see a group of our attendees behind me and Dr. Parker Henley is actually goin' through an exercise with them where we take a look at four or five different bulls, four or five different sets of genetic information on those bulls, and looking at them in four to five different production scenarios.

And on a good set of bulls that look the part visually and have got the right kind of body type and muscle thickness and skeletal base, it's really that genetic potential that influences where those bulls are the best fit if we're in situations where we need calving ease versus knowing we're gonna keep a set of daughters as replacements, versus maybe knowing we're gonna sell weened calves versus knowing that our plan is gonna be to retain ownership on those calves all the way through finishing and selling 'em on a carcass value basis.

As I always say, I hope this helps.

Appreciate all of you joining us, joining us this week on Cow/Calf Corner.

(upbeat music) - Dr. Kim Anderson, our Crop Marketing Specialist, is here now.

Kim, let's dive right in and see what's happening in the markets this week.

- Well in the wheat market there's a lot going on, little less in corn and not much going on in soybeans and of course, cotton, it's cotton.

If you look at say go back two and a half weeks on wheat prices they fell off $1.30, $1.35.

They increased $1.60, $1.65, fell of 77 cents, increased 20 cents, decreased 20 cents.

Lotta volatility goin' on in that wheat market.

Corn market, you can come back.

You know, they were wallering around in the up around $6 through February, dropped off a little bit in March and April.

In the last couple weeks corn prices have knocked off 70 cents.

They gained 20 back, so forward contract price around $5 right now.

Soybeans, they knocked off $1 in the last two and a half weeks, down to around 11 for the forward contract for harvest delivery and have stabilized down there.

- Why do you think we're seeing so much volatility?

- Well if you look in wheat it's the tight stock, especially a hard red winter wheat.

You look at hard red winter wheat production second short crop in a row.

Look at soft red winter wheat.

They're expecting record yields in Illinois in some areas of soft red winter wheat.

You've got over $2 spread between hard and soft red winter wheat prices.

Of course, you've got tight stocks overall in the United States.

Overall U.S. crop, 1.65 billion bushels, right in there, for the last three years with a 1.85 average.

So tight stocks in the U.S. You always got Russia.

I think the war is mostly factored in, but you got Russian production.

You go back three months ago, they were at 2.8 billion.

They went up to 2.9 billion.

They went up to three billion.

This week they raised 'em again.

Russian carry-in stocks, 'bout two, 250 million bushels above average.

Russia's got a lotta wheat to export and that's a lot of uncertainty there.

Corn, big crop expected, more planted acres, expect it in relatively good stocks goin' in, but tight, but lower any stocks for next year.

Soybeans, about the same.

Gotta watch Brazil, watch Brazil for the corn production too, so South America for corn and beans.

And cotton, well cotton's cotton.

Cotton's just wallerin' between 79 and 84 and it's about 82 now.

- So with all of this in mind, lots of details you're packed in this week.

Should producers keep up with these markets?

- Probably not.

- I didn't expect that.

- Yeah however, how can you not watch the markets?

It's kinda like watchin' the weather.

How accurate is the weatherman and how accurate is economists predicting prices?

We can't predict price.

You need to watch the market to know what's going on.

And you really need it to know and understand the market so you know you're not losin' a lot of money that somebody else is getting.

So yeah watch the market this time of year.

Just see what's goin' on.

It becomes really important to watch the market as you get into harvest and start harvesting and you've got somethin' to sell.

- So speaking of that, how should producers sell those commodities?

- I think dollar cost average.

You just stagger it into the market.

I think the most important thing that producers can have is a plan.

I like a written plan.

Talkin' to elevator managers.

Research shows the biggest mistake producers make is not knowing when and how to pull the trigger.

And if you'll write it down.

Know your cost of production.

Know what prices mean to you personally in your operation.

And know and set limits and know when to pull the trigger.

- All right Kim, great information.

We'll see you next week.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] And just a quick reminder about the upcoming 2023 OSU Cattlewomen's Bootcamp.

The event will be June 5-7 at the Creek County Fairgrounds in Kellyville.

This three day workshop is a great opportunity for cattlewomen around the state to come and learn about topics such as cattle evaluation, calf management, herd nutrition, forage production and much, much more.

The cost to attend is $150 and if you'd like more information about how to register or just general information about the event, just head on over to our website at sunup.okstate.edu.

- Now to a topic that's important for everyone, especially those involved in agriculture.

We're talking about regular mental health check-ins for yourself and for those you care about.

Here's Dr. Shannon Ferrell with some resources available through OSU extension.

- Well it's getting to be that time of year where we start to think about wheat harvest in Oklahoma and wheat harvest is always a stressful time.

There's always so much to be done.

You're trying to maintain equipment.

You're you know.

- Yelling at everyone, and you all know that you have to get your wheat in the bin before that next hail storm comes through and just pounds it into clay flavored flour.

So it's just naturally a stressful time.

This year we've got a lot more added stress because we've been going through this terrific, you know drought that's been really impacting yields projections for some time now.

And so some of us may not even be able to harvest a crop.

So there's just lots of stress around that.

That's why it's even more important for our farmers and ranchers to be focusing on taking care of their mental health in this difficult time.

There are lots of things that farmers and ranchers just have to do that are just so far out of their control.

We can put in all the inputs, all the labor do everything exactly right according to best practices and we still don't know if the product's gonna come out the back end.

So it's really important to do a few things.

Number one, we know that there are lots of time pressures around harvest, but it's important that you take your time and do things safely.

Just in the past couple of weeks here in Oklahoma we've gotten reports of some farm fatalities as a result of accidents involving ag equipment.

So please take your time and be safe.

Another thing that we wanna do is make sure that we manage stress in a productive way even if we're under a lot of time pressure, take some time maybe five or 10 minutes to de-stress find a way to process your stress.

Talk about that with somebody that you trust someone who'll listen to you non-judgmentally.

And sometimes it can be equally as important for you to be that person who can listen to a friend non-judgmentally and just say, Hey, I get it.

This is a tough time.

We have a few modules out there available about how to deal with stress.

How can we process that in a positive way versus doing things that might actually make things worse like, you know, drug or alcohol use.

We also talk about mindfulness which does not involve you sitting in the lotus position on the top of your combine making humming noises.

Okay, that's not mindfulness that we're talking about here.

It's just a way that when you're starting to feel anxious or stressed out to slow things down kind of recenter yourself and be able to be your best.

But if something does go wrong if you had a neighbor that's lost a combine to a fire, if you had a neighbor that just simply has nothing to harvest because of the drought impacts we have a module specifically on there about dealing with disaster.

How can we be a positive impact on the people around us to make things better, not worse not just in the near term, but over the long haul?

Because those things don't just have immediate impact.

They have impact for some time to come.

All these resources are available, like I said at the Farm Stress website, and we'll include the link for those with you here with the broadcast so you can access those on demand anytime you want.

- That'll do it for Sun Up this week.

Remember, you can see us anytime at sunup.okstate.edu.

And also follow us on YouTube and social media from the Northwest Area Agronomy Station at Oklahoma.

I'm Lyndall Stout, and we'll see you next time at Sun Up.

(country music) (country music continues) (country music continues) (country music continues)