(bright upbeat music) - Good morning, Oklahoma.

I'm Kurtis Hair and welcome to "SUNUP".

Today we're coming to you from the South Central Research Station in Grady County at the Chickasha Wheat Field Day where producers are getting an up close look at some OSU research.

We'll have more from the Field Day but first Brian Whitaker has some updates on Royal broadband.

- I'm here to talk about broadband access and in particular kind of the situation here locally in Grady County.

And it's actually a little bit worse when you talk about areas outside of Chickasha.

Chickasha itself has some pretty good broadband access, but those rural areas where a lot of the farms are, not so great.

And so we're gonna talk about what's going on at the state level to try to address that.

I mean, you can see behind me we've got people here that are real world farmers, right?

They're out there doing work and across the county and state and bringing food to everyone.

And it's not the usual audience that I talk to.

So, you know, I'm out talking to economic developers and people that work in cities and, and kind of, you know county groups and things like that.

But these are the people that can absolutely benefit from broadband on an individual level.

So, I mean, think about what we just went through in the pandemic and are still dealing with, you know.

As things shut down, we had our kids stuck at home.

We had to switch over to, you know, working remotely.

If you didn't have a good broadband connection you were really in a pickle.

And one of the few positive things about the pandemic is it really brought that to light.

And we finally have some funding to help deal with that issue.

Most of my work deals with how important broadband is for other parts of the rural economy.

So you talk about small businesses.

If you're in a small business that can't take payments and that requires a broadband connection you're really in a tight spot.

If you wanna set up a website and you don't have a good broadband connection that is a problematic.

So not just small businesses but you know, people starting entrepreneurship, people getting engaged with their local community.

Again, taking advantage of telehealth visits.

It really affects almost everything that we do on a daily basis.

So the other thing I wanted to mention is that, if you know anyone that doesn't have a nice new smartphone like me but has an old school flip phone, they're actually gonna start phasing those out in 2022.

So talk to people that you know that have one, starting actually in late April early May they are gonna start phasing out those kind of what they call 3G smartphone services.

Be aware of that, talk to people that might have these and depend on them because we need to get them switched over to a a more dependable device.

So the program that I want to kind of stress here is called the affordable connectivity program.

And it is a federal program.

It's got a lot of money behind it.

This is the first time we've seen this much money dedicated to a broadband kind of subsidy program.

So the idea is, if you are are qualified for the program, which for this one is, if you're less than 200% of the federal poverty line.

So for a family of four, that's around $55,000 $56,000.

So if you're under that, the federal government will give you a $75 a month payment to pay for a broadband connection.

Which is really a great deal for most of the companies around here.

That's gonna cover your full broadband connection for a month.

And so, unfortunately the data we have right now says that only about a third of eligible households are signing up.

So we're trying to spread the word.

There's I hope potentially a lot of farmers that would qualify for it.

So if you participate in SNAP or Medicaid you're eligible.

So I've got a little handout here.

We're gonna try to get the word out about how you sign up for it.

Your local extension office can help with that.

Your local library can help but please take advantage of it.

The money's gonna last for a couple years.

For more information on the affordable connectivity program they're gonna have someone on the SUNUP website.

Again, talk to your local county educator.

They're gonna be able to help you out with that.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] And just a quick reminder about the upcoming Lahoma Field Day.

The event will be on Friday, May 13th from 9:00 AM to 1:30 PM at the North Central Research Station just one mile west of Lahoma.

The Field Day will feature a variety of topics including wheat varieties, fertility, and pest and weed management.

For more information about this event go to sunup.okstate.edu.

(upbeat music) - Good morning, everyone.

Well, Wes Lee is off this morning, so I'm flying solo.

Today we're gonna talk about the drought monitor and then some of the rains that have helped improve but also worsen the drought monitor and then take a look at May as we go forward.

Let's get right to that new drought monitor map.

As you can see, we have some really good improvements across the eastern third of the state.

We even have some of the D0, that yellow color all the way over into central Oklahoma.

That's abnormally dry and that's not a drought condition.

So we do have big improvements coming over from the east to the west.

But unfortunately across much of the western half of the state up into North Central Oklahoma we do still have much of that extreme to exceptional drought going on.

Especially down in far Southwest Oklahoma and the Panhandle where that exceptional drought is still holding firm.

Now, the rains that we had that impact this current drought modern map, we'll take a look at the last 30 days.

So we're missing some rains that came after this, but we do see that big hole down in far Southwest Oklahoma where the light and dark blues indicate less than a half inch rain in most cases.

Also much of that far Northwestern corner up into the Panhandle, the same situation.

But then we have streaks of heavier rains going from west to east.

- Those are where those thunderstorms trained across the state and help improve conditions in those areas.

Okay, that departure from normal rainfall map for the same last 30 day period, pretty easy to see where the good surplus mounts are across far eastern Oklahoma, extending over into central Oklahoma.

And those big deficits from southwest up through the north central parts of the state, and some a little bit lower deficits across the general area between northwestern and southeastern Oklahoma.

It shows up much better on the percent of normal rainfall map.

The worst hit areas over the last 30 days, obviously that far southwestern corner, basically nearly the entire southwestern quarter of the state.

And then of course, up into the north central parts of the state, northwest, and the western panhandle.

But those big surpluses over across the eastern parts of the state, over into the central parts of the state.

So kind of a mixed bag between the northwestern half of the state and the southeastern half of the state.

A little bit of invasion here and there of deficits and surpluses into each category, however.

Okay, let's take a look ahead at May from the outlooks, from the Climate Prediction Center.

Again, we want cooler than normal and wetter than normal conditions, so for the temperatures, I'm afraid we have increased odds of above normal temperatures across the entire state but especially down there across that Southwestern corner that's so hit hard by drought.

However, on the precipitation, we see increased odds of above normal precipitation across basically the eastern two thirds of the state, encroaching a little bit over into Northwest Oklahoma, but those odds are even greater increased up across far northeast Oklahoma.

So a little bit of a dichotomy there from the east to the west, as we get far out into the western panhandle, that's where we see the increased odds of below normal precipitation, which is not good for that area, of course.

So you put all that together and we see chances for drought improvement and even removal for the state as we go through May.

So at the end of May, we expect to see improvements in drought in all but basically the western half of the panhandle.

The drought's expected to persist in that area but really it'll only take a good one or two rains to even improve in that area.

So we have had some improvements.

We're expecting more improvements as we go through the month.

You know May is one of our wettest months, May and June.

That's the wettest part of the season.

So if we get some improvements over much of the state through May, then we have the rest of June look forward to, and hopefully kick some that drought outta here.

That's it for this time.

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

- Back at the Chickasha Wheatfield Day with our southwest regional agronomist, Gary Strickland.

Gary, you recently had another field day in Tipton, and the wheat probably looks a little different than it does over here.

- You, that's a very generous way to put that, yes.

And as you head further into southwest Oklahoma, we're dealing more with this year's drought conditions down there.

In fact, when we looked up data for the Tipton research station, the field day there, which our wheat actually looked really good for what it's been through, but it only showed about 2.7 inches in 180 days.

And that would be across probably 15 plus rainfall occurrences.

So we haven't had a lot of rain down there, but yes, we did have, talking about the field tour, We did have a field tour down there had a really nice tour.

We talked about varieties like we're here doing here at Chickasha today.

We also looked at some wheat forage hay quality study that we just started between Mr. Marty Neu and Ms. Taylor Denman and Aaron Henson and myself down there.

- I imagine one of the nice things though about those field days is producers can actually see some of the varieties that maybe respond better to drought.

- Absolutely.

And when you go to these field tours that we have, and or these field days where we get more of a look at the research work that we're actually doing in wheat and that's one of the benefits.

When you talk about a field day, we get to bring our clientele or Oklahoma wheat producers in say, "Hey here's the work that we're doing on this wheat crop to try to benefit you to make your system more, give you more production and more profitable for you at the same time."

So these are important on these field days 'cause it gives exposure to what we're doing.

- And you know, I always say there's another great thing, another great thing about these field days, but you know really, another great thing about these field days is the diversity of research.

- Absolutely.

You know, as I mentioned we're talking about varieties right now.

Dr. Silva's finishing up visiting with us about varieties today.

But you start talking about the fertility research that's going on here with Dr. Brian Arnauld.

And we're looking at that in the impact of different fertility and nutrient management schemes to help increase our production out there.

You start to look at a wheat disease aspect with Dr. Mary Manon and what she's gonna start to look at more so in her position and wheat disease management, disease resistance and varieties, fungicide application, what works best out that.

Herbicide, you know, work that we're doing with that and herbicides and wheat and weed control.

So all of these are tools and a tool belt for a producer that give them a look at the work that at OSU that we're working on, to again, to improve their production systems out here.

I think another aspect, again, like I said, we're bringing in this wheat forge hay quality study and starting to look at that because a good aspect that we've seen in work that I've done southwest wheat just compares very well so far with barley and triticale and the work that I've done down there.

- So we're really looking at how do we get that quality in that wheat hay up there pretty good?

So if we wanna put up wheat hay, we put up good quality hay.

And then Marty New and associated extension professionals, are looking at wheat hay storage processes.

And how do we store that and preserve that quality?

(motor whirs) So, you know, again, Curtis, when you start talking about the diversity of things we're looking at, on these Wheat Field Days, that's what we're able to present to our producers and say, we're looking at a large grouping of things to try to improve our systems.

- All right, thanks, Gary.

- You're welcome.

- Gary Strickland, Southwest Regional Agronomist here at Oklahoma State University.

(upbeat country music) - Dr. Kim Anderson, our Crop Marketing Specialist, joins us now.

Kim, let's kick things off with a look at what's happening in the wheat market.

- Well, probably the first thing we need to talk about is the wheat tours going on in Oklahoma and Kansas.

You know, Oklahoma tour came in around 58 million bushels.

A little more than half of last year's crop.

After that tour, you know, the price bumped up just a little bit and probably what's going on in Kansas.

The USDA's production estimate will come out next Thursday on the 12th.

I think the market's waiting on that.

And then the big news is out of India.

We've talked about India having the fifth record crop in a row, that their exports were gonna increase and offset some of the Ukrainian reduction in exports.

And then we got a heat wave in India that's decimated a good portion of the crop.

India's talking about prohibiting all exports and keeping that wheat in.

And so, that had a positive impact on the market.

Russia.

Negative impact on the market.

They are exporting wheat, now.

They've increased their monthly exports this last month, but overall, our price, end of this week, increased about 30 cents.

I think it's important that the basis increased a nickel.

And, I think, in my opinion, that basis is gonna work its way up and that will just add to our higher prices.

Right now, our forward contract price for harvest delivery in Northern Oklahoma's about 10.70, in Southern Oklahoma it's 10.25.

And you think about, why that big difference?

I think we've got a poor crop in Southern Oklahoma, I think the elevators have gotta take risk on that quality of that product coming in and potential discounts for that wheat.

And so, I think that's one of the reasons there.

- We're into May, now.

When do you think Oklahoma producers will start cutting wheat?

- Well, I've talked to some elevator managers down in Southern Oklahoma.

They're estimating three weeks.

Of course, that's just a guesstimate, because with cool, damp weather, it'll delay the harvest if the rain continues.

So, probably around three weeks, for sure in four.

I think this cool weather is, and go back to the news, good for the crop, help fill some of those berries.

Probably not a big increase, but it will help some.

- And we'll certainly take the moisture.

We don't like the bad stuff, but the moisture's very welcome.

While looking at harvest, what are the price expectations?

- Well, you look at what market's offering right now, $10.70.

Talking to elevator personnel and farmers this last week, I said anywhere from 9.50 to 12.50, and that range may not be big enough.

I do think with what's going on in India and around, that it's gonna stay up in this, I had it at $9, I'd probably increase it up to 9.50 to $10.

I don't see much negative news coming in the market, so I think these prices are gonna hold relatively strong.

- With that in mind, when should producers sell their wheat at harvest?

- Depends on whether the producer needs the money.

If I needed the money, I couldn't really afford a lower price, I'm gonna pull the trigger over it.

I'm not gonna sell it all at once, I'm either gonna do a third, a third and a third or maybe even staggered out more.

But I'd strongly consider selling it at harvest, remembering that if something happens to that foreign crop, you're gonna see 13, $14 wheat.

- Okay.

Thanks a lot, Kim.

We'll see you next week.

(upbeat country music) - We're back at the Chickasha Wheat Field Day with our Small Grain Specialist, Dr. Amanda Silva.

And Amanda, what are you got going on down here that you're showing producers?

- So here, today, we have the OSU Wheat Variety Trials.

So we have more than 45 varieties planted in this trial.

And we also, we are also looking at comparison in between standard management practices and intensive management practices.

So here, producers are able to see varieties under that standard management.

No fungicide, medium rate of nitrogen application, while in intensive management, we try to push the yield and demonstrate to producers the yield potential of varieties under two fungicide applications, additional nitrogen application as well.

- So one of the great things about coming to these Wheat Field days is that you get to really get a chance to see how the wheat's performing, you know, here in South Central, Oklahoma.

So how has the wheat been performing?

- Yes.

So, I like to say that this is a very good opportunity, learning opportunity for producers, and it is a very good time to be out, especially because this can help producers to make decisions as far as variety selection.

So that's that.

And, how it's been looking, so I'm coming out from Southwest Oklahoma, this week here is one of the best-looking wheat that I've seen so far.

- Also wheat at Apache was looking good yesterday.

And so we have some wheat that are looking good but we also have some wheat that are extremely drought stressed.

So our wheat in the southwest corner of Oklahoma, especially the Altus area, is critically drought stressed.

Walter's wheat was looking a little better than I expected actually, considering all the conditions but they did got couple inches of rain here and there, which helped the crop.

But then again, in Altus, they never got basically any significant amount of rain to help the crop, so it's been a very tough situation for our producers in that area.

But overall, we have some wheat that are looking good still.

We could be better if we had more rain but considering all the conditions, I think Chickasha Field here is holding up well.

- And I bet that's one thing that's really frustrating for producers is that some parts of the state have got rain, basically along this I-44 corridor.

And just, it's a really sensitive time for the crop and producers are just kind of waiting.

- Yeah, and we do have a lot of fields that are on that borderline.

We just need a little bit more rain to keep it going, to make a good crop, or we can still have a crop, but not as good.

- Well, hopefully it rains, we get some rain soon.

We'll be checking back in with you in a couple weeks just to see how things are progressing in the harvest, and thanks again Amanda.

Dr. Amanda Silva, Small Grains Specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

- [Narrator] The state veterinarian and the USDA confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza this past week, in a commercial poultry operation in Sequoyah County.

A 90-day ban is now in effect.

It includes poultry exhibitions, public sales and Swap Meets, to try to halt further spread of the virus.

Flock owners should prevent contact between their birds and wild birds and report sick birds or unusual deaths to state officials.

Biosecurity practices and other resources from OSU Extension and the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, including the latest information can be found on our website, sunup.okstate.edu.

(gentle guitar music) - Good morning, Oklahoma.

Thanks for joining us on "Cow-Calf Corner."

This week, we talk about vaccination programs in beef herds, and basically some of the fundamental things that we need to understand about a vaccination program, and some of the things that are misunderstood about vaccination programs.

We're fortunate to be joined by Dr. Rosslyn Biggs again this week.

Rosslyn, what do we need to understand better about vaccines?

- Sure, when it comes to vaccination plans, it's important to recognize there is no one size fits all vaccination plan.

And from a veterinary standpoint, we know this, no vaccine is 100%, 100% of the time either.

- What are the things, the stress, nutrition, whatever, what causes vaccines to not always be 100% effective?

- Right, we're in a herd, we're not gonna have equal response amongst all cattle in a group even.

Factors that weigh in there, pregnancy status, nutritional status, age, even environmental conditions.

Are we dealing with extreme heat or extreme cold?

Or they have ongoing illness that may impact their immune systems?

- So I'm assuming we need to read those labels, and those directions and know what we need to booster based on what age cattle we're giving 'em to.

- Absolutely, we may have customized plans within an operation for each group of cattle.

For instance, replacement heifers may have a different plan than the cow herd.

Are stockers probably gonna have a different plan than calves at side.

And so those are components we need to take a look at, sit down with our veterinarian, create an appointment, whether that's sitting across the kitchen table and lining out what we're gonna do for the next year, or go into the clinic and sitting down and reviewing it.

Hopefully, you've got something already established, but if you don't, you can start from scratch.

People always ask, well, they want that recipe, they want that cookie cutter that's gonna fit every situation, every time.

And the answer is always, "Well, it depends.

And it depends upon your specific situation, the type of cattle you have, and a number of other factors."

- Yeah, and I am the worst at wanting that silver bullet cure, but anything else we should be reminded of on this topic?

- Just again, keep your records, have 'em available and have 'em ready to go.

Also, one of these things is don't forget to ask if you're bringing in purchases, what their vaccination status is?

'Cause you wanna look at all of the cattle, the herd type concept for protection against disease.

(rural music) - Awesome, thanks for being with us.

And thanks to you all for joining us this week.

- Talking weeds now with our Northwest Area Agronomist Specialist Josh Bushong and Josh, we're here at the Chickasha Wheat Field Day, so what are you talking about today?

- Today I was asked to talk a little bit about weed management in wheat.

So for the main focus of the talk today was mostly about the winter annual grasses, which kind of plague our wheat fields throughout Western Oklahoma.

You got your Italian ryegrass, annual ryegrass, your feral rye, your bromes, your Japanese downy and cheat, Rescuegrass, wild oats, jointed goatgrass.

There's a plethora of them, but that typically gets our biggest issues in weed management in wheat, is controlling those winter annual grasses.

- So we had you on a couple months ago talking about just how the weeds were kinda shaping up in the crop.

You know, it's been really, really dry in a big portion of our wheat belt.

So how does that impact weed growth?

- It was a very interesting spring.

Obviously, the drought was a big influence across the whole wheat belt in Oklahoma.

And some of that was delayed sprays because just like our wheat, our weeds weren't growing.

So they didn't wanna waste that spray.

We'd get those little windows in there where it'd hit freezing and then warm back up to 60, 80 degrees.

And so we didn't have a lot of good windows in there to have good growing conditions, moisture, and temperature on the weeds as well as the wheat.

And so some of our producers had some later applications in ideal.

So we had stressed wheat and we saw a little bit of crop injury even from some of our older chemistries, our SUs like Finesse.

If we sprayed around a freezing event, we saw a little bit of crop injury because that wheat was already so stressed.

And then that delay in application, some of our newer chemistries like in our traded systems like CoAXium, we kind of had to pull back the reins on those applications because it does have a growth requirement to it.

We can't spray when the wheat's already adjoining or past because documentary is done here at OSU showing that there is crop response in effects of less grain.

So hurting our grain yield if we're spraying too late.

So some of those applications we were coming outta spraying, it seemed like the wheat was just dragging and dragging and dragging.

Then it seemed like it hit joining really quick.

And so that caught a lot of us off guard to get those timely herbicide applications.

- So as you mentioned with documentary's research, it's a lot of the weed is pretty much past that application.

So I guess for management strategies going forward, is there really much, if anything that producers can do?

- One of the biggest concerns I have right now, especially on some of those fields that the producer was planning on harvesting that field for seed wheat, especially on his own farm.

If he doesn't have clean wheat going into the bin, he's just gonna have a bigger issue next year.

Not only weeds are already out there in the field, but the grains that he harvested, if his infested with weeds, he's just gonna compound that issue in future years.

And I know with the drought this year, seed wheat's gonna be pretty tight this fall.

And so some guys are trying to be really selective on which fields they're gonna take to seed wheat.

- All righty, thanks, Josh.

Josh Bushong, Northwest Area agronomist here at Oklahoma State University.

(rural music) SUNUP travels to Tulsa county now to the national extension conference on volunteerism to see the latest trends on giving back.

- The wonderful thing about extension is that we have amazing resources within our midst.

- Well, we are participating in the national extension conference on volunteerism.

- This conference started as a result of the volunteer specialists needing a venue where we focused specifically on that role.

And it started as a 4-H event.

And then in the subsequent year, since 1999, it has spread to the other extension disciplines.

(crowd laughing) - It's a great opportunity I think for our colleagues to get together and network and share resources, share conversations and thoughts about what's working in certain environments and what isn't.

- Well, there are so many different types of opportunities for volunteers in extension.

They just need to have a passion for working with youth and with other people and to want to share their expertise and help other people discover and deepen their strengths.

- Let's say we have someone in the county that's extremely good sower.

well, let's get that person involved in teaching some sewing classes, whether it be to 4-H youth or youth in the schools or to adult.

- Volunteers really help to cascade the amount of resources that we can then distribute across our networks and communities.

And if we don't have that volunteer connection, that volunteer para professional that does that on our behalf, there's no way we can have the impact across cooperative extension that we do.

- Well, anyone who's interested in volunteering with a cooperative extension service in Oklahoma, you call your extension, your county extension office and that will be the answer almost anyone gives you.

Call your county extension office.

- And that about wraps it up for us this week.

Now, remember if you saw something on the show you liked, you can visit our website at sunup.okstate.edu and follow us on YouTube and social media.

I'm Kurtis Hair.

And remember Oklahoma agriculture starts at SUNUP.

(rural music)