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

I'm Lyndall Stout.

Cotton harvest is now underway in Oklahoma.

This week, we're in Blaine County where we caught up with farmer Rodney Cowan to see how his family's harvest is going this year.

- We just began our cotton harvest a day or two ago here and just getting going with the stripper and looks like we're gonna have a good crop here, anxious to get it all out.

We had to do spray a defoliant, and a bowl opener on the cotton this year.

We do that every year, but we were having trouble getting the leaves to drop off, getting the bowls to open up so that delayed us a little bit.

But other than that, now the cotton, we've had the good hard freeze and that's finished the cotton off, finished it off even better.

So we're just in a matter of hurry up and get it outta the field.

Here's a bowl, one of the later bowls of cotton that we sprayed the bowl opener on and we sprayed the chemical on to open these bowls.

You have to do this before a freeze.

If you don't get these sprayed, if we're gonna get a freeze, we have to hurry and get the crop sprayed or it locks these bowls shut.

This got the chemical put on it to make that bowl open.

And now as it dries on out, it'll go ahead and open up like these bowls and dry and fluff out.

But that's one of the things, you will see on some of the crop, that this one's not gonna get opened up 'cause he's, of course, stripping right now.

- [Lyndall] Did you do that last week before we had the freeze?

- Yes.

- Kind of timing is everything, right?

- Yes.

Actually Lance ran the sprayer.

They were talking about the freeze.

So he ran the sprayer all night long to get over six or 700 more acres that we didn't have sprayed yet, plus the rain was coming in and we knew if we got rain, then it was gonna be an issue getting across the ground.

So he literally ran all night long and I think he didn't get finished till like 10 or 11 o'clock the next morning finishing up those acres, getting 'em sprayed.

- Why did you decide to introduce cotton into your field rotation?

- We like to have a challenge.

(Lyndall laughs) And this was something we'd never done before.

So prices had got up to a dollar a pound and I told my son one year, I said, "We need to start growing cotton, look at the price."

And he kinda looked at me and I just let it drop.

And the next year, he kind of brought it up the next year and kind of got him to thinking about it more, and so we decided well all right, let's try it.

So we planted about 350 acres our first year with cotton and did pretty good with that and it's a good rotation crop for us and just helps break up the wheat on wheat like this country's seen ever since I was a kid in this particular area.

- So tell me about getting into cotton five years ago and kind of what that looked like compared to where you are now.

- We are learning every year, changing some things every year, trying to improve what we'd learned from the year before.

So it's kind of just been a challenge for us, and each year's a new challenge and it's been quite interesting to see what we can learn and how much more we can improve it.

- You talked about you used to be one of the younger guys and now.

- Now I'm getting to be one of the senior guys in the community, I feel like, but it's all just the way life goes.

We just go through the processes and now I tell people and have the mindset that I'm working for Lance.

He's the next one to take over and he's learning all the things that I can teach him and plus he's picking things up faster and taking the reins and someday, this'll be his operation and he'll teach his boys, hopefully, and so I'm just, like I said, just working for him now.

- Rodney, thanks for having us out.

Best of luck to you and Lance as you finish up harvest.

- Thank you very much.

I'm glad you guys could come out in front of such a beautiful day.

(upbeat music) - We're here with Harvey Schroeder, the Executive Director Emeritus of the Oklahoma Cotton Council, and Harvey, you know, we just got done taking a look at how the cotton's looking in Blaine County.

So overall, how is cotton looking through the state?

- Overall, the state picture is well below average.

We planted probably 600,000 acres.

We'll probably harvest a little less than 300,000.

So you know, if you take the average, it really knocks our average down, but there are some spots of good cotton and where it's good, it's really good.

Where it's not good, it's not good.

(laughs) - Was it mainly just drought that was such a big thing?

- Yes, yes.

Drought is what's knocked it in the head.

We had trouble getting it in because it was wet at the wrong time and then we went into the drought and that has really- - Choke things down.

- But for those producers who are getting cotton that are looking good, how good is it looking?

- Best I've heard is like three and a half bale an acre irrigated.

There's a lot of irrigated, it's two and a half bale.

But the big thing is they had four bale input.

That's the number everybody shoots for now under good irrigation.

But there's gonna be some dry land cotton and there's gonna be some irrigated cotton and we're going to crank the gins up and gin that cotton.

- All right, thanks Harvey.

And if you'd like a link to any more cotton information, just go to our website, sunup.OKstate.edu.

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

I'm Wes Lee.

Last week was pretty much a bust for rainfall, at least as of Wednesday afternoon.

The seven day rainfall map shows just a trace of rain, mostly in the western counties.

This lack of rain and some incredibly warm afternoons started to take a toll on the soil moisture levels.

Our fractional water index maps quickly gives us a picture of the state's soil moisture reserves.

At the shallowest depth of two inches under a sod cover, we see most of the state with a green 0.9 or even ones indicating good moisture levels.

However, in the far west, soils are much drier going all the way down to zero at Goodwill, which is as dry as a sensor can read.

At four inches, things remain about the same, but with slightly better soil moisture reserves in the eastern two thirds of the state.

Dropping down to 10 inches, we start to see more yellows on the map and an expansion of the drier red areas in the west.

At our deepest sensor sites, it shows the effects of our persistent longer term drought areas.

Lots of red zeros and .1s that travel all the way across the northern half of the state.

I hope the soil moisture continues to hold on until our next major rain event.

Now here's Gary with a focus on the 30-day rainfall maps.

- Thanks Wes, and good morning everyone.

Well, the drought monitor map held steady this week.

It didn't get better, but it also didn't get worse, so maybe that's a good thing.

Let's take a look at that map and see where we're at.

Well, we still have the areas of long-term drought down in far southwest Oklahoma, up in far north central, northeastern Oklahoma.

In between there, we did get the relief last week on the map.

The only area of concern is a little bit up in far northwest Oklahoma.

I'll show you that in a minute where we do have another dry spell coming on.

So let's get straight to that map.

We can see here from the days, consecutive days at least, without a quarter inch of rainfall in a single day from the Oklahoma Mesonet.

We're coming up on about two months up there in parts of northwest Oklahoma, Woods, Harper County, Woodward County, over into Beaver County.

And then you get out into the western two thirds of the panhandle and you see we're above a month.

So again, another growing dry spell.

Hopefully it doesn't turn into a full-blown drought up there, but we will certainly keep our eyes on that part of the state.

That definitely shows up on the 30-day rainfall map from the Mesonet.

You can see lots of good totals down across the southeastern two thirds of the state.

Once you get up in the northwest, however, you get totals less than two inches and then totals less than an inch.

And then out in the panhandle some areas with no rain at all over that 30-day period.

And if you look at that percent of normal rainfall over that same timeframe, you can definitely see in those oranges and yellows and reds areas that are less than 50% and in some cases less than 25% of normal rainfall.

So again, an area of concern.

These are especially up in northwest Oklahoma, they did have a lot of rain previous this summer, but we do need to keep the rainfall coming back in that region so we don't get, as I said, back to full-blown drought.

Not much help on the way next week, at least.

If you look at the outlooks from the Climate Prediction Center for much of next week, we see increased odds of above normal temperatures, which does not help drought, of course.

And then we also see increased odds of below normal precipitation.

That's not really that big of a deal.

That can change over in a hurry, but we don't wanna see that extreme heat this time of year to increase that evaporation and possibly make that drought accelerate even more.

So we do want a pattern change, especially for that northwestern third of the state.

They could use a good rainfall.

Everybody could use rain of course, but especially that part of the state.

That's it for this time.

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

(lively music) - Well, prices for bigger feeder cattle have decreased quite a bit over the past few weeks.

So Derrell what's going on in the markets?

- Well, you know, we had a tremendous run up over all this year, really, back to about a year ago and as a result, in both cash and futures, and futures markets have undergone a significant correction you can call it or profit taking.

- [Darryl] Over the last few weeks, so that's dropped those futures prices a lot and that does have an impact on both the feeder cattle, the bigger feeder cattle, as well as over in the live cattle market as well.

- So on the other end, lightweight feeder cattle and stocker cattle have remained pretty strong.

So what's happening on that front?

- Well, you know, it kind of speaks to the fact that the fundamentals haven't really changed, even though the futures market has undergone this correction.

The reality is cattle numbers are still tight and in Oklahoma and the central and southern plains, we've gotten quite a bit of rain.

So the prospects for wheat pasture look pretty good, and that has kept these lightweights, calf and stocker prices strong over the past few weeks, despite what's going on in the futures markets.

- You mentioned wheat pasture there, so tell us a little bit more about those prospects, looking pretty dim, but we got a lot of rain, so how are they looking now?

- Well, I think we're certainly gonna have some wheat pasture producers feel a lot better now.

It's pretty variable, I think the crop is in kind of all stages of production.

And most of it's gonna be later than we would normally see or like to see for wheat pasture, but we are gonna have some wheat pasture in most cases, at least by the time we get towards the end of the year.

- So how do auction volumes compare to about this time last year?

- If you look at Oklahoma auction volumes across the board, we're down significantly.

Again, that's a reflection of the tighter cattle numbers that we have.

So feeder cattle volumes are down.

I think for the fall period here we're down about 13 to 14%.

If you look at coal cows, we're down nearly 50%, it's like 48%.

And even replacements, we don't sell a lot of, you know, bread cows, that sort of thing through auctions, but the volume there is down significantly from a year ago.

- So how is all this gonna impact prices, especially going into the holiday and how we're gonna be finishing up the year?

- You know, again, the fundamentals are that we've got tighter supplies across the board.

So even though we've seen, you know, some corrections in these markets, that's not really, you know, a surprise if in some sense it's kind of expected.

But the bottom line is we're continuing to get tighter.

We're gonna see strong support for these markets through the end of the year and into next year.

- All righty.

Thanks Darryl.

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

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

This week's topic is one we revisit annually about this time of year.

It's on good hay storage techniques and what we can do to preserve those harvested forages and minimize our loss on 'em.

Some extended periods of drought, lower hay inventories, and accordingly, higher hay prices, we wanna do everything we can to try to preserve that hay and make sure as much as what we have put up or purchased is gonna be there intact in a bale for us to feed.

So first things first.

What are some simple things we can think of if given the choice?

We know that a net-wrapped bale of hay is gonna keep and be preserved better than a twine wrapped bale of hay, as we think about big bales.

If storing in a barn is an option, it's a good idea.

There's data that shows that in nine months storage inside a barn, we have as little as 2% hay loss in those bales stored inside a barn.

But in reality, storing inside a barn is not always an option.

Most of us are gonna find ourself in a situation, we're gonna need to store that hay outside.

So first thing we wanna take a look at is the site we're gonna store it at.

We wanna find somewhere that is well-drained probably on higher ground, and that is keeping the moisture away from those big bales to the fullest extent possible.

We know that the amount of precipitation, the humidity, the temperature are all gonna play a role over time and just how much spoilage we see in big bales.

And so if we can get to elevation, if we put down some coarse rock to maybe set that hay on, if that's an option, or use some old pallets, some old fence posts, old railroad ties, anything that we may set underneath that hay to actually keep it off the ground and keep the moisture out of the bale is gonna work to our advantage over the long haul in seeing less spoilage.

For that matter, as we are actually setting those bales in a north south orientation where those bales are stacked up butt to butt, is gonna help preserve that hay as much as anything we can do.

If we've got several rows to put in there, we wanna leave at least three foot between those bales over the course of the day.

The sun's gonna have an opportunity to shine down each row with adequate space between them, dry out the ground.

If we're doing that and we've got some ground cover of grass or forage, if we can mow that off or get rid of it before we're actually storing the hay in there, that's gonna help us as well.

Any kind of standing forage underneath those bales is gonna help preserve that moisture and keep it around those bales of hay.

So we wanna avoid the triangle, three row or Christmas tree shape where we put two rows side by side and another row of hay up on top.

That's actually gonna work to our disadvantage and increase the amount of spoilage because we're gonna be catching moisture and it's not just the bottom side of the top bale, but then it's the top sides of the two rows underneath as well as what we're actually seeing on the ground.

That is a poor choice as far as a way to store hay.

Producers need to consider canvas covers, maybe tarps on bales, but-- - If we can't store it inside a barn, but really, it always comes back to the cost-to-benefit ratio.

Obviously, we're not gonna go out here and build a barn, and anything we invest in as far as these storage techniques, we've gotta look at it relative to how long do we anticipate the hay is gonna be stored before it gets fed.

If we're getting semi load to semi load and feeding that over the next week or two, probably preservation and storage technique, frankly, doesn't become all that important.

If we're looking at something long-term where we're gonna have that hay stored for several months, our technique is gonna pay some dividends if we do it right.

I hope this helps and thanks for joining us on Cow-Calf Corner.

(light country music) - Well, the Oklahoma soybean, corn, and cotton harvests are underway, so Kim, how are prices looking?

Let's start with corn.

- Well, looking at corn, you know, they've been taking a beating over the last month or so.

It looks like they've bottomed out.

They went down to 4.45, somewhere in that range.

Back up to 4.54.

Looks like maybe we've bottomed out there.

If you look at the harvest, it's 95% complete in Oklahoma.

The stocks-to-use ratio is projected to be 26% for corn.

That's compared to an average of 27.8.

It was 25.5 last year for the world.

The United States, 14.7%, stocks-to-use, 12%, 12.1% average, 9.9 last year.

So you've got about average stocks worldwide, but the United States, we've got excess corn.

And I think that's why we saw the lower prices.

They're slightly below average, and I think that's why maybe they found a bottom and working their way back up.

- So what about soybean?

- Well, if you look at soybeans, we had about an 80 cent rally in beans over the last week, down from the 12.25 level up to 13.11, somewhere in that vicinity.

About 60% harvested in Oklahoma.

The world's stocks, soybeans stocks-to-use ratio, 30.2%, above average compared to 20.7.

5% is the average, 28% last year.

So excess beans, above average beans around the world.

But the United States, 5.3% stocks-to-use, average 8.4.

Last year, 6.2.

Tight stocks in United States.

And that's probably because of those processing plants that's been built, and they're going to demand those beans.

So we've seen higher prices.

- So as we saw earlier in the show, we were at cotton harvests in Blaine County, cotton looked pretty good there.

So for producers who are actually able to get cotton in into the gins, how are prices looking for them once they do that?

- Well, I think that's what you saw is cotton is probably coming in at better than expected.

We've seen the cotton market knocked off, oh, six or seven cents in the last couple weeks, down with that December contract at 75.5 cents.

Cotton is 45% harvested in Oklahoma.

You look at the stocks-to-use ratio, 69% projected for the world, average 72.

So slightly below average there.

US, 19.5% stocks-to-use, average 28.

Last year was 28.7.

So lower stocks-to-use, and the cotton prices, you know, cashed out around 72, 73, 74, somewhere in that vicinity.

That's below average.

So you'd expect cotton prices to bottom out here, maybe come up, but they've taken a beating because of this increased production or above expectation on production.

- What about wheat prices?

- Well, if you look at wheat prices, most of wheat's been sold into this market.

It looks like wheat prices have bottomed out.

They got down below $6.

They're back up to right above six in Pond Creek.

You look at the stocks-to-use ratio, 32.6, versus a 35.2 average, so slightly below average on the world.

The US, 36% stocks-to-use, average 43, below average there.

So you'd expect an above average wheat price, and at $6, it's about 20% above average.

So you'd expect $6 or better for wheat prices.

That's what we see.

If you look at the harvest (light country music) coming up, you can forward contract for about 6.11.

So the market's telling me wheat, oh, it's near the bottom.

It may work a little bit higher.

- All righty, thanks, Kim.

Dr. Kim Anderson, grain marketing specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

- Finally today, we meet two true champions of OSU agriculture: Kay and the late Win Ingersoll.

Video production manager Craig Woods brings us this story.

(light music) - [Narrator] As a young boy, Win Ingersoll grew up in rural Rogers County.

Kay Ingersoll was born in Ohio before moving to Claremore.

It was there they became childhood friends.

- They met in Claremore in grade school, I believe.

Kinda connected a little bit, went their separate ways.

My mom moved to Tulsa.

My dad kinda moved to Pryor.

- In the end, when they went to OSU, mom's best friend was like, "Hey, Win Ingersoll's here," and my mom just happened to need a ride home for the weekend.

And so she knew that Dad had a truck.

And so they got ahold of Dad and Dad- - Took her home, and I guess they, that was it.

- [Lyndall] Win and Kay got married in June of 1965.

And as much as they loved OSU, the newlywed couple decided to return to the land where Win grew up, the historic McFarland Ranch.

Win worked their growing up, learning how to run the ranch started by his great-great-grandfather.

- This ranch, it's been here since 1915.

My parents moved out here in the '60s, and this is where my sister and I grew up.

- We own the McFarland Ranch.

My grandkids are the sixth generation, and so, actually the the fifth generation.

My daughters own it now.

And we've lived out here for, well, I've been in this house for 58 years.

- [Lyndall] Together, they not only made the ranch their home, but also a successful business and a cornerstone of their community.

Win handled the day-to-Day operations.

- And they worked cattle in the summer, in the spring, and then in the winter they just went out every day and fed them and made sure everybody was up and going, you know.

- [Lyndall] Kay was a vital part of the ranch as well.

- She was the bookkeeper since the 1970s.

And she still takes care of proving the bills and that sort of thing.

So yeah, she was a huge part, and still is.

And she's done tremendous things for the community.

She bought building down in Inola to start the Inola Public Library, which has now been named the Ingersoll Public Library.

- [Lyndall] In addition to raising cattle, the Ingersolls were instrumental in the equine industry, even helping to pass pari-mutuel horse racing in Oklahoma in 1982.

Win is also one of the original organizers of First Federal Savings and Loan, which is now Bank First in Claremore.

Back at the ranch, the Ingersolls began focusing on wildlife conservation.

- Well, my dad's love for quail has, I mean, ever since I can remember.

And he loved the dogs, and he loved watching the dogs work and hunting.

And that was his, it was his happy place.

You know, recently the amount of quail started kind of dwindling.

He wanted to do something about it, and that's when he got OSU involved.

- [Lyndall] The partnership led to several research projects on quail habitat with Dwayne Elmore.

- Mr. Ingersoll was just, you know, incredibly dedicated to land management as well, and just so excited about the quail hunting and all aspects of that.

- Win and Kay don't just operate their land, but they're partners together.

And they've also partners with Oklahoma State University to bring that land and the knowledge that we can learn about that land to students and citizens throughout the state of Oklahoma.

- [Lyndall] For their work in this area.

The Ingersolls received the Nature Works Stewardship Award in 2012 and the Private Land Management Award in 2016 for their contribution to wildlife conservation.

NatureWork dedicated a bronze statute to the Tulsa community entitled Shinnery Oak Bobwhites, in Win's recognition.

Win and Kay also gave back creating an endowment for agriculture students and becoming New Frontiers cornerstone donors.

(audience applauding) - We went over there one day to the old building, and it was the same building Win went in, had his classes in when he went there in the '60s.

And we'd walk in at like a lab and he'd go, that's where I sat, and this is where I sat, and this is, and I thought, oh my word, you know.

So, but that really meant a lot to Win.

He was so thrilled about being able to help with that building just a little bit.

- [Lyndall] Win passed away in 2022, but his legacy lives on in the McFarland Ranch.

The people he knew, his children, his grandchildren, and especially Kay.

- We've really been blessed and had such a nice life out here in the country, and there's a nice town with great people, and have this ranch.

We've just been so blessed to do that.

And for our kids to have it now and keep passing it down, it means a lot to us.

And all of us love OSU.

(bright music) - [Lyndall] Celebrating Win and Kay Ingersoll, 2023 Champions for OSU Agriculture.

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

A reminder, you can see us anytime sunup.okstate.edu.

And also follow us on YouTube and social media.

From cotton harvest in Blaine County, I'm Lyndall Stout.

Have a great week everyone.

And remember, Oklahoma Agriculture starts at SUNUP.

(gentle music)