(peppy country music) - Hello everyone and welcome to Sunup.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

A big change is on the horizon for cattle producers who are used to getting some certain medications over the counter for their herds.

For some information, here's Dr. Rosslyn Biggs, our veterinarian and beef cattle specialist.

- The Food and Drug Administration announced in the summer of 2021 that they were working with pharmaceutical producers, in particular those that impact livestock, that they were moving certain medically important antimicrobials back under veterinary prescription.

And so, what that means is common, common antibiotics, such as penicillin, that you might be able to get at the feed store will move to veterinary prescription.

For animal owners that may be comfortable and used to buying products at the feed store, it's important for them to develop a veterinary client-patient relationship.

Right now they can, over the counter, buy antibiotics, such as tetracyclines and penicillin, for instance, without a veterinary prescription.

Again, in June 2023 that's gonna change.

They're gonna return to veterinary prescription, and so we want the, we want those clients to develop relationships with their veterinarians.

It's also important to understand that it's just those products that are considered medically important in the human medical field.

And so products like our ionophores and our feeds are gonna be unaffected.

It also does not change our current requirements for veterinary feed directive and the products used in that capacity.

So now we're encouraging animal owners to, again, if they don't already have an established relationship with their veterinarian to establish a veterinary client-patient relationship with that veterinarian, and look to develop treatment protocols for common conditions, so that they can have those medications on hand and be able to address those needs and their animals moving forward.

The focus of this initiative is again, antimicrobial stewardship.

We don't have a lot of new, new products coming on the market, and so we wanna make sure that we're using those antimicrobials in an appropriate fashion, and that they are not being overused, so that we can have those products for the long run.

(snazzy music) - Good morning everyone.

Wesley's off this week, so I'm flying solo.

So of course that means lots of drought talk, and I'm also gonna tell you a little bit about a big weather change coming up.

Well for that drought monitor, we definitely have improvements down in far southeast Oklahoma.

Now, obviously it came with some severe weather, but unfortunately a lot of times, that's how we get our precipitation.

We do have moderate-to-severe drought down in that region now, where it was severe-to-exceptional drought.

Now, once you go to the northwest, the extreme-to-exceptional drought starts to take off again, and we also had those improvements over the last few weeks in southwest Oklahoma.

So a little bit of good, a little bit of bad, I wish there was more good, but we just need some more rainfall across the main body of the state, safe for that far southeastern corner.

We do have a little bit of worsening up in Southern Osage into Pawnee County, and also out in the Texas County in the panhandle.

So I wish it was more, but it's good enough for now.

Let's start to get some more of these areas improved, though.

Those improvement areas show up really well in the 30-day rainfall map from the Red Railroad counties in southeast Oklahoma, up through the east central portions of the state.

We have a good six to ten inches of rain in that region, so that's where we get the improvements.

But you can see as we go to the northwest, much of the state, less than three inches of rainfall and then we get to the Northwestern, one fifth or so, we start to get below an inch of rainfall.

So we definitely need more as we go farther up into the northwest.

As usual, it shows up much better on the percent of normal rainfall map for that 30-day period.

We see those wonderful greens and blues, down in southwest Oklahoma from a few weeks ago, and also down in southeast Oklahoma from the last few weeks, as well, but especially this past week.

But once we go to the northwest, once again we see those deficits, percent of normal values, less than 75%, and in most cases less than 50%, especially up in the far northwestern corner of the state.

So those are the regions that are really needing that rainfall.

Let's quickly take a look at that, 120-day percent of normal rainfall map, just to show you a comparison.

- And then we have most of the state below that percent of normal rainfall, less than a hundred percent, at least.

In fact, most of it's less than 75 and even the majority of it is less than 50%, probably, so it just goes to show you that those recent rainfalls do wash out in the long term and those deficits start to take back over.

We can't discount those longer term deficits, unfortunately.

Now let's take a look at that big weather change we have coming.

Let's first take a look back at the statewide average maximum air temperature.

The black line is the long term Mesonet average and the red line is this year, so we can see for most of the, since June 1st, we've had above normal temperatures, at least those high temperatures.

We've had a few region, areas where it was just a little bit below normal, and then just a couple areas where it was just a little bit close to normal.

Other than that, it's been pretty, pretty much above normal that entire timeframe, which doesn't, of course, help drought at all.

It actually puts a lot of pressure on the soil, a lot of evaporation, a lot of loss of that soil moisture.

Now let's take a look at the the Climate Prediction Center outlook for temperature for next week.

We see this very large area of increased odds of below normal temperatures expected for next week.

That's, of course, symbolic of a large cold air mass moving down from Canada, so we are gonna see a drastic change; instead of sixties and seventies, we're gonna see forties and fifties, maybe even some thirties for highs as we go into next week.

Not sure about snow just yet, but definitely gonna be colder.

Definitely gonna be a change from what we've seen since that early June period with, obviously, just day after day of above normal temperatures.

Very little break in that, so this is gonna be our first big stretch- week or longer of below normal temperatures, at least for this time of year, so we have a big weather change coming with temperature.

Now we need a bigger weather change with precipitation, especially across that Northwestern two-thirds of the state.

That's it for this time.

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

- Cleanup and recovery will continue in the weeks and months ahead in McCurtain County, Oklahoma.

After a devastating EF-4 tornado tore through the Idabel area last weekend.

Sadly one person was killed; others injured.

These images were captured last Sunday by our photographer Todd Johnson.

The tornado destroyed more than 100 homes and businesses including poultry facilities in the area.

Storms also affected counties in nearby Texas and Arkansas.

The OSU extension office in McCurtain County is working with county and state officials to support local residents as they regroup and recover.

We have a number of disaster recovery resources online, as well as a link to the McCurtain County extension staff if you need additional information.

Just go to sunup.OKstate.edu - It's time to check in on the livestock markets with our livestock marketing specialist, Dr. Derrell Peel.

Darrell, what are the latest trade data say for beef exports?

- You know, the latest trade data for the month of September showed something we've been concerned about for some time.

Beef exports in September, were down 5.7%.

That's, we had a small decrease in March, but this is the largest decrease in beef exports in about 30 months, so we've had a good run.

We had record level imports in or exports in 2021, but we've been worried about some headwinds with a strong dollar with global economic weakness.

We're still up for the year, about 4.6% so far this year, but it looks like beef exports are gonna struggle a little bit in the, in the coming months.

- So what about beef imports?

- Beef imports, you know, started the year really strong, but for the last four months they've been down.

In September, they were down about 9.6%.

We're still up for the year, but we're coming down, and we'll end the year probably just modestly higher.

Beef imports may actually get a little bit of a boost from the strong dollar as we go into next year particularly when we start to see beef production drop as expected.

- So, domestically, how is beef demand shaping up?

- You know, beef demand is held up pretty well this year.

When you look at all the challenges that everybody has faced, consumers certainly face a lot of challenges, and so, you know, if you look at wholesale beef values, we've traded sideways in a relatively narrow range most of the year, which didn't show some of the normal seasonality, so that probably says there's some sort of limitations, kind of, some caps on beef demand, but at the same time it really hasn't dropped very far.

The retail prices for beef have just been steady every, pretty much every month this year, so we have not seen real weakness yet.

It's still something that we're watching going forward.

- So driving down the road, you can look off into a pasture, and maybe see some little bitty baby wheat showing up, so is there gonna be any chance for wheat grazing going in for the rest of the year?

- Well, we are getting some wheat established in some cases.

Some pretty decent stands.

Some others a little more spotty.

If we continue to get moisture, you know, we'll get some, some potential.

You know, the wheat's way behind, it's probably five or six weeks behind where it would normally be.

- So we won't see much grazing probably for the rest of this year or if at best at right at the end of the year.

But we might get a little bit going into next year if we continue to get moisture.

- And a little bit helps.

- A little bit will help, absolutely.

- So how's the fall feeder cattle run shaping up?

What's, what's that looking like?

- You know, normally we have our biggest volumes in the fall as we get into that fall feeder run.

We had large volumes of feeder cattle all summer, in the auction markets in Oklahoma.

And so as expected in about mid-October we saw that flip and we saw a couple of weeks of year over year decreases in those auction runs.

It was, it popped back up last week but I think going forward as we get into what's normally the biggest ones, we're gonna see probably smaller than usual runs.

Feeder cattle markets have already bottomed for the fall for whatever.

It wasn't really much of a seasonal decrease but it did bottom about mid-September or mid-October, excuse me.

And we've already seen a fairly significant rally in these markets in the last two or three weeks.

- Alrighty.

Thanks Darrell.

Dr. Darrell Peele, Livestock Marketing Specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

- OSU extension supports Oklahoma farmers and ranchers with mental health resources and programming.

If you or someone you know is experiencing mental health challenges, call the Comprehensive Crisis Response Lifeline at 9-8-8 or go online to the OSU extension website, dealing with farm stress.

For more information about local resources, suicide prevention, finances, disaster recovery, and more.

We have links to both of these websites at sunup.okstate.edu.

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

Kim, let's dive in and look at how crop prices fared this week.

- Well, not much change in the prices you look at.

We just continued that sideway waste trend.

Remember last week Russia said we're not gonna honor that agreement for the exports and the price went up 50 cents and then they said, "Well we'll honor it", and it went down 50 cents and so it just came back down where it was.

It's moving sideways.

You look at corn a little bit lower corn prices this week it's around $7.40, bottom at 7.36.

Corn prices are reacted to slightly higher yields that we're harvesting right now in the corn.

You look at soybeans, rallying beans, what happened?

China came in the market and bought US beans.

That always creates excitement.

Got those bean prices up around $14.30 right at the top of that range.

And cotton, they bottomed out around 73, 74 up 76 last week up to 86 this week backed off to 84.

So cottons moved a little higher.

- What did happen or could possibly happen to change prices even more?

- Well you gotta watch that Russia/Ukraine situation right now.

They say they're gonna honor that export agreement.

However, they've slowed things out for the inspection of the ships.

And so that's a quasi-saying: We're gonna let you export a little bit, but we're gonna restrict it.

You look at the Australian crop coming in they've got a second largest crop ever expected but they're getting a lot of rain.

The early crop is great yields, great quality but they're concerned about losing some yields and losing some quality.

Moving on down, Argentina's got just the opposite drought situation that's impacted their wheat production.

They've lowered it a little bit.

Soybeans, they're putting that in now and they're expecting a decline in the bean production there.

Oh, we've got China coming in, buying US.

They could continue to do that, that'd get those beans up.

And we got ludenia, you know we've had that over the last couple years.

It was supposed to go away.

They're saying, "Oh, it may stick around for another year."

That could always impact our prices.

- A lot of factors there.

The November WASDE also has been released.

What did you see in this month's report?

- Oh, not much.

Wheat, they lowered any stocks for US wheat a little bit, raised the world a little bit.

On corn and they raised US, lowered the world on soybeans slightly higher.

Any stocks on both world and the United States and cotton the United States, they increased ever so slightly the ending stocks and lowered the world.

So not much changed there going on in the world.

- The USDA released the long-term projections this week.

What did you see in terms of long-term prices?

- Well, that's what I saw with those prices.

You know, this year they've got to $9.20 for wheat.

Oh, 6.80 for corn, $14 for beans, oh, around 90 cents for cotton.

And they've got that working down for the next four years.

Wheat, $8, $7, come down to 6 and bottom out at 5.70 and go on down.

Corn, same way it's going from the current price down around 4.50, soybeans down around 10, $10.45.

Cotton goes down to 75 cents in the next four years.

And then if you look what happens, you know, your corn, your wheat, your soybeans pretty much level out at that bottom.

But cotton comes back up a little bit.

- So what did you glean or what are your takeaways from those projections?

- USDA's telling me it's gonna take three to four years to get this Russian/Ukraine to get - These higher input costs to get those exports and that fertilizer, chemical, equipment, all that movement goin' back on it's gonna take about four years and if those prices come down so will our crop prices.

- Okay, Kim, thanks a lot.

We'll see you next week.

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

This week we're gonna talk about the importance of cow mineral supplementation, kinda followin' up on that theme as we look at fall calving herds and getting prepped and primed for breeding season that's probably just a few weeks or maybe a month or two away, dependin' on your particular situation.

And Dr. Parker Henley and I are gonna tag team this one again this week.

As we get started, a couple things.

I wanna give a shoutout to the 2012 National Champion OSU Livestock Team that'll be back in Louisville for their reunion next week.

As well, Dr. Henley is giving of his time and taking time away from defending the National Championship that they won last year with his 2022 team that'll be judging in Louisville this weekend, as well.

Our topic this week is cow mineral supplementation and it seems particularly relevant in a year that we know grass has been stressed.

Grass is short and frankly, referring back to some of the Cow-Calf Corners we've done in the past few weeks, talkin' about a different variety of hays we may be feeding.

Maybe we've secured our winter hay supply from other states.

Maybe it's failed crops, crop residues that we're gonna be feeding as hay this year.

We talked about the importance of a feed analysis report on that to let us know just protein and energy content and whether or not our nitrate levels are safe.

Typically, that feed analysis is not gonna tell us a lot about vitamin and mineral content, particularly mineral content, we know is important in getting cows bred in a timely fashion.

So, Dr. Henley, as we look here at the onset, tryin' to make preparations, what's, what can you tell us about the importance of gettin' a good mineral supplement out to cows right now?

- Absolutely.

Well yeah, trace minerals and mineral supplementation can often times get put on the back burner and not seem super important.

But, it really is as we near the breeding season, and we're getting very close to the start of the fall breeding season, if you calve in September.

And so, there's no time like the present.

And as you mentioned, the lack of knowledge of some of these forages that were bein' brought in because of the drought may lead to a deficiency in a trace mineral that's not typically shown its face at your operation.

And so, as I like to say, it's just good insurance to put out a quality mineral supplement that's free choice for your cows and make sure they're consuming it.

And so, we also know that it takes a certain amount of time prior to the breeding season for their mineral reserves to be built up.

And I think there's some work out there saying it could be 30 to 60 days actually for a trace mineral deficiency to be reversed.

And so, this is a perfect time.

You know, some of those trace minerals like copper, zinc, manganese, those are the ones that have had direct ties to reproductive problems.

And so, makin' sure you have a good mineral that provides those can be important in curbing some of those reproductive issues in the breeding season.

- Thank you, Parker, I appreciate you joining us this week.

Appreciate you all joining us on Cow-Calf Corner.

We look forward to seein' you next week.

- Time now to talk about the future of agriculture and the Stillwater FFA student who put together a project to show her fellow classmates a few career options.

- So, today is an FFA Ag Career Day.

So, this is to help students kind of see what if they might wanna have an agricultural career in the future.

So, as an FFA officer, we are each required to do a professional development activity.

And so, my category was Career Development, so I thought having a career day would help students like get an idea of what they might want their career to be.

I don't really know what I wanna do when I'm older and I know that I wanna have an Ag career, but so this can help other people and people like me have an idea of what they might want to do.

'Cause we are the future generation, and so, agriculture is a part of everything, so if no students want to have a job in agriculture, then that industry is going to decrease.

- This entire event was really interesting.

First of all, we're learning about all the different careers and I get to talk to some professional people.

I love learning about new careers.

I like seeing all the possibilities for different people and what they like.

- So, FFA is a leadership industry revolved around agriculture.

So, it includes ranching, farming, and science, technology, communication, really anything you can think of is part of agriculture.

I think that it will be a great thing and if we can have one every year, students are really going to be more involved in agriculture when they grow up.

A lotta people have told me, like what their favorite booth is and saying that that might be something they wanna do when they get older.

That makes me happy that people are enjoying something that I put on.

(country music) - Finally, today we take a look at some OSU research looking at alternative sources of irrigation.

The goal, finding some new solutions for helping crops during extreme drought.

SUNUP's Seth Fish put together this story.

- So this project is about looking at the opportunities for conjunctively using salt water and fresh water that we have in southwestern Oklahoma.

We have naturally occurring salt water in southwestern Oklahoma because of geological formations.

And so a lot of the tributaries that we have down there, you know, the water in there is pretty salty.

So salinity level is high.

And then we have naturally occurring groundwater as well.

So as the concerns about water availability decline, and this year would be a good example, in 2022, a major reservoir down there that provides water for cotton irrigation has been, the level in the reservoir has been so low that they haven't been able to irrigate using that water in the reservoir.

- Actually, this project fits very well within the Water for 2060 plan that the Oklahoma Water Resources Board is working to implement in the state.

So the state legislature several years ago passed the Water For 2060 Act, which set the goal of using no more fresh water in the year 2060 than we did in the year 2010.

So, to meet growing demands and also to deal with declining water levels around the state, you know, more and more, we're gonna be looking at marginal-quality water sources, like we're looking at for this project.

So in a dry year like this, this is really the kind of situation where using marginal-quality water would really come into play.

The producers have very limited fresh water, so in a year like this, if this works, this would provide a more continuous source of water that we don't currently have access, or that we're currently utilizing.

- To be able to evaluate the potential for conjunctive use of salt water with freshwater, first, we need to have tools that can look at the impacts of applying water with higher salinity level on crops.

So, what would be the impact on crop yield?

What would be the impact on soil?

So we have to get the surface water hydrology right, and groundwater model set up, and we have to run those salinity modules to be able to track salinity over in downstream areas.

Because we're also concerned about what happens to the watershed as a whole as we apply saline water for irrigation in one part of the basin, what would be the potential impacts downstream?

Because we know that there are some other uses that may need different salinity levels, so we cannot just change salinity in one part of the watershed without regard for what happens downstream.

- Yes, so we play a supporting role to all the modeling efforts that Dr. Mirchi and his team are doing.

We're collecting water samples from seven surface water bodies in southwestern Oklahoma as well as three groundwater bodies to help them with the calibration and validation of their models.

So that helps to make sure that their models are correct.

So we're measuring electrical conductivity, which is an indicator of the level of salinity in those water bodies.

And then we're also measuring (water babbling) flow in those rivers and streams, as well as groundwater depth as well.

- This issue is gonna become much more important in the years to come, in the decades to come.

And that's why we're excited about developing this model.

And we're developing, assessing different scenarios of conjunctive use of freshwater with salt water to support agricultural production.

- It's extremely exciting, and like Dr. Mirchi said, it certainly has applicability throughout the southwestern US, but globally we're seeing the same situation all over the world, (country music) where we have declining fresh water supplies, growing needs for food and for water.

And so globally we're having to look more and more towards these marginal-quality waters and how we can better utilize them.

- That'll do it for us this week.

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

(water babbles)