- Good morning everyone.

We have a great show lined up for you today on Sunup.

Pickers and strippers are rolling in the state for cotton harvest.

We'll take you to Jackson County.

We're talking replacement heifers and their importance in the cattle industry in the coming months and years.

And we're celebrating a distinguished AG alumnus who happens to be the current CEO of the famed King Ranch.

Grab that cup of coffee because Sunup starts right now.

We begin this morning with Dr.

Amy Hagerman, our Ag policy specialist for OSU extension.

And Amy smile on your face.

There's some resolution in Washington, the end of the government shut down.

Kind of give us the highlights and the things that you're keeping an eye on.

- Yeah, it's nice to finally give people some positive news that this government shut shutdown the longest shutdown in history has ended on Sunday.

The Senate passed a bill that would continue the funding for the government for a limited window of time while other negotiations can happen.

The house passed it on Wednesday and then the president signed it into a law Wednesday evening.

It's gonna take a few days for USDA to get up and rolling and definitely be calling the office to make appointments ahead of time for any business that needs to be done.

But we're, we're happy to see those folks coming back to the office.

- Talk about some of the key priorities that you are looking at that would impact Oklahoma farmers and ranchers and kinda what some of those timelines are.

- Yeah, absolutely and, and it is important to realize that there were some key discussion points in this one.

SNAP benefits of course being one of those.

We're talking about the supplemental nutrition assistance program, formerly known as food stamps.

There was some lapse in those benefits that was affecting a lot of Oklahoma families.

That has been extended through the end of the fiscal year.

That's September 30th, 2026.

So even if something happens otherwise in federal funding through some of these agencies, it's been extended forward.

Similarly, USDA and a few other agencies like the FDA have been extended through September 30th of next year.

So even though all the other government agencies and on January 30th, they'll have to renegotiate the funding for those agencies leading up to that January 30th deadline, USDA SNAP benefits will all continue in that window of time.

Another key provision that is gonna affect a lot of Oklahoma families that was in this one is the affordable care after the open marketplace subsidies for certain families that are purchasing their insurance on the open market.

That was a key negotiation point for the Democratic Party and there is an assurance of a vote sometime in December to be able to consider extending some of those healthcare subsidies on the open marketplace.

- Wanna briefly talk about the changes with THC and hemp?

- So the 2018 Farm Bill created a definition for hemp.

That definition was refined in this process and so that's gonna create some changes for the testing of THC levels and hemp crops and also for the kinds of hemp based products that are on shelves and stores across the state because it limits the THC levels and then it also changes the types of THC that are being tested.

So these are all things we're gonna need to wait for the state guidance on how that will affect testing at the farm level.

- Alright, Amy, I'm sure we'll have you back on Sunup again very soon.

Thank you very much for the information and we'll see you then.

To Jackson County now to meet a cotton producer who after a few disappointing seasons finally has a crop to harvest.

Sunup's, Kurtis Hair has our story.

- The crisp morning air is lifted here in Jackson County and T-shirt.

Weather has arrived with no wind in the bluest sky.

Altus has to offer the last day of cotton harvest sums up how the growing season went for producer Clint Abernathy.

Almost perfect.

- Yeah, there's a lot of crossing fingers, that's for sure.

'cause there's a lot of things that can go wrong right till the end, you know, and, and like I say, this year we just didn't have those things.

None of them - Standing and looking out into a sea of lush white cotton with his son Justin, Clinton is still shocked of how well these past few months went.

Still, still get done tomorrow.

Yeah, - Yeah.

This year we did have water when we planted.

So, so we were, we were prepared to, to make a crop.

We, we didn't have a, an abundance of water, but, but it turned out to be adequate.

But we had, we had good moisture to plant on.

We had some nice rains in May.

We got a, got a good stand right off the start.

I mean, even, even September, you know, when we shut the water off, we just had a, had a real warm September, which finished this crop out.

I think it probably added a half a bale to our yields.

Haven't had any rain to speak of since harvest started, which, you know, we always like to have rain for our wheat crops and everything else.

But for cotton harvest, that's, that's good.

- Down here in southwest Oklahoma, especially in the irrigation district where they had water.

Like Clint mentioned to irrigate this year, yields are looking really well.

- Jenny Eck is the OSU extension cotton specialist and she says, though the crop is looking great here in southwest Oklahoma, statewide weather has caused a few issues - As you move a little bit further north in the state.

We had some later planted cotton, that stuff, the freeze, they were kind of battling that frost or freeze that we had.

- Although Clint's irrigated fields look fantastic.

His dry land crop is spotty in some areas, but there is a crop to strip, which is a big change from the past few years.

- Oh, you compare, you can't hardly compare it to last year.

The last three years have been a disaster around here.

'cause we had, we didn't have any water to irrigate out of.

We irrigate out Altus Lake - Besides having a crop to harvest.

Another win for this growing season is the test plot.

- And cotton producers buy seed from companies, and so it's very important for us to stay on top of those varieties.

All the varieties that we plant in these trials are actually commercially available from companies.

And so they're not specific to OSU.

We don't have a cotton breeder at OSU.

- Yeah, so this is, I don't know how many years we've been doing this test plot right here.

It's, it's been, it's, it's been a long time.

I, I think Jenny's probably at least a third cotton specialist we've worked with.

It really helps us choose our varieties for next year.

And, and that's a constant moving target there.

There's new varieties coming around constantly and, and, you know, the last three years we haven't had, we haven't had anything to compare it to because we just haven't had a crop.

- Right now I am sampling this round bale.

We're going to take this cotton back to still water and we'll gin it on our tabletop gin and then set it off to Lubbock for fiber analysis.

- Even with near perfect growing conditions and honestly the best crop that Clint's ever had, there's still been quite a few challenges this growing season, low commodity prices and high input prices have caused quite a few issues.

- Always gotta be a downside.

You know, our price is not good.

The price of cotton is down and, and our inputs cost are, are really, really high right now.

So that's, that's been the biggest challenge.

You know, i I, it's great to have a, have a big crop like this.

It'll offset some of that, that price, but that's, that's where, where we're struggling right now - These days.

Clint spends his harvest outside of the picker while his sons and grandchildren get the chance to take over the wheel.

He says the fact that he's able to do this puts the challenges that come with farming into perspective.

- That that's, that's been a real important part of it.

It's just a, it is a truly a family farm.

I've got nine grandkids now, so I don't imagine all of 'em will farm, but you know, some of 'em will probably wanna follow, follow the tradition that we, that, that my great grandparents started - In Jackson County.

I'm Kurtis Hair.

- Hello, Oklahoma.

Emma White here with your weekly mMesonet weather report.

After a hard freeze for most of the state this past week and then back up into the seventies highs right after Oklahoma is feeling those fall temperature swings quite strongly.

This season here is a map of the median first fall freeze dates.

Generally speaking, most of the state is experiencing freezes in the expected date range this year.

However, as this map shows of consecutive days of highs below 32 degrees, the good news is that our highs have not yet dipped below 32.

We still have time before our highs are freezing as well.

In fact, the temperatures are expected to hold nicely in the daytime as these highs show for Sunday the 16th.

Most of the state has been experiencing these warm fall temperatures since mid last week, and those highs should continue through mid this week.

It appears that the fall wants another last hurrah.

Sadly, the front last week did not bring the needed rainfall to the state.

Here is a map of consecutive days under one 10th of an inch of rain at each Mesonet site.

Most sites are up to two weeks.

Not to mention that the far west in the panhandle has gone almost a month without significant precipitation.

Even more unfortunate is the forecast for rain.

This map is showing expected precipitation through Monday of this week, which does not appear to be abundant.

This means that the consecutive days of little rain will continue to increase for the next several days.

Lastly, here is a map of the November average rainfall.

Considering Western and central Oklahoma generally expect about one to two inches of rain.

And the eastern side expects about two to four inches of rain.

Our numbers so far are not looking great since it has rained very little in most parts of the state in November, let's hope the second half of November relieves the growing drought.

Speaking of drought, Gary McManus is up next with your state climatology report.

- Thanks Emma, and good morning everyone.

Well, here's the worst kept secret in the state.

We need rainfall and lots of it.

The drought monitor map reflects that for this week.

Let's take a look.

Well, the first thing you see is that red area down in southwest Oklahoma.

That's extreme drought.

That's D three on the drought monitor.

Intensity scale, the second worst category.

But you also see just surrounding those areas in the southern half of the state, lots of at moderate to severe drought.

And those areas have increased over the last few weeks, including this week.

We also see some of that areas start to spread up into northern Oklahoma.

Again, places that got good rainfall earlier, they're starting to get a little bit dry up in that area as well.

So this is something we definitely need to keep an eye on.

It's been a dry fall.

Again, another badly kept secret.

If you take a look at the Oklahoma Mesonet, rainfall since the beginning of climatological fall on September 1st, which runs through November 30th, at least through November 11th, the southwestern quarter, a little bit expanded from there.

Lots of areas, less than two inches of rainfall, other areas less than three or four inches of rainfall, but just not a very good look for that portion of the state.

And again, that's where we're seeing that drought intensify the most rapidly.

And that extends up into central Oklahoma and also down into southeast Oklahoma.

Let's take a look at the precipitation outlook from the Climate Prediction center for later next week.

Does it show good news?

Well, it's certainly better than seeing above normal odds for below normal precipitation, but here we see increased odds of above normal precipitation.

One thing to keep in mind, we're not in a wet part of the year.

So even if we do see above normal precipitation, which would be wonderful, it's not necessarily a drought ender, but it would certainly be a better situation than we see right now.

Again, very poor kept secret.

We need rainfall and we need it quickly and we need lots of it.

Let's hope that the pattern changes and we get some good moisture in here.

That's it for this time.

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

- We are here now with our OSU agricultural economist, John Michael Riley and John Michael, last time you were on, we talked about President Trump going and doing some trade deals with Asian countries, talking to China about buying soybeans.

How has that been playing out?

- So President Trump finished up that trip, got back, and, and the result of that was that China is planning to, to purchase some soybeans in the winter months here, and then a more long-term plan, but it's still uncertain as to how that's actually going to, to completely shake out.

Right now we're, we're kind of, the market is very much in limbo as to when and when and how much those of those potential sales are gonna actually happen.

And for long term, obviously much, much more uncertainty.

Those sales are gonna be taking place about the time that our South American countries are gonna be in harvest, and so we're gonna be competing with, with their, you know, current supplies of, of soybeans and, and other commodities.

So I I will just kind of in limbo is the, the best way to summarize it.

We haven't seen a whole lot of sales transpire from, from those talks is the expectation that they're gonna happen.

It's, it's, it is there, but we just don't have a lot of certainty about the, the dy the dynamics.

- Yeah.

Speaking of harvest, what about cotton?

- Well, cotton is for the most part, fully fully com fully complete here in Oklahoma, mostly complete across the us similar to our our other summer, summer crops.

For the most part, it's, it's down quite a bit.

We've seen oil prices fall over the last couple of days.

The dollar's actually weakened, which usually invokes some level of of trade there for overseas partners.

But again, some of that's up in limbo.

So cotton just in on shaky ground right now.

- Yeah.

And then we're kind of transitioning back to wheat production, the wheats in the ground, what's the updates with that?

- Sure.

Wheat, wheat planting pretty much wrapped up here in the state.

Summer crop harvest pretty much wrapped up in the state.

So our crop producers are largely kind of in this state of, of farm management.

And so I think it now is a really good time as we look at our summer crop markets, our winter, winter wheat markets for the most part, soybeans took a, got, got a jolt of energy from those trade talks.

Corn kind of followed suit wheat followed suit, presented some potential marketing opportunities for pro folks that had some wheat in the bin or you know, maybe some, some recent harvest bushels sitting there ready to go.

Maybe some marketing opportunities.

However, basis remains very weak, weaker than normal across all of Oklahoma because of the weakness in the weakness in the basis right now.

It may be worthwhile to look at it's, you know, holding off on some of our sales.

If, if you're can handle that from a cash flow standpoint, certainly something worth looking into down the road.

- Yeah, we do have another WASDE report coming out this Friday, so it will have already been out by the time this airs.

- Absolutely.

The, the USDA did release a statement that regardless of of how things are in in Washington with regard to the shutdown, they are gonna release the crop production report and the WASDE report on Friday post post production for this show.

But do be looking for that.

I think market is expecting a, a slight reduction in corn, corn yield and, but again, another one of those things where there's some uncertainty there because it's been so long since we got the last official report from USDA, but that is going to be released on Friday.

The Senate did pass a bill recently, so again, where where that lands down the road, we'll we'll wait and see, but there is some potential movement on the government opening up.

- Yeah, we're glad to have another WASDE report coming out and sadly you are leaving us, we're gonna be transitioning to Todd Hubs who's gonna be taking over your position.

So any last thoughts from being on Sunup?

- Absolutely enjoyed my time here, taking over for Dr.

Anderson as he retired and kind of as we started, started the search for his replacement.

We've gotten that replacement with Dr.

Todd hubs.

Look forward to him.

He's joined us in the department and in in extension.

So really looking forward to what, what he is going to bring to the table.

I've really enjoyed our opportunities to visit on a, on a biweekly basis.

I wish I had more good news over my what, a little over a year and vi and, and coming here on sunup.

I wish I had more, more good news, but it seems like the markets have been a little shaky throughout most of my tenure.

Hopefully Todd, Dr.

Hubs can b can turn that around.

- Yeah.

Well it was good working with you John Michael, and we'll see you around.

- Absolutely.

Thank you so much.

- Good morning Oklahoma and welcome to Cow-Calf Corner.

Our topic this week is really addressing a series of articles that we'll have coming up here over the next few months that have to do with building back better through generating the right kind of replacement heifers that become our next generation of cows.

In spite of some recent market volatility.

The fundamentals, this current status of our nation's beef industry and our beef markets can be summed up in a few brief points.

We've got the smallest national cow inventory we've had since 1961.

It looks like we'll have the smallest calf crops going into the production chain this year and next year that we've seen since the 1950s.

We have the strongest consumer demand that we have seen in decades and we have very little evidence of heifer retention to become the next generation of cows.

And that's added on top of several years of good statistics showing that we haven't been keeping very many heifers.

In short, the robust markets that we see right now for all classes of cattle and beef, the product are not gonna go away anytime soon.

It looks like we're gonna experience them through the end of this decade.

Why is that?

Well, if we keep all of our heifers back now, the weaned heifer calves that were born this spring, were two years down the road before they wean a calf.

Those calves are a year to a year and a half delayed beyond that before they become beef by the time they go through the production chain.

So these market fundamentals, these results of drought threats of new world screw worm, the resilience and good management of cattlemen across the country, the job we have done of improving the additive genetic merit so that every cut of beef is a more consistent high quality, tremendous eating experience for the American consumer.

I have all led us to this point that we're at.

We are going to have to develop more replacement heifers.

How fast our nation's cow herd regrows remains a mystery, but the reality in the words of my colleague Darryl Peele, cows can't be made outta spare parts.

This low cow inventory we have is not gonna go away anytime soon.

Cows are gonna age outta production.

We have the opportunity through a systems approach, taking a look at our own unique cow calf operation.

If we are motivated by long-term sustainable profitability, we can address breeding and selection goals.

We can address mating decisions.

We can take a look at when we intend to market cattle, how we wanna develop those replacement females to set ourself up for years to come in an industry.

So that's what we've got on the horizon.

We'll break these topics down week to week.

Tend this to follow up Dr.

Henley's spot on Sunup last week when he addressed heifer selection.

And come at this from all the angles that permit us to generate an even better cow herd and literally build back better for the future.

With that, I'm Mark Johnson and thank you for joining us this week on Cow Calf Corner.

- A quick reminder now about the next ranchers Thursday lunchtime session.

This free Zoom webinar will wrap up the fall series on November 20th at noon.

Dr.

Dave Lalman will talk about cost-effective supplementation for beef cows this winter.

For more information, scan the QR code on your screen or go to our website, sunup.OKstate.edu.

- Finally, today we learn what makes Robert Hodgen a 2025 distinguished alumnus in the OSU Ferguson College of Agriculture.

Video production manager Craig Woods put together our story with a little help from our good friend Casey Shepherd at the radio Oklahoma Network.

- I would describe myself often as a kind of quintessential Indiana farm kid.

I grew up in a cornfield 50 miles west of Indianapolis, like a lot of kids grow.

Growing up in rural America.

I participated in 4H and FFA activities when I got here, was on the veterinary track.

And believe it or not, I got in after three years, but I was on the livestock judging team and they wouldn't let me judge and go to vet school.

So we decided to defer vet school for a year.

And during that year I really came to understand that my heart wasn't in it.

Organic chemistry made no sense to me and finance did.

Robert was a great - Success story on the 96 livestock judging team.

He didn't start with a great deal of experience and we fast forward to the National Championship contest in Louisville that next fall.

Robert was in the top 10 in reasons in the national championship - Contest.

And I still find myself today, 30 some years later, coming back, stopping regrouping myself, thinking about what are the two or three most important things that I want to say and then trying to clearly articulate those in a concise manner.

It's no different than a set of reasons.

- In 1997, Robert earned a Bachelor of Science and Animal Science and soon after began a career with Cargill.

- I decided I wanted to go to MBA school I, I'd been at Cargill for three or four years.

I applied to a number of different business schools around the country and was very fortunate to get into a few.

And one of them was the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

- With receiving his MBA in finance and marketing in 2003, Robert moved across the country to become a vice president with JD High School Holdings.

- JD High School is a feed manufacturing firm and a commodity trading firm with assets all across the United States.

And I was a member of the executive management team.

I started out as an analyst for the president and back to leadership development, the president I was working for walked in one day and said, you're now the, you're now the plant manager of the feed mill in Pixie, California.

The feed mill in Pixie California is the largest commercial feed mill in the United States at the time, it was moving about a million and a half tons a year of feed and commodities and had his team of 60 and the plant operated 24 7 - With the experiences he gained at the mill.

Robert set his sights on some new challenges.

He returned to the East coast to take on a role with Amera capital.

- It was a great education for me and really my time at Amera Capital showed me how institutional capital works.

Showed me show showed me how professional investors think about allocating capital and how they thought about allocating capital into agribusiness, into the livestock industry, into farmland around the world.

- Robert and his wife Kerry would move to New York City, but Robert made sure he could still represent OSU.

- You know, I, I was very fortunate to meet with a group who would make custom boots and so I said, let's, let's, let's make a couple of Oklahoma State boots and I would wear them when I lived in New York City with suits and I'd walk down the street wearing these custom boots.

- I'm not sure I know the price tag of a billboard in Times Square, but having a guy like Robert Hodgens walk down the streets of New York City with OSU boots is about the best advertisement you can get.

- In August, 2021, Robert's journey came full circle when he was named president and CEO of the legendary King Ranch.

- King Ranch is the largest ranch in the United States.

It's got an amazing iconic brand.

You can find it on pickup trucks, you can find it on clothing wear, you can find it on cattle.

In fact, that's one of the reasons they're so well known is they invented their own breed of cattle.

So it's just amazing that we have an alum that is leading this organization that's been around since the 1850s and is really iconic and symbolic of the American West and of the Cowboy.

- My job is really a people job.

My j my job is to be a leader of leaders, to be someone who inspires teams to do great things.

- Robert and Kerry partnered with family to name a graduate workstation in OSU's new agricultural hall in honor of his parents.

Abe and Shirley Hodgen - With my brother and sister-in-law being graduates here.

We thought a graduate room where they spent a lot of time would be the right place to give some some of our resources.

- The couple also supports the purebred Beef Center, animal Science Judging Teams and other OSU agriculture funding initiatives.

- The students that I've seen come outta Oklahoma State can go on and do amazing things and I've, I've ran into Oklahoma State grads on the street in New York City, in South America, and all over the world.

And, and I remember being in Africa once and the guy who was our pilot in a little plane I was in had his OSU bag.

And so I've, so I've seen OSU grads all over the world and I would say being in Oklahoma State, you can go on and go do anything you want to do in any place, in any sector.

- Celebrating Robert Hodgen 2025 Ferguson College of Agriculture, distinguished alumnus.

- That'll do it for our show this week.

A reminder that you can see sunup anytime on our website.

Follow us on social media and stream us anytime at youtube.com/sunup tv.

We leave you today with a few more shots from the wonderful Cotton Harvest in Jackson County and we wanna say best of luck to all the cotton producers who are finishing up harvest over the next few weeks.

I'm LyndallStout.

We'll see you next time at Sunup.