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

I'm Lyndall Stout.

Oklahoma wheat producers will soon be making some management decisions when it comes to their crops.

But when it comes to fertilizer, just how much or how little do you really need?

To help us sort it out, here's Dr. Brian Arnall, our extension soil nutrient management specialist.

- So a lot of our decisions have been kind of holding off on whether we're going to get rain and how much.

We finally got that rain and the wheat's really starting to take off.

The stuff that's in early, we're getting some good growth.

A lot of wheat's been sewn this last week or so.

And I've got a chance to travel the state in the last couple days.

And I've seen a lot of good wheat stretching out there in the regions that have had the rain.

So out there by hinting, I even saw cattle going out there on the wheat.

So that's pretty great to see, that kind of growth that we're moving.

But that means we have to start thinking about any management decisions that haven't been made because we've been putting it off for the moisture.

So one, if I'm grazing cattle or I'm trying to get ready to start grazing, I'm looking at my nitrogen status.

You know, I'm looking at how much nitrogen do I have on.

If I haven't applied any nitrogen yet, I definitely want that 50 or 60 units in nitrogen down.

If I've got wheat that's struggling, and it might be because pH or phosphorus level, it's not too late on that razed ground or really any of our ground to go out there with a early top dress of phosphorus.

We're finding that in a limited environment, that phosphorus even after the crop is up, can be highly beneficial and has great ROI.

For our grain only that's been going in the last couple weeks, I'm gonna go back to the standard rule of thumb that I've been saying for the last couple years.

Let's lay off the early season nitrogen.

I'm not excited about getting nitrogen out.

Just because that early nitrogen doesn't have a lot of benefit when we talk about a grain-only system.

So I wanna get this crop through.

Let's get it up, let's get it established.

Let's get it into the winter and think about nitrogen in the spring.

That doesn't mean that I wanna lay off on that phosphorous and potassium.

So if I know I have P or K issues, even if the crop is in the ground, it's not too late for either.

We apply a phosphorous form that will dissolve with rain and move into the wheat root profile.

And potassium's the same, potassium's quite soluble as a salt, and it'll move down into the root zone with the rain.

So just because you didn't get it on before you planted, don't count yourself out on getting P and K down when you know you need it.

The rest of it is a wait and watch game.

Let's keep our eyes on those wheat fields, both dual purpose and grain only, and graze out.

Get your in enrich strips out now up to January, they're gonna be a major driving factor because with our weather last couple years, there's no telling what we have left in the bank, what we've either added up or have lost.

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

I'm Wes Lee.

A look at the seven day rainfall map from Wednesday shows some pretty good numbers for this time of year in the southeast region.

In the drier west and panhandle areas, the amounts were very limited.

Most all of this rainfall fell before last weekend.

This map for the fractional water index at 10 inches still shows a lot of green in most areas, but the yellow and brown areas are starting to grow.

Fortunately, our soil moisture is still at a level that is not limiting wheat growth in most areas of the state.

While there is not a lot of cattle turned out in the wheat melt yet, I noticed this very nice set of replacement heifers with great forage in Major County last week.

Although, we still have a few drought inflicted areas, we appear to be in much better shape than a year ago.

This report from the National Ag Statistics Service indicates that 60% of topsoil moisture is rated adequate or better.

While this is down from the 70% reported a week ago, it is much better than the 24% reported a year ago.

Light rain is in the forecast for this weekend for some, but the long-term forecast for most next week and later look mostly dry.

Now here's Gary with a focus on rainfall during the full wheat growing season.

- Thanks, Wes, and good morning everyone.

Well, unfortunately we have trouble brewing, in parts of the state, with the drought.

And now that's not really a shocking statement, we're always in drought, it seems like.

But this is a new area that's going right back into that dry time.

So let's take a look at the newest map and see where we're at.

Well, you can see from the drought monitoring map, we have our same regular features that we've seen over the last really two and a half years.

So drought down in southwest Oklahoma, a long-term drought.

A long-term drought up in the North Central and Northeast Oklahoma.

But now we have this area up in Northwest Oklahoma with this growing dry spell that's starting to get into to the moderate drought.

There's a little bit of tiny bit of drought there.

And also some abnormally dry conditions signaling they're going into drought.

So something to watch for as we go through the next few weeks.

- You can see the culprit right here, we have another growing dry spell.

As I said, the consecutive days with less than a quarter inch of rainfall from Oklahoma Mesonet and we can see up in northwest Oklahoma, we go from about 16 days to more than 20 days, to more than 60 days by the time you're watching this.

So, again, this is how we've been doing this the last few years.

We go a little bit of rain, and then a long dry spell.

So, again, something to watch out for.

Rainfall map says it all.

Some parts of the Oklahoma panhandle have had less than a half an inch of rainfall over that 60 day timeframe.

But once you get northwest of I30, or I44 rather, you get down into less than three inches of rainfall until eventually you get down to that less than an inch range.

Again, another growing dry spell for the northwestern third of the state unfortunately.

And that shows up on the departure from normal 60-day rainfall map from the Mesonet as well.

Again, across that northwestern third.

So really half of the state we're one to two to even more than three inches below normal for this time of year.

So unfortunately that's the recipe for drought if we're not careful.

And finally we'll take a look at the top soil percent short to very short map from the USDA.

These numbers for Oklahoma creeping up slowly each week.

So now we're up to 40% of the state, short to very short for that topsoil moisture.

Unfortunately I think it's gonna continue to go up until we get some rain across that northwestern half of the state.

So we're in a waiting pattern for at least northwest Oklahoma.

We do need some moisture up that way.

We'll take rain, we'll take snow.

Hopefully not ice, but we'll just take some moisture.

That's it for this time, we'll see you next time on the Mesonet weather report.

(upbeat music) - As temperatures continue to fall, and winter quickly approaches, many producers are putting away and winterizing their equipment for the season.

To talk about the best ways to do this, SUNUP's Kurtis Hair caught up with Dr. John Long, our Ag machinery specialist.

- Well many producers know what to do when it comes to storing equipment over the winter, but John, there might be a few things that they may overlook, or might not have even thought about, right?

- Sure, yeah.

I mean a lot of people, if you've been around a cold environment you know that there's water, and those are the things we have trouble with.

But if you're running a newer piece of equipment, especially newer diesels, one of the things we have to be mindful of is our diesel exhaust fluid.

- So, what's the concern with that?

- So most of that's distilled water really in reality, and that's something we have to add to newer diesel engines for emissions purposes, and when we get down below about 12 degrees Fahrenheit, it freezes pretty solid and expands.

If we're talking about our tanks that we put it in our tractors or our trucks, they're heated and can handle that, but if we're using systems to actually dispense that, or we have our storage containers, we wanna make sure we keep everything in those containers and purge those storage systems that are gonna be in the cold environment.

- And I imagine you said expanding.

When something freezes it expands, which could, I imagine, 'cause a lot of issues.

- Yeah, that can cause a lot of issues, especially if you've got a transfer system or pump or valves that you're using to basically dispense diesel exhaust fluid.

Those things can expand, break, and bust and then you're talking about a lot of costly repairs.

- So it's really just kind of watching the weather, and how often should you be checking once it gets down below those temperatures?

- You should be checking, probably making sure that those systems, if they're not in a heated environment, making sure that whenever we're gonna have that cooler weather, when it finally starts to kick in, that you start getting those things flushed out, make sure that they're clean.

- So what are some other things that producers can really do to really make sure that their equipment's gonna be in working order come the spring time?

- So like a lot of equipment, if we're talking about sprayers or other types of equipment, anything that's using water, we wanna be able to flush those.

We can use different types of antifreeze.

Like RV antifreeze you can buy at any type of store to flush those systems, make sure those valves and those pumps are good.

And then even just normal equipment that doesn't use water like our drills, our combines, things like that that we're using.

Make sure those are really cleaned out really well, especially things that harvest material 'cause it's a great place for rodents and pests to get into.

- Yeah, that's something my dad always worried about, especially with his boat, or really just anything that he was kind of putting up, was just mice getting in there.

Is there really anything you can do about that other than keeping things clean?

- Just keeping things clean.

You can use other types of rodent deterrents and things like that.

But the big thing is just keeping things clean when you put them up for storage.

- Everybody loves a good barn cat.

- That's right.

- Yeah.

So when it comes to things that aren't necessarily the big equipment, just kind of stuff that you would be using just here and there on the farm, what are some things that they can do as well to make sure that those would be, maybe smaller engine type stuff?

- Yeah, so for smaller engines, the big thing with that is just making sure that if we have any fuel still standing in the engine, we need to make sure we put stabilizer in it, run it through the system so that we get all the way through even in the carburetor and everything, anything that has a battery on it, we wanna make sure that we disconnect the battery and we put a maintainer on that battery because we want it to be available to us when we come back in the spring or whenever we use it again.

- In the winter time too, things slow down quite a bit for everybody.

So, I would imagine this is probably a good time to take advantage of some of the things they could do to kind of make their equipment run better.

- Yeah, definitely, I mean we get through the season, we got a lot of wear and tear that we put on our equipment through the season and we've pushed it hard and so the winter time is a great time to start looking at places where we have issues, maybe things that are just repairable parts that we need to replace each season.

(engine revving) And so if we've got a space that we can actually do that during the winter, we can move equipment in and out, thinking about that, something we should consider when we're looking at storage.

- Thanks, John.

John Lawn, OSU Extension, Ag Engineer.

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

I'm Mark Johnson, and this week's topic is beef.

It's what's for Thanksgiving.

Our topic is based on several things.

Thanksgiving is a holiday in America that is really based in agriculture and our ability to efficiently produce food.

And the title I kind of borrow from the old Beef is What's for Dinner advertising slogan.

That one has been around since the early '90s.

It has been a very long-lived and very successful advertising campaign for beef, and it is shown by survey data to be recognized by 88% of America.

It's been a very successful campaign.

I think we take that a step further and consider beef for Thanksgiving in contrast to the norm of eating turkey because there's so many advantages as far flavor and variety of things we can do with beef as opposed to turkey.

Turkey typically takes a long time to cook and prepare, whether we're gonna bake it or fry it.

Our options at the end of that are a well-done product that we can have either white meat or dark meat.

What does beef offer in contrast to turkey?

A variety of cuts, a variety of things that can be cooked to different degrees of doneness, based on how you like it.

A variety of things that require different amounts of cooking time.

Some that may only take a few minutes and some that may take a few hours.

You've got a protein product that is interlaced with marbling that creates that taste sensation that makes beef the protein of choice in the marketplace.

So, if you decide to go with beef for Thanksgiving dinner, keep in mind a few things.

Number one is budget.

What do you wanna invest in Thanksgiving dinner?

The nice thing about a beef carcass is that we've got lower-priced items like ground beef, or for that matter roasts that may come from the chuck or round.

The roasts with more connective tissue are gonna be less expensive.

They may require a little more cooking time.

And we've got all the way through the other end of things where we think about steaks, the meats that come from the back of a beef carcass, those are cuts that are low in connective tissue, they're gonna be tender.

We can literally cook those pan fried or grilled in just a few minutes, and we got a lot of options in between.

Brisket is an excellent choice for smoking.

It can be cooked in an oven long term.

We can even make chicken fried steak in a relatively short amount of time and a lean cut that comes from tenderized round steak.

So, we got a number of options, a number of price points there to fit any budget relative to a beef carcass.

Second thing, and I've kind of referred to it, is how much time do we want to spend in preparing beef for Thanksgiving dinner?

And we've literally got that option of something that can be pan fried or grilled in a short amount of time, versus things that can be roasted or slow cooked over the long term, that are all gonna result in that same tender, succulent, delicious beef flavor.

As we come to Thanksgiving, I wanna say thanks to the men and women involved in production agriculture, and particularly the cattlemen in this country.

It's their ingenuity, perseverance, and hard work that make us a great ag producing country and make all these options we have for Thanksgiving dinner available to us.

This year as we consider what we have to be thankful for at Thanksgiving, it's been a very good year in the beef cattle industry.

We're gonna close out 2023 showing that the cow-calf sector, the stocker-yearling sector, and the cattle-finishing sector have all operated at a profit level during the last 12 months.

That is historically very rare.

As we look at the inventory of cattle in our country right now, it looks very promising for robust prices for all classes of beef cattle right now and for years to come as we repopulate the cow herd and recover from drought.

We have a lot to be thankful for.

And I thank you for joining us on this Thanksgiving edition of "Cow-Calf Corner."

(playful music) - It's that time in the show to check in on the crop markets with our crop marketing specialist, Dr. Kim Anderson.

So, Kim, what's happening in the markets?

- Well, you look at wheat, I think the bleeding has stopped there.

We got that downtrend that started back last July, I think we've probably bottomed out.

We talked about that the last couple weeks.

We got cash prices, oh, somewhere around $5.85 in northern Oklahoma.

If you look at forward contracting for harvest delivery, right at $6, about 10 cents higher out in the Panhandle, 25 cents lower in southern Oklahoma.

Corn, got a little rally in corn.

20 cents after that report last week, $4.65.

If you're looking at forward contracting for 24, just under $5 at 4.90.

Soybeans, a nice little rally in beans up, oh, 'round.

- [Speaker] $13 and 30 cents.

If you look at the 84 crop, $12 and 40 cents, so nice rally of beans.

Looking at cotton, we rolled from the (indistinct) to the March contract.

That March is about two and a half cents higher than the (indistinct) contract.

So your cotton prices are really about 5 cents below that March rather than three or two below the (indistinct).

- So Thanksgiving's just in a few days.

And what do you think markets are gonna be looking alike for that first big holiday as we're kind of finishing up the year?

- Well, we move into what the trailers and the analysts call the holiday season.

And so the markets tend to get thin during that time period.

So if you have somebody come in with a big sale or a big buy, it can artificially drive prices up higher than you expect or lower than expect.

So I think it's gonna be, normally it's a relatively smooth market, not much volatility with some jerks and knee jerks happening as certain things come into the market.

Most people say just ignore what the market's doing over the next 30 days or so.

- Well now that our summer crops are mainly almost finished with harvest and getting into the bin and wheat producers, it's wheat's about to go dormant.

What, is this just a good time right now for producers to just kind of plan and look ahead?

- I think it's a good time for producers to step back, put their feet up if they possibly can, take a deep breath and review what's happened over the last year.

Take it easy.

Don't take life too serious because there's not a whole lot happening after you get, now they may have corn and beans to sell and I think the way to do that is just mechanically sell it.

Just set some dates and pull the trigger when those dates come around, I think it's time to start thinking about the '24 crop year and what changes you're gonna make from '23.

So take some time to rest, take some time to get some information together, take some time to look forward and take some time to be thankful for God's blessing.

- All righty, thanks Cam.

Dr. Cam Anderson, great marketing specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

- On the topic of colder temperatures, we wanna dive into a topic that's a little bit controversial in Oklahoma: fireplaces or wood stoves.

OSU Extension Energy Management Specialist Dr. Scott Frazier looks at the pros and cons of both.

- So today we're gonna be talking about alternative forms of heating here in Oklahoma.

We've seen some of the electricity and natural gas prices come up in the past few weeks.

And so some folks are looking at using wood for heating.

And so there's a couple of different ways to do that.

One is the traditional fireplace and the other is the wood stove.

The fireplace is essentially a structure, so it's built into a wall and usually has quite a bit of masonry and things like that.

So to install one of these in a retrofit in a home would be very expensive, probably easily 20 to 30 to $40,000.

The other thing is that it's quite often open to the rooms that it's trying to heat, so that is a fireplace hazard.

The other issue with the fireplace is that we can get something called back drafting.

For instance, in my home I've got a fireplace.

And so if I get the fireplace going and then the heater for instance comes on, or if I try to turn on the clothes dryer or one of the bathroom vents comes on, I'll actually start to backdraft smoke into the house.

Now on the other hand, you can have a wood stove, which is not a structure, it's actually an appliance.

And one of the main advantages of the wood stove is that it's very efficient.

EPA estimates start at about 70% efficiency versus about 15 to 20 for the fireplace.

So your dollars for wood is going to go a lot further and then because it's converting more of that into radiant energy, less pollution, so less smoke, things like that.

And again, it can be placed in a variety of areas.

Now because it stands away from the wall and it itself, it being an appliance is usually made of metal, so it has metal sides on it, and that is radiating heat as well.

And so you can actually heat up a small house like mine, you could actually drive me outta the house with that wood stove.

It would just get that warm.

Maybe a half to a third of the cost in wood versus a fireplace.

So that's a nice option.

As far as cons with the wood stove, there's not much.

It costs less to install.

Estimates I saw ran from about 1000 to maybe 4,000, depending on how fancy you get.

There's not as much backdrafting issues.

There's not as much of a fire hazard because the wood stove is usually closed off.

There is a bit of a safety issue because these metal sides do get pretty hot.

So if somebody were to stumble, a child, elderly person, something like that, you could get a bit of a burn.

So those are the major issues, the pros and cons going on with these two things.

It kind of comes down to a question of how important are aesthetics to you versus how important is this thing really gonna be to heating your home?

- In both cases, you want to have a wood that's been dried.

In my case, I like to have it dry at least a year.

Yeah, you're gonna want to watch out for the wood quite a bit.

Don't wanna burn green wood, obviously.

And there's certain types of wood, like cedar and things like that that generate a lot of creosote, so you probably wanna stay away from that.

(upbeat music) - You may have heard the Christmas carol, "Here We Come a Wassailing" and wondered what is wassail.

Let's find out.

Depending upon the time, occasion, and situation, wassail has had several different but related meanings.

Originally, wassail was an old English salutation made to toast to someone's health.

It was probably borrowed from an earlier Norse phrase, "ves heil", which was used as a form of greeting or recognition, such as be in good health or be fortunate.

However, the term wassail would evolve to encompass not only a salutation, but an added beverage as well.

During pre-Christian times in southeastern England, farmers would meet in their orchards and share a communal bowl of cider.

They would also pour cider on the apple trees while shouting to scare away evil spirits in the hope that the next season's crop would be bountiful.

In other words, the farmers would wassail the trees.

Over time the ceremony would also involve singing, dancing, and bonfires.

By the Middle Ages, wassailing had become associated with Christmas.

In some regions of Britain, groups of the poor would visit the homes of the wealthy during the holiday where the owners would allow them to sip from a communal bowl of spiced wine, or the poor would bring their own bowls and ask that they be filled.

Unfortunately, on some occasions, the crowds would become intoxicated and rowdy.

Leading wassailing to become associated with drunken carousing.

By the 19th century, wassailing would evolve into its final milder form.

During this time period, many Christmas traditions that we recognize today, such as Christmas trees and Christmas cards were just starting to gain popularity.

By the 1830s, music publishers were starting to release books filled with Christmas songs.

Many of which were about wassailing.

So wassailing, the act of enjoying the holiday through revelry had become the subject of Christmas carols.

And caroling, the act of singing about the holiday could be seen as an act of wassailing itself.

So eat, drink, and be merry.

For more information, please visit SUNUP.okstate.edu or food.okstate.edu.

Happy holidays.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] 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 988, 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.

(mellow music) And that'll do it for our show this week.

A reminder, you can see us anytime on our website, as well as follow us on YouTube and social media.

Have a great week everyone.

And remember, Oklahoma Agriculture starts at sunup.

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