Hello everyone and welcome to Sunup.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

With the recent and very welcome rains that have hit the state.

When is the best time to actually apply a pre-emergent and herbicide to fields that have just been planted?

For some guidance here, Sun up's Elizabeth Hokit with OSU extension lead scientist Dr. Liberty Galvin.

- We're here now with our weed scientist, Dr. Liberty Galvin.

So Liberty, we're standing on some mud right now.

What do you think about all this rain we've been getting?

- You know, the rain has been pretty incredible, honestly.

We set record low rainfall in October and then the universe decided to deliver it all to us at the beginning of November.

- So obviously we had some delayed planting this year because of this drought that we've been going through.

But now that we have some of this rain, what does that mean for weeds?

- So it's, it's been a really interesting season because all weeds, just like the crops, really, really need the moisture before they can germinate and come up out of the ground.

But our winter annual weeds really, really need those cool temperatures.

And so we had that really hot dry October, so we probably weren't seeing any winter annual weeds coming up.

But now that we've had this a lot of wet and we're just now getting into our cooler temperatures, we're probably gonna see a lot of weeds come up in the next couple weeks.

- Yeah.

And so, which weeds are we gonna see primarily come up?

- So the weeds that really love the saturated soils are everybody's favorite Italian rye grass.

They actually require temperatures between, it's about 77 and 50 degrees during the day and about 40 degrees at night in order to germinate.

So they really like those cool temperatures.

I was just looking at the mezzanine and our two inch kind of almost consistently across the state.

Our two inch soil temperature is about 55 degrees Fahrenheit, which is like pretty perfect for Italian ryegrass.

Italian ryegrass has a pretty short pre germination period, but something really interesting I found is if the soil is too saturated with water, which I imagine in many parts of the state, it is quite saturated.

Italian ryegrass can actually go into a second door secondary dormancy.

And so that basically means the seed is in the soil, it's ready to germinate, but the conditions are just a little bit too wet.

That is not necessarily a bad thing because I think that means the weeds, they probably are not gonna come out in full force this fall.

- Yeah.

And so since we obviously can't see these weeds, how do we know when to put our pre-emergence down?

- Yeah, it's act, it's kind of magic sometimes, you know, you're like, how do we control what we can't see?

Yeah.

So the, the information that I found about Italian ryegrass says that once it has germinated, it takes about 10 days to emerge out of the soil.

Now that's under the assumption that these seeds are laying on the soil surface.

Italian rye grass doesn't really like to be deep in the soil and it won't germinate and come up.

So if I should say, if you got moisture, mostly everyone got moisture across the state and now that the temperatures are 55 degrees in the soil, growers should really go out if they have the opportunity and do a little bit of scouting.

And just looking in between the rows, can they see anything sprouting that doesn't look like wheat?

- And what about those producers who maybe have just planted and haven't seen their wheat start to emerge yet?

Do they still need to put that down right now?

- I would actually encourage people to put it down pretty closely to when they plant, there is an opportunity for crop injury to occur with some of our pre-emergent herbicides.

They are the pre-emergent herbicides that we have registered for wheat.

They are soil applied and sometimes when those wheat seeds come into contact with that soil that's been applied with that herbicide, they can suffer a little bit of injury.

But the fear is that if we get a really, really hard cold front, that injury is gonna be exacerbated because the plant won't be able to kind of grow out of that injury.

So over the next couple of weeks, because the soil temperature is still in that optimal germination range, I'm gonna be doing some field scouting around still water just to see what I can see and hopefully send out some updates.

I'm hoping to get some updates from our friends in the western part of the state as well because the weather's very different out there and hopefully some folks in the south so be able to present some kind of weed population data over the next couple months.

- Alright, well great information, Liberty, thank you.

Thank you.

And we'll be checking back in with you after the holidays for that.

Great.

Sounds great.

- Begin with you after the holidays for that.

- Great.

We're joined now by Dr. Brian Arne, our OSU extension, precision nutrient management specialist.

Brian, lots of smiles on lots of faces because we've had some crop saving rains.

- It's, it's been phenomenal.

We we're setting, just wondering what would happen.

The rains came nice and slow, so I've really seen a lot of wheat that's been sitting and waiting for 30 or 40 days really starting to pop up and, and run.

Had a nice window to get a little bit of work done after the rain.

And, and of course you see behind us we're wet again, which is not a problem.

We're gonna let this dry out and we're gonna have a good, one more good open window.

And I know my crew's gonna be really busy trying to get the rest of our wheat in.

- Yeah.

Speaking of that, you have plots around the state that you're trying to get planted and, and like, like a lot of people just waiting for this, right?

- Yeah.

And so when it comes to plot work, one of the challenges we have is our equipment's quite small.

So our, my drills are five foot or 10 foot.

And so when we were dry about a month ago, my drills could not get in the ground 'cause I'm a hundred percent no-till.

And so I had to wait for some kind of moisture so that my lighter equipment could get in the ground.

So you know, we're, we're delayed.

I usually like to plant middle of October, but Dr. Silva's done a lot of really good work that shows that, you know, we don't have to be that early.

And so I'm not as much in a hurry now as I would've been 10, 15 years ago.

- And in terms of fertilizer, are you getting some questions about, I know people weighing their options, a lot of people probably holding off because it was so dry.

Is it too late now for fall and winter?

Or what kind of advice are you giving?

- So, so a couple things I've noticed.

One, we've gotta remember how dry we were going into the season and when we're that dry coming out.

Our soils were dry to depth.

That means our microbes are not actively breaking down the straw in the organic matter.

And so since they aren't actively working, they're not breaking down the carbon and tying up the residual nitrogen.

So we had a lot of residual nitrogen in the soil at planting.

Anybody that had soil tests probably saw higher than normal numbers.

Now that it's rained and we've had warm soils, those microbes are actively working on that carbon.

Again, it's called immobilization.

So they're tying up that nitrate.

So even if you had high residual nitrogen going into planting this year, there's a good chance you've seen those values would be going down because of tie up.

It's not gone, it's just tied up in organic matter.

And so with that as what you're saying, let's pay attention to our wheat.

We've done a ton of work.

If you're grain only, we don't need nitrogen until the spring, but get an N rich strip out sometime now between being between January, keep an eye on it.

If you're grazing wheat and your purpose is to, for forage production, really keep an eye on those fields.

Look for signs of yellow or put an N rich strip out there because we probably had tie up and you have less than you expected - For some of our newer viewers or those just getting into agriculture.

Explain to us the value of an N rich strip and how they work.

- So an N rich strip is just a, an area in the field that has more nitrogen than the rest.

You could say that it's like when a fertilizer applicator overlaps or even the cowpox, so the urine patches of the cattle or, or I've seen it in dog dog parks, dog patches where that crop or that plant is responding to added nitrogen.

We can go out with a, a hand spinner spreader, an A TV, just anything and put out about 30 or 40 pounds of nitrogen in a strip or in a patch in any field.

It could be pasture or or grain.

And when that gets green, that means the rest of the field is deficient and it's time to fertilize.

We've got a lot of work at OSU that also shows there's a benefit of a wheat crop being slightly deficient in the fall and early spring.

It makes that plant chase nitrogen.

So it makes that plant actively root deeper.

We're thinking there may be some symbiotic relationships that is triggering with AM fungi and so there's a lot of benefit for our crop to be a little stressed in the fall for grain for, for forage.

We want all the forage we can get.

And so we're wanting a second.

We see that that difference we're wanting to fertilize to make sure we can grow that biomass.

- And I'm sure you'll be talking about some of this at the upcoming winter crop school.

You and the team getting organized.

- Absolutely.

Absolutely.

We're excited to host this.

This is a special winter crop school for us because it will be in new ag hall.

So we get a showcase agriculture hall, we get a showcase, the classrooms and the environment there.

It's gonna be December 17th and 18th.

We got a lot of great speakers from from Oklahoma and around the US we're talking all kinds of topics from from how do we deal with bad irrigation water to to fescue moving west.

So we have the forages, we have the, the, the grains.

We're gonna have cotton, soy, corn.

So we've got a great aspect.

We're going to have my Dr. May DU and the entire IPM team come talking about corn stunt a deep, deep dive into what's going on with that new disease and that new pressure we have coming into state.

- Lots of great topics then.

Lots on the agenda.

Agenda.

I'm - Really excited about our topics.

- Okay, great.

Brian, good to see you.

Thank you very much.

And for more information on the winter crop school as well as N rich strips, just go to sunup.OKstate.edu.

- Good morning everyone.

This is state climatologist Gary McManus with your Mesonet weather report.

While I've been promising you even more improvements on the US drought monitor map and boy, did we get 'em.

Let's go take a look at that newest map and see where we are.

So we have just a few areas of drought left in the state of Oklahoma.

Moderate drought is that light tan color.

We see that up in north central, Northeast Oklahoma and also down along the Red River, south central and southeast Oklahoma.

We also have just a smidge of that severe drought.

That's the darker color and that's also up in far northeastern Oklahoma or north central Oklahoma rather.

And also southeastern Oklahoma.

Now we do have a lot of that abnormally dry conditions.

The yellow, that's the D zero, that's not specifically a drought designation that signifies areas that are coming into or going out of drought.

And for Oklahoma obviously these indicate areas going outta drought.

Hopefully if we can get some more rainfall in here, we can get rid of those colors as well.

I'd like to show that again on the US drought monitor change map.

This is for the last week.

Again you can see a large area of Oklahoma showing that one category improvement out across northwest Oklahoma and then really much of the main body of the state.

We just have those few areas remaining.

Just need a little bit more rainfall.

Did November rainfall ever deliver?

Take a look at this rainfall map from the Oklahoma Mesonet.

This is for November 1st through the 20th and we can see a large area of 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 inches of rainfall around even a little bit more in some cases.

Now we do have those lesser amounts down in southeast Oklahoma and also up in north central and northeast Oklahoma where that drought still remains.

But this is easily the wettest November on record in the state of Oklahoma with a statewide average now of about 7.85 inches and with any more rainfall that will continue to go up.

So that absolutely blows the previous record outta the water, which was 6.05 inches from November, 2015.

So a magnificent display of Mother Nature getting rid of drought again in the state of Oklahoma.

Another incredible stat for this November, not only is it the wettest November, it's the 17th wettest any month calendar month in the state of Oklahoma dating back to when records began in 1895.

That's over 1600 months possible.

This is the 17th wettest of those months, again based on the statewide average.

So like I said, an incredible display of moisture and that's really eradicated that drought.

Here you can see that November 1st through 20th departure from normal rainfall map again from the Oklahoma Mesonet.

Lots of seven to nine inches above normal across the main body of the state.

We have a little bit more than that, some less than that, but at least for the first time in, in many, many months everybody has a surplus, at least for the months so far for the percent of normal rainfall maps.

Some of these numbers are absolutely incredible out across parts of Western Oklahoma, we have stations that have over a thousand percent of their normal rainfall and some close to 1500% of the normal rainfall that is mother Nature working overtime to bring rainfall to Oklahoma.

So hopefully we can get some rain next week and get the rest of that drought outta here.

At least less than a little bit more.

That would certainly be welcome.

That's it for this time.

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

- It's that time in the show where we check in on the crop markets with our agriculture economist, Dr. John Michael Riley.

So John Michael, the WASDE report came out recently and there was a little bit of a rollercoaster it seems.

- Absolutely.

You know, we talked last time and and soybeans a little bit of a surprise in that WASDE report elevated that that market corn kind of rallied as a result.

Wheat picked up a little bit of that as well.

After that report we tended to fall back.

I, I don't know if it was just a bit of that proverbial dead cap bounce instead, instead of bouncing, it kind of fell.

Also, there was a little bit of pressure from from exports, but since then we've seen some, a little bit of improvement for corn, wheat and soybeans and some of that.

Coming back to exports, it's, it seems to be that there is a little bit of a concern with what's going on globally.

There's some, there's some also some improvements in in trade overall.

- You mentioned globally.

So what, what's affecting the global market at all?

- So right now, you know, there's a couple of things at play.

First is some tensions in the, in the Black Sea region that has really helped elevate wheat prices over the past day or two.

And also I think there's some, some apprehension about what's gonna happen with this next administration coming in.

And so some of it could very well be just some positioning prior to the, the, the new adminis administration taking over possibly some retaliatory type trade implications.

So some of that's at play, it may not come to fruition, but I think the market is maybe just trying to, trying to put, get in front of that.

- So shifting back to Oklahoma, we've had a lot of rain and last week you mentioned that soybean producers were, you know, getting stuck out there, not be able to get, getting any of the grain in the bin.

So is that still kind of happening right now?

- Not really.

It's amazing what, what our producers can do.

Obviously technology playing a huge role in that.

If we look at where we were at last week with, with soybean harvest here in the state, 59% of the, the crop harvest did this week we're up to 70%.

So a lot of ground being covered we're back on par where we, where we've been for the past five year average in Oklahoma, we looking at at wheat conditions.

I think that was another concern.

We've, we've really improved in terms of overall wheat condition, good to excellent in the state at 37%.

That's an improvement of 16 percentage points from last week.

Puts us a still behind from where we're at a year ago, but definite improvements from where we've been.

Very poor and very poor conditions dropping.

So wheat conditions looking really good.

We've, we've got 94% of the, the wheat crop is, is planted right now across the us 90% here in in and 84% emerged in the us 75% still behind schedule here in Oklahoma.

- Big change, yes.

Big change from last week.

Yeah, - Absolutely.

- So with, with all this in mind is, has your advice have changed to producers at all in regards to the economics of their productions?

As you know, even for the soybean producers who are, might a little bit tough getting on the field now they're able to, what, what's your advice going forward?

- Well I think something to to take into consideration is where basis is at.

Basis is a little bit weaker for beans, corn, and wheat relative to where we are normally at at this time of year.

So possibly either holding that grain and hoping for a little bit better improvement in basis down the road if they can given that we're moving into a new year soon.

You know, tax implications, what does that mean?

Yeah.

But basis is certainly weaker from where we've typically been.

- Alrighty, thanks John Michael, Dr. John Michael Riley, OSU Agricultural economist here at Oklahoma State University.

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

This week is our annual topic where we talk about Thanksgiving.

And Thanksgiving is a great holiday that is truly rooted in production agriculture in this country.

It's celebrated in various ways around the world, but in America it is the time when families come together.

Give thanks for our blessings through the course of the year and those of us fortunate enough to be in the cattle business.

Talk about the crops we've harvested the calves, we've raised maybe some Christmas plans and start talking about our plans for the upcoming year.

Truly a holiday rooted in production agriculture, as I always do, whenever we tape the Thanksgiving show, I encourage all of you to have beef for Thanksgiving.

And the title of my article in Cow Calf Corner Newsletter this week is Beef is What's for Thanksgiving.

Beef offers a lot of things that other protein sources don't.

If we want to compare it to turkey, A traditional holiday protein source at Thanksgiving, beef has got a lot of advantages.

Number one, it's interlaced with marbling creates a lot more flavor, sensation, and eating satisfaction.

Beef can be aged to intensify the beef flavor.

Beef can be served in a variety of degrees of doneness based on what cut we're actually cooking.

Medium rare, rare, all the way through.

Well done poultry, turkey, you basically got a choice after a long preparation time of white meat or dark meat.

Beef is also very digestible, highly nutritious, nutrient dense and a tremendous source of a lot of important nutrients in part of a healthy diet and lifestyle.

And finally, I wanna give thanks for the opportunity that we have to be in the beef cattle business at this time of year.

We have got a lot of things to be thankful for as beef producers recent rains in Oklahoma have relieved drought stress increased our prospects for some winter pasture grazing filled our ponds back up.

That is a good news story.

We've had two years of tremendous profit potential in the commercial cow calf sector and if we look at our current cow inventory, it looks like we can anticipate that continue for the next few years to come.

Truly a great deal to be thankful for.

For those of us in the cattle business, I thank all of you for watching reading the newsletter.

And remember, beef is what's for Thanksgiving.

Thanks for joining us on Cow-Calf Corner.

- Finally today in the height of Oklahoma's deer season, we're learning about new research that shows camouflage can be about more than the clothes you're wearing.

- It's a typical November morning for women across Oklahoma.

- I love hunting because it gives me time to spend with my family and friends doing something out in nature.

The goal stay hidden - And stay quiet.

But one organization is realizing these women aren't just being overlooked by the animals they hunt.

- So we, we offer programs specific to youth and then of course just general education events.

But we don't, we didn't offer anything specific for women.

And so I wondered are we missing out on an opportunity?

We want women to feel like we're talking to them whenever we send out communications.

- Working with OSU Assistant Professor Audrey King and graduate student Sarah Kane, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, dove right in to find some answers.

- This data really revealed a lot of interesting insights when it came to women's perceptions of hunting and how they kind of - Approached the idea of hunting.

So originally we were looking at motivators and barriers to female hunter participation here in Oklahoma.

So we got groups of hunters that were either laps license holders or current license holders.

Then Audrey conducted these lovely focus groups.

We got a lot of cool results and wrote 'em up.

So what exactly did these results show?

- It's a very relational process for women.

They loved the idea of like preparing to go hunt and having that skill and taking that time out in nature and just the using the meat in their, for feeding their families.

It didn't really matter to them if they had like a trophy to show at the end of the day or even if they were quote unquote successful.

They don't necessarily see it as a sport.

They see it as participating in this larger effort of conservation in an effort this large, - Oh, you - Got 'em.

Everyone is needed.

Wildlife conservation is funded through the sale of hunting and fishing licenses in Oklahoma.

Women make up about 12% of our, our hunting license holders and we're not very good at retaining them.

So whenever we do have a, a woman buy a hunting license, she's not coming back the next year.

- And we're starting to see some of the barriers keeping them out of the woods.

- There's less options for women clothing when it comes to hunting.

And why does it all have to be pink?

But then the prices are also higher than what they were charging then.

And then, yes, it's still all pink for some reason.

- The researchers can also relate.

- I have not been a hunter in the past, would love to become one in the future.

But a huge barrier that we found in our research is actually the biggest barrier for me to get into hunting.

And that's 'cause I've never had anybody in my life to be able to introduce me to the sport of hunting.

- I kind - Of have been around hunting - My whole life, but it was definitely a thing that like the boys did and that I, I didn't participate in.

- Yeah, my dad didn't consider inviting me hunting because he just didn't know that that's something I would be interested in.

But just like what we found out in these surveys, I just wanted to spend time with my dad, with my family.

- But the want - To - Spend time with family can also be a barrier for some, - It seems like my daughter always has dance or palm, which keeps me pretty busy.

Thankfully, - There's a way to get everyone more involved.

We're conducting special hunts where we invite women and their families out on special hunts, on on wildlife management areas where the, the entire family has an opportunity to harvest a deer together.

We had our first round of the special family hunts last year and people raved about it.

People loved it.

They felt really comfortable.

We had people asking, when can we sign up again?

So I'm just really hopeful that we can expand that program more.

- This program is just the first step in helping women feel seen in the world of hunting and leaving the camouflage where it should be in the woods for sign up at Oklahoma State University.

I'm Elizabeth Hokit.

- The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation is hosting some family hunts as part of its pilot program geared toward women.

And there is one more coming up in December to learn more, just go to the Sunup website and that'll do it for our show this week.

A reminder, you can see us anytime on our website and also stream us anytime at youtube.com/sunup tv.

And as we leave today, a few thoughts from the Sunup team and our colleagues about what we love and maybe don't love on the Thanksgiving table from all of us.

We wish you and yours a happy thanksgiving and safe travels.

- So I like Turkey and dressing.

That's, I mean, that's probably my, my favorite part.

I really like dressing.

Let's see, I would say sweet potatoes.

- I'm a protein beast.

I love that.

Turkey and ham, - Kind of like all of it I guess, but it's more of like the spuds and the turkey and the corn and the giblit gravy.

You mix it all together.

- I think I have to start with maybe what's my least favorite, which I do eat it and like it is the turkey, but I like all the sides.

- Mashed potatoes, green casserole.

I can't stand green bean casserole.

- One of my favorites, and I know this is a really controversial - Opinion, but green bean casserole.

I think you're just being rude to the green beans, right?

You're covering 'em on all this other stuff.

And while I don't have a problem with fried onions in general, the fried onions that kind of come out of a can just seemed a little bit wrong to fried onions everywhere.

My favorite - Thanksgiving food is pumpkin pie.

I think probably pecan pie with plenty of cool whip and it's gotta be covered in whipped cream.

- Pumpkin pie is probably not my favorite food.

I will eat it.

It's good.

But you know, all else being equal, I'd rather have pecan pie or something like that.

- I love pie.

I never met a pie I didn't like.

I love all kinds of pie, but I especially love apple pie and pumpkin pie.

- I'm kind of marginal on cranberries.

I will.

I eat them a little bit 'cause it's part of the traditional thing, but I don't really go after them in a big way.

- Probably cranberries, my least favorite is cranberry or whatever those things are.

The jelly grossness?

No, not my thing.

- Another controversial opinion.

I do really like cranberry sauce, cranberry salad, you name it.

- There's not a thing on the table that I won't consume.

- I don't know if I have a least favorite food, - Like normal cranberry sauce.

Like especially the canned stuff.

Like, no thank you.

No thank you.

- Or that pink stuff with like the pink marshmallows.

Nah, that's just, we gotta do something about that.