- Good morning everyone.

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

The Annual Rural Economic Outlook Conference, providing lots of insights this week for people from around the state, including crop and livestock producers, lenders, and those in the banking industry.

We'll talk about some of the challenges they face and some opportunities with technology and AI with the events keynote speaker.

Then all the details about OSU extensions, beginning farmer and rancher apprenticeship program.

And we're talking bears in Oklahoma and what researchers have been finding, grab that cup of coffee or a cup of tea if you prefer, because an all new Sunup starts right now.

We begin this morning with our keynote speaker from the Rural Economic Outlook Conference at OSU this week, Heather Hampton Nodle.

And you are a farmer with your family in South Central Illinois and you also do some work with the FCC on precision ag and technology.

Did I get that - Right?

You did.

I was an appointee by the FCC and I helped lead the accelerating broadband deployment to Rural America Working group as well as a working group for another two years.

I led a working group on connectivity needs.

So what do we anticipate for future demand and what is current demand in terms of connectivity for rural America?

- Well, lots of important topics for our viewers of Sunup who are farmers and ranchers around the state of Oklahoma.

So even though you're in Illinois, you're talking about some, some topics that really apply to everyone around the country.

- Absolutely.

This is, it's universal and whether you are served or unserved or you actually are one of the few that have really good internet, this is something that will help keep rural communities and consequently agriculture on the map.

- You talked a lot in your presentation today about precision ag and artificial intelligence.

AI means a lot to maybe leads us something a little different to folks who've been in in production ag or or livestock for a lot of years.

But that's a really broad topic.

How do you, how do you boil it down for folks who, who may kind of get overwhelmed when we see what's already going on with ai?

- Well, to learn about AI generally, I actually tapped into our local community college 'cause they had an AI in the workplace piece and even though I'm a farmer, I thought, well maybe I can use this beyond just the technologies that companies want to roll out to me.

I can get a kind of a short course and it was literally just a few hours of my time to learn about a variety of different apps and tools that are already in the marketplace and the ways they could help me analyze data.

Whether it's taking Excel spreadsheets and pushing it through to get some numbers back at me or summarizing notes from articles that I know I have this stack of farm magazines that I want to get through and I've folded back the articles, but it can help me just sort through information really quickly.

So even just the, that basic internet search, talking to some friends, it's amazing what people are already tapping into and it just may not come up in regular conversation.

You know, going, going beyond the Alexa and Siri type natural language processing AI models into additional tools that can actually help us work better and truly be smarter.

- And it, you mentioned in your talk it's important though to scrutinize the information that you're getting back.

Explain to me how I, as the user or the consumer of this information that is coming back can make sure that what I'm getting is the, the truth, the facts, credible information before I start applying it to some other aspect of my life or my operation.

- Well I would, it's always that trust but verify approach, right?

So knowing what kind of information went in to the models, for example, my second son would want to use something like chat GPT to create a prescription for fertilizer for our field.

No, that model is not trained in agriculture.

It does not understand that.

Now if he wanted to look at the crop wizard developed by University of Illinois or even search using the bot that OSU has on their website with peer reviewed literature specific to the industry or the region that we're in, then I'd at least take a look at that data but always be asking questions and using these critical thinking skills which truly set us apart as a species kind of ground truth it and say, does this make sense?

At the end of the day, - You and your family are in harvest for what?

Corn and soybeans as we speak?

- Yes.

- You use ai, you're here in Oklahoma with us.

Yes, for a few days, but you're keeping real time track of harvest.

Give us a report.

- Well I can show you right here on, I don't know if there's a lot of glare with the sun this morning, but right now we have a combine and grain cart running in a corn field and I can tell you that that corn was averaging we've, we've processed 30 acres so far and it's averaging about 225 bushels to the acre - Since the machine went in the field today - In this field.

- Oh, in this field.

Today's run, today's - In today's run.

Okay.

And I could tell you how long, you know that combine's used so much fuel, I can keep going deeper into those metrics.

So a lot of this is, is data that's being gathered in real time that is made available to me because of our satellite and cellular, but then I can make decisions in the palm of my hand.

- Alright, Heather, great conversation.

Thank you.

Just to, just barely scratching the surface here, but we wish you and your family the best with, with harvest and farming throughout the year and safe travels back home later in the week.

Thank you.

Thanks a lot.

Are you interested in growing and selling produce to local markets but not quite sure how to get started?

Well, OSU extension beginning farming and ranching specialist Dr.

Josh Campbell has a new program that you might wanna check out.

- Hi, I am Josh Campbell, beginning farmer and rancher assistant program specialist here at OSU Extension.

We have an ongoing project that is supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture USDA NIFA through their beginning farmer rancher development program.

And that project has a lot of different elements.

One of those is our apprenticeship program that we'll be launching in the spring of 2026.

This pilot program is going to be an eight month program with the intent of participants working 500 hours on site with the farms that they're placed at that that 500 hours of working will give them direct hands-on experience engaging in different activities on the farm.

It will also allow them to develop some relationship and, and, and receive some mentorship and some guidance and advice from the farmers that they're working alongside.

And then there's a kind of the peer network, the, the relationships that they'll build with other participants in the program.

If you're contemplating the idea of starting your own small farm and specifically wanting to get into specialty crop kind of market, gardening, growing vegetables, flowers, things like that for sale at farmer's market, this would be a great opportunity for you.

Application is not a guarantee of of engagement with the program, but if you are interested in getting more experience or getting experience for the very first time in specialty crop production, you you have aspirations of becoming a farmer, this would be a great opportunity for you to get some learning experience with without some of the risk that's associated with establishing a new farm.

Like I said, we, we won't be able to match everybody that applies.

We're hoping for about 15 participants this first year in our pilot program.

For more information about this program and and to access the registration link, if you want to apply, go to the sunup website and you'll find the, the registration details there.

- Hello, Oklahoma Emma White here with your weekly Mesonet weather report.

Winter wheat planting is in full swing across the state.

The corn and sorghum are in the midst of their harvesting seasons.

I noticed lots of harvesters out in the corn in the northern counties this past weekend.

Peanuts have just started being harvested.

Soybean is a little bit behind but should be heading into its harvest season soon.

Cotton is the last of the crops to start being harvested, but that will also be upon the state very soon.

The soil moisture conditions have been dry across the state with little to no precipitation in many parts of the state the last few weeks.

This map shows the available soil moisture percent in the top four inches of the soil.

Both the panhandle and the central part of the state are suffering.

The most much of the wheat is planted in the north, central and western parts.

So the lack of soil moisture, there could be an issue when the soil gets dry.

Producers may decide to dust in the seed and hope for precipitation later.

Speaking of precipitation, here is a map of precipitation data in the two weeks from September 24th through October 7th.

In most counties, besides the southeast little precipitation has occurred in the last few weeks.

This lack of precipitation also applies to gardeners who have probably been watering their fall garden more than expected.

Looking even more into the future of next week through October 17th, the precipitation outlook is predicting just slightly above average precipitation in the northwest part of the state, but near normal or even below normal elsewhere.

It could be a little while before ample precipitation occurs for that newly planted winter wheat to have successful germination and emergence.

Gary McManus is up next with your state climatology report.

- Thanks Emma and good morning everyone.

Well we've continuing that low summer mode.

We did get a little bit of relief this week, but it's just been hot and it's also been dry and you know what that means.

Of course, changes on the drought monitor.

Let's take a look at the newest map.

Well, it's not looking pretty.

We have a lot more color on the map compared to last week and compared to the last couple of months even.

So a drought is increasing across the state of Oklahoma, especially in these localized areas where they've missed out on rainfall.

We are very dangerously close to getting more and more severe drought instead of just that lowest level of moderate drought.

And of course that yellow area, the abnormally dry conditions signify not drought, but areas in danger of going into drought if we're not careful.

And the careful part is we need rainfall.

This map is also looking worse and worse each week, the consecutive days with less than a quarter inch rainfall map from the Oklahoma mesonet.

And now even at this point in the week, we're up to close to 40 days and this will probably continue to grow as we go through at least the next week or so, maybe some rainfall in the parts of the state, but nothing significant enough to stop the spread of drought, at least not showing up right yet.

So we definitely need the rainfall to get this, this map reset.

Now we're up to, well over two weeks over we're much of the state and of course up to 40 days in other areas.

The dryness is starting to show up on the 60 day rainfall map from the mezzat.

If you're in the reds or the oranges, you're in a decent shape at least over the last 60 days.

If, if you look at the, the areas where we're in the, the light yellows and especially the greens, those are the areas where we are in danger going into more intense drought and we have seen them go into more intense drought.

So again, this is over the 60 day period, not looking good for the state of Oklahoma over that timeframe.

Unfortunately, we're going to need a lot more help with rainfall over the next couple of weeks.

It doesn't look great right now, but that can certainly turn around in a hurry and that's what we're hoping for.

That's it for this time.

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

- We're back here at the Rural Economic Outlook Conference with our livestock marketing specialist, Dr.

Darryl Peel and Darrell.

So what have you been talking and hearing about here at the Rural Economic Outlook Conference?

- You know, we plan this conference every year with kind of a theme in mind and so on in terms of our keynote speakers that we bring in.

And so this year, you know, the first half of the day we're spending a lot of time on questions about AI, use of AI applications to agriculture and so on.

So, you know, that's something that's not really my area, but it, but it's something that is interesting and is certainly gonna have some impacts I think on all of us.

So - Are you hearing about any impacts in regards to like the cattle industry at all with ai?

- Oh yeah.

There's a fair amount of technology that's, that's being utilized or adapted or developed for use in the cattle industry.

So, you know, all kinds of things that may affect production systems and management systems and so on.

That I think will be, again, we're gonna hear a lot more about it in the future.

- And you're also gonna be sitting on a panel as well talking about outlooks for the rest of the year.

- Yeah, you know, we're gonna talk about livestock outlook.

Obviously these cattle markets right now have got everybody's attention.

So I, I'm gonna present just a, you know, a quick look at where cattle markets are, what we're looking at going forward and so on.

We also have Dr.

James Mitchell from University of Arkansas who will compliment that with some discussion about risk management and marketing considerations for producers.

And then we'll have a little mini panel answering questions about that.

- So speaking of cattle markets, let's dive right in.

So what are some news that you're hearing right now?

- Well, you know, fall of the year, we're always looking at calf marketing.

So the runs, it's fall in Oklahoma, so we're thinking about wheat pasture potential and you know, what that might be doing.

There's all kinds of things going on right now and then markets have been just awfully volatile here lately.

You - Mentioned fall.

Sure hasn't really felt like fall maybe one day here or there.

Just one day last week it got pretty nice, but the wheat pasture, it's dry.

Is that impacting cattle markets at all?

- You know, we started with such potential in August or early September with the wheat pasture.

Now it's turned off very hot and dry.

So it's kind of pulling back some of that potential producers that either got weed in or having to really watch it and take care of it.

Yeah, or they haven't planted yet and probably won't until we get some moisture.

So it's changing that potential a little bit for those guys.

- But there's also been some armyworm damage too in the wheat pasture that was able to get to establish.

So it's been kind of like a perfect storm I guess.

- Yeah, lots of challenges there always, you know, typically are with early planted wheat, you're trying to get that forage potential, so planning early, but there's a trade off against those kind of pest issues that are usually more of a challenge.

- And this time of year in the fall, you're always still looking ahead to the next year.

And we've been talking on Sunup, you know, over the past couple of months, even longer than that, that there hasn't really been any signs of herd rebuilding.

So for the new year, are you sensing any of that at all?

- You know, we're into the fourth quarter now and, and you know, the clock's ticking on on any potential heifer retention that we would see in 2025.

Doesn't look like it at at this point that it's happening.

So you know, pretty soon if we're not careful here, we're gonna push the clock ahead by till till next year and and really delay the things that we've been talking about.

That will happen eventually there will be some herd rebuilding, but we may, we may push it off another year.

We've already extended it by at least a year compared to what I would've thought a couple of years ago.

- And before we let you go, we have to ask about new world screwworm.

- Yeah, we've had a couple of more detections in Mexico.

You know, markets is kind of not reacting to every one of those individually.

The latest one was actually farther south than the one in September that was just an hour's drive from the US border.

So it's still there, it's still a threat.

We're still preparing for the potential that it might happen.

Obviously the border's closed and it's gonna stay closed, so we're continuing to deal with all of those issues.

I don't think it's really changed a whole lot.

We're just kind of waiting and watching to see what we're gonna have to deal with.

- All righty.

Thanks Daryl.

Dr.

Daryl Peele, livestock marketing specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

- We hope you'll consider joining us on our next rancher Thursday lunchtime series.

That series is gonna start on October 23rd, and of course those are every Thursday at noon.

We're gonna have guests that are featured in our cow Calf corner newsletter, such as Dr.

Paul Beck, Dr.

Mark Johnson, and Dr.

Darryl Peele.

Our first session will be developing and selecting replacement heifers for long-term success by Dr.

Mark Johnson.

A topic I know a lot of people the beef cattle industry are interested in at this point in our production cycle.

If you'd like more information, just go to the sunup.OK state.edu website.

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

Our topic this week is increased carcass weights, increase quality grades and increase consumer demand.

I read this week that we expect the average steer carcass weight to go up about 20 pounds from where it is right now by the end of the year, so that in December we're probably looking at steer carcass weights of around 980 pounds.

If we look at heifers, they're probably gonna be close to 900.

Now these are record high and you ask yourself, how did we get here?

And how did this happen?

Well, in short, kind of a blip on the screen, going back to COVID, when we had some interruption in the supply, we ended up feeding some cattle longer than what we normally would, taking 'em to a lot heavier weights than what we normally would.

And interestingly enough, over the last four to five years, this has kind of became the new normal.

Now there's a lot of market signals that indicate this is gonna be the new normal.

And one of the more interesting ones is as we look at the consequence of increased carcass weight days on feed and what it does to our weekly harvest mix as far as a percentage of cattle that have quality grade select or those higher, more premium quality grades of choice and prime.

And we go back in time a little bit and think about 2005 when we only saw about one to 2% of the weekly harvest mix actually reached a quality grade of prime.

There was a dramatically lower percentage of cattle that were grading choice and a much higher percentage of cattle actually grading select.

If we go back 20 years ago, where does that stack up currently?

Well, we currently only see about 13% of the weekly harvest mix grading.

Select over 80% are grading choice in prime of that.

A big chunk of them, over 36% are reaching the upper two thirds of choice and 10 to 12% of our harvest mix is actually grading prime previously thought to be virtually impossible.

Why are we doing this?

Well, consumer demand is robust in this country.

We are seeing a willingness and a demand among consumers for a consistently great tasting high quality beef product.

In fact, 20 years ago we would've talked about the choice select spread being the primary determinant of the value of a beef carcass.

Today that is the prime choice spread actually being the primary determinant of the value of a beef carcass.

And so what we're doing and why we're doing it from a positive note to our industry is largely influenced by trying to meet the demand of consumers for our product.

Is interesting when we think about beef quality grades, the variation in it we see is a result of cattle's genetic potential to marble and the environment that they're raised in and actually fed to finish in part of this equation is a huge success story.

And it indicates that cattle breeders over the last 20 or 30 years have dramatically increased the additive genetic potential of cattle to grow marbling the primary determinant of quality grade.

But that environmental that comes into play is the increased days on feed, resulting in heavier carcass weights and resulting in a much higher percentage of our weekly harvest mix in those premium quality grades, the upper two thirds of choice in prime.

I hope you find this interesting and I hope it helps.

As always, thanks for joining us on Cow Calf Corner.

- Finally, today, OSU and Department of Wildlife Researchers tell us about a species in our state that many people may be unaware of as well as the impact that it has on our ecosystem.

Here's sunup Elizabeth Hokit.

Deer, turkeys, coyotes, bobcats, these are all species known to be living around us, but there's one lesser known animal hiding in the shadows of Oklahoma's trees, black bears.

In 2017, a research project was conducted studying the population of black bears in Oklahoma.

But have they always been here?

- There were originally black bears in Oklahoma.

The black bear population in Oklahoma became extinct in the early 1900's.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Arkansas fish and game reintroduced black bears.

They brought black bears into Arkansas from Minnesota and from Canada, and eventually by the late nineties they started to move into Oklahoma.

- Today we have three recognized populations of bears In Oklahoma, we have a handful of bears utilizing the Black Mesa region of Cimarron County in the panhandle.

Then we have two different populations in Eastern Oklahoma.

Those two eastern populations are referred to as the Ozarks and the Wasaw bears.

- Oklahoma's bear population has been studied for more than two decades.

And researchers, Oklahoma State University Assistant Professor Sue Fairbanks and Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, senior biologist Matt Hensley, say they're seeing some interesting changes.

- When we first started working with the, with the research on the black bears, a lot of people we talked to had no idea that there were black bears in Oklahoma, - But that's not necessarily the case anymore.

- So I think there's a lot more awareness of of black bears and largely that comes from the the movements of the males because they are seen in places that they've never been seen before.

- Another factor that contributes to an increase in inciting reports is an increase of human traffic into areas where bears are, especially down in the southeastern part of the state.

In the Washita forest we've seen over the past few years, a, an increase in tourism in that part of the world with more people comes more trash and food and attractants of of that nature that also generate more sightings.

- So if we're seeing more bears, should we be concerned?

- Two things to keep in mind when managing bear populations are the ecological carrying capacity, which is, you know, basically how many bears the landscape can support, and also the social caring capacity, which is how many bears people are comfortable with living on the landscape.

- It looks like there is, at least from our human dimension, study interest in the public for having black bear populations and having more black bears than what they perceived were on the landscape.

- Bears are really great for ecosystems and they're often referred to as indicators of good habitat.

They also scavenge carcasses on the landscape and bust up old fallen trees and logs on the forest floor, which those things help to clean up the landscape and return nutrients to the soil.

- So far, our black bears are pretty fearful of humans.

That being said, again, you do not want to approach them and especially dangerous would be a female that has cubs.

If you have a bear that's not going away, you wanna be as big as possible.

You are gonna make lots and lots of noise.

You wanna let that bear know that you are a human.

- You can go to our Oklahoma Department of Wildlife website and check out our Bear Basics page there.

- There's also a really good program called Bear Wise, and they give a lot of tips on living with bears, hiking with bears, all that kind of thing.

So it's a very, very good reference.

- You may not see a bear every day, but the Department of Wildlife still recommends you.

Stay aware and keep your distance so you can enjoy them for years to come.

Again from a safe distance for sunup, I'm Elizabeth Hokit.

What's the - Importance?

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.

From the historic old central on the campus of Oklahoma State University, I'm Lyndall Stout and we leave you this week with some great pictures from the recent Cowboy Stampede presented by the Ferguson College of Agriculture.

The annual rodeo always draws a great crowd.

Enjoy and we'll see you next time at Sunup.