- Good morning everyone.

We hope October is starting off to be a great month for you, and we have a great show for you today on Sunup, we're talking fertilizer application for wheat production in both pasture and grain only fields.

Plus, Dave Lalman continues his discussion on changes in the cattle industry at the ranch level.

If that cup of coffee is ready because an all new Sunup starts right now.

Hello again everyone.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

September with certainly a busy month and October will mean even more.

Producers are sowing wheat.

So kicking things off today is Dr.

Brian Arnall, our OSU extension Soil Nutrient Management specialist.

- Grain drills are running across the state of Oklahoma, putting winter wheat in the ground, whether it's for graze out or dual purpose.

We're not quite ready for grain only planting yet, but we're getting awfully close to that time as we're, we're edging up into October.

As we're going through the fields right now, my advice for for farmers is one, if you're growing for grazing or GR dual purpose, which a lot of folks are with cattle prices, make sure that we have some fertility down.

So I want to see 50, 40 to 50 pounds of, of nitrogen down pre-plant or even after you've sown, which is perfectly fine.

I'd also say make sure you know your pH, because that pH is really going to impact your total forage production in in a forage system.

If your pH is low, you need to make sure that it's too late to lime.

So we need to make sure that we're getting some phosphorus in furrow to combat that aluminum toxicity we get with low pH.

Now, phosphorus source does matter when it comes to battling pH or alleviating that aluminum toxicity.

We find that 1846 oh or DAP diammonium phosphate performs better than 1150 2.0 in acid soils.

That's because 1840 6.0 dissolves at a higher pH, and so it's able to compensate for the little bit, a little bit of acidity while 11520 map is going to dissolve an acidic soil.

So it tends to bind up a little bit quicker than dap.

So if you get the option for source, go for that, that DAP over map.

If you're combating acidity right now, if you're just looking for phosphorus, then get that source that works best for you.

Typically, for our grain only producers, we find very little value of in furrow nitrogen, and also even for those that are doing forage.

Adding urea in furrow tends to be a risky venture as we've seen a lot of research so that as I add urea, we lose stand.

That's because urea first is a salt, and so salt next to the seed isn't a good thing.

And then urea converts from urea to ammonia.

So the first conversion that that perle has is ammonia gas.

And so if there's a seedling emerging near that urea peel, it will damage it.

So we do see stand loss, so I know it takes an extra pass, but I much prefer producers put out urea as a broadcast either pre or post, instead of blending it in with the seed.

We just don't see any return on investment for having urea in furrow.

Make sure that that you're covering your ground.

If your pH and phosphorus is low, make sure you account for both low pH.

I want 30 or 40 pounds of phosphorus in furrow just for the pH.

So if your soil test recommends that you need 30 pounds P 2 0 5 for your low soil test phosphorus, that means you need to be looking at 60 pounds of phosphorus in furrow.

So make sure you add 'em both up.

It's not one or the other.

It is an additive solution, and as we move into October and our grain only producers are starting to think about sowing in that mid to late October of timeframe.

Remember what I always say, don't worry about nitrogen for our grain only wheat.

We don't need that forage production.

And across the board, whether you're graze out, dual purpose or grain only, remember our in enrich strip approach where you could put out an nitrogen rich strip now regardless of what you're working in, and it can tell you in the future whether you're going to benefit from added nitrogen in season.

For more information, check out sunup.OKstate.edu - Now to Dr.

Rodney Jones with an invitation for you to the upcoming Rural Economic Outlook Conference - To give everyone a heads up on our annual Rural Economic Outlook conference this year.

The conference is going to be on October 8th.

That's a Wednesday.

We'll start at eight o'clock in the morning.

The, we always have a theme every year.

This year's theme is, is kind of AI in agriculture.

First, we're going to bring in Heather Hampton Nole, and she is from Illinois.

She's a farmer, but she's also been very active in AI in agriculture, especially as it pertain pertains to precision agriculture applications.

Dr.

Ryan Rooter from our animal science department is gonna talk about some applications in animal agriculture.

We also are gonna highlight our brand new grain marketing specialist, Dr.

Todd Hubs.

So we're looking forward to seeing everybody on October 8th for a link.

To find out even more information about the conference, just go to the sunup website.

They're gonna have information about the conference and how to get registered as well.

- Hello, Oklahoma.

Emma White here with your weekly Mesonet weather report.

The last several weeks, we have talked about winter wheat.

So I thought this week I would spend instead talking about temperature.

The last several days have been hitting above average high temperatures across the state.

As a result, we're a little warm for this time of year.

This graph from the Norman Mesonet station shows the departure from average of temperature the last few months.

The black indicates average, so the red line when it's above the black line indicates above average.

And when the red line is below the black line, the temperature is below average.

As you may remember, that dip in temperature at the beginning of September has now been followed by temperatures generally above average the last few weeks.

The warm temperatures are expected to hang around a bit.

This map shows the forecasted highs for Saturday October 4th.

These temperatures are representative of the next several days to come.

Thus, you can expect above average temperatures for a little while longer.

Don't you worry though, a few months from now you'll be reminiscing about these warmer days.

With the above average temperatures, the cattle are still uncomfortable heading into October.

This cattle comfort index map is for Tuesday, September 30th, and these maps have been similar to this one all week.

The cattle comfort index is expected to remain looking like this for a little while longer.

Thus, the cattle will require an above average water supply during this time at this time of year, even though air temperatures are above average, the soil has actually cooled quite a bit at two inches deep.

The temperatures are now in the sixties and low seventies at two inches in the soil.

These are ideal temperatures for planting winter wheat.

Gary McManus is up next with your state climatology report.

- Thanks, Emma, and good morning everyone.

Well September's in the record books and it wasn't as great as we were hoping.

As always, however, we will start with the newest drought monitor map.

Now, what you're gonna notice about this map is there's lots more of those yellow colors that signifies abnormally dry conditions and for the drought monitor, it's not in drought, but it does show areas that are in danger of going into drought in this case.

So if you see some more yellow colors than what you were expecting, those areas need rain, and we do have a bit more moderate drought.

Those areas where the moderate drought already existed expanded a bit.

So we do have drought on the move in Oklahoma.

We definitely need some rainfall.

Our September rainfall will show us why this September rainfall map from the Oklahoma Mesonet, way too many of those blue colors on the map, which signified less than an inch of rainfall.

For the statewide, it was the 27th dry September on record dating back to 1895 at about an inch and a half below normal.

Now you can see there in central Oklahoma lots more of those blue colors for central Oklahoma, it was the eighth driest on record at nearly three inches below normal on average.

So some places got some good rains, but those are few and far between, unfortunately.

How about for October?

What are we seeing from the climate prediction center?

Well, the temperature outlook shows increased odds of above normal temperatures across the entire state, and also increased odds of below normal precipitation across the entire state, but especially once again across that southeastern two thirds to three quarters of the state.

So definitely not good news in these outlooks for October if they come true.

So it wasn't good news that we went largely without during September, but certainly we can get some big time rains in October.

It's not showing up anytime soon, but hopefully as we get into the second and third week, we can get some rainfall in here.

That's it for this time.

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

- We are talking about the crop markets now with Dr.

John Michael Riley, our OSU Agricultural economist, and John Michael.

Let's start things off with corn today and kind of what's been going on the last few months, kind of some, some context for producers.

- Absolutely continuing to be some seldom invite come in with, with great news on these reports and I, I wish I, I wish I that wasn't the case.

I will say with regard to corn, it, it is one of the rosier crops that we are gonna discuss today and a lot of since that August report where a lot of just unfortunate news came out with many more acres than was expected, a higher yield than expected.

Since then, the market has rebounded quite a bit.

A lot of that has to do with, we still, the acres are still there, we think, but a lot of that has to do with dryness that's kind of just starting to, to take over throughout most of the corn belt.

That's typical this time of year, but it is one, it is becoming more dry and we're, we're starting to recognize that maybe the yield is not what it was back in July when we were making those, those early projections.

So that has really helped rebound the market.

Some, we are getting some positive news on the trade front with regard to corn, and that has helped lift prices.

But unfortunately we're still on the futures market in a, in a low fours here in Oklahoma, you know, start that, that number's still starting with a three.

So whether you're three 50, maybe up to, to 3 75, 3 80, not not prices that, that our producers wanna be harvesting in right now, as of the most recent report, Oklahoma's at 60% harvested and, and just not a market you really want to be harvesting into.

If you think back to planting when prices were stronger, maybe you had some producers that were able to price some of their crop at that time.

Even then it was razor thin margins and it's only eroded since.

So certainly while a rosier of, of some of our other summer crops, not, not the picture that we really want.

With regard to corn here in Oklahoma, - Let's talk about soybeans now too and, and the market.

They're really facing some troubles and, and some true challenges.

- It is, and one of the biggest challenges right now is on the trade front.

And so I'll use a a a bit of a a a terrible analogy, but as we're approaching Thanksgiving and we can think about it's time to start, start thinking about pies.

So maybe we've got that the Aunt Betty and, and Uncle Sam that bring pies to the Thanksgiving dinner each year and you know, they like to have, so there's some friendly, friendly competition.

Certainly we're still got those pies.

We're still there and cousin Charlie really loves pies right now going after Aunt Betty's pretty heavily, but still, uncle Sam has the pie and there are plenty of people at the Thanksgiving dinner that want to eat pie.

So we're still seeing some positive trade news with regard to soybeans.

We're just missing out on cousin Charlie and, and and them coming in and, and eating uncle Sam's pies.

The other caveat to think about here is the fact that Aunt Betty is still, is not just bringing one pie.

She's starting to bring more pies to the Thanksgiving dinner.

So that is something that maybe is more futuristic in terms of, of how that's gonna impact things, but certainly some, some, some challenges are gonna be there.

Soybean trade right now is, is missing out on China.

We, we still have no, no trade that's been developed for current crop or the, the new crop soybeans, no trade there with regard to China, we're still seeing other trade partners come in and, and pick up some of our beans, but, but Brazil is, is really kind of eaten into some of that, that China trade.

- Do we think some of these markets are gonna open up or we just don't, we don't know yet.

- We still don't know.

And I mean we're, I, I would argue we're not giving up on, on, you know, development of the, of some of those markets or not necessarily development, but, you know, Reis, reinitiating, some of that, that trade.

But again, the, the good news is we're still finding places for our beans to go.

It's just not as, as strong of a, of a trade market as what we typically experience with harvest.

Starting - Before we wind down, we of course wanna cover wheat and cotton.

What's the scenario there?

- Well, in Oklahoma we're 33% planted right now, and markets aren't that great for, for wheat.

And so we're planting into, into a market that that really has some, some challenges in front of, in front of our wheat producers.

So right now, I think the, the question for many of our wheat producers is are we planting this for grain?

Are we planting this for grazing.

Most Oklahoma producers plant for grazing.

The positive side of that is the cattle market still look very strong.

So that's, that is a little bit of, of a what, what what we're facing as we are in the midst of planting.

We've gotten some rains here recently across portions of Oklahoma, and so maybe that is gonna help the crop overall, but still a long way to go for that one.

But the market still continue to be a bit of a headwind - As we wind down.

We wanna also cover cotton, - So cotton product cotton producers still at, at no harvest as of right now, so that'll be starting here in in the next week or three.

And, but markets really tanked early in the week, really hard to find a reason there.

I guess my overall take at this point is probably points to broader economic news that's coming in, certainly, you know, with regard to always tied to, to oil prices into the dollar.

And both of those did struggle a little bit as that market started to dip and most likely the, the, the reasoning behind that, that big dip.

So cotton producers, much like everyone else is just, you know, waiting, hoping for, for some higher prices.

- Alright, John Michael, thanks for all the analysis and we will see you again soon.

- Good morning, Oklahoma.

Welcome to Cow-Calf Corner.

Our topic this week is just addressing replacement heifers, or particularly the topic of culling replacement heifers.

It's the time of year, we're getting around to preg checking.

I know we are seeing subtle signs of some heifer retention.

Had a couple phone calls and visited with producers in the past week about being a little disappointed in having open replacement heifers and not as high a percentage of them bred up quickly as what they would've liked.

This is both good and bad in this market, obviously, if we kept a set of replacement heifers, we invested the time and money and management into developing those, we'd like to see a quick breed up on 'em, but at this point, the best thing we can do is preg check those heifers.

And in this market, the producer I talked to the other day that I talk about being disappointed that he had a few more or higher percent open than what he'd liked.

He took those open heifers to the sale barn and they netted back over $3,000 a head.

So a pretty robust market.

We're in the upside of early preg checks and eliminating those open heifers that we kept back as replacements.

They're still a maturity cattle at this point.

They're gonna sell as yearlings, they're gonna go in end up being finished, and they're gonna come out of a feed yard still in that a maturity range eligible for the most premium of quality grades in yield grades in carcass merit.

And so we've got age that works to our advantage there.

Long term.

The upside to culling our open replacement heifers, the easiest time in a beef breeding female's life to ever get bred should be when she's a 14 to 15 month old heifer.

At about two thirds of them are her weight.

If we've developed those heifers properly, they should get bred up promptly whenever we AI or turn out bulls with them as yearlings.

If they didn't get bred this time, we need to eliminate them from the herd and keep the subfertile genetics out of the herd for that matter because they're more likely to come up open in the future.

So preg check early save days of grazing on your pasture by open, you can market those heifers as yearlings for premium value and long term you're gonna improve the fertility in your cow herd by keeping back those heifers that bred up promptly for you.

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

- Continuing our conversation with Dr.

Dave Lalman about some of the broader aspects of raising livestock.

This week, he and Kurtis talk about some of the ins and outs of making a profit in the cow calf operation.

- We're joined now by Dr.

Dave Lalman, our OSU extension beef cattle specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

And Dave, recently we talked about the changes over time when it came to how much it costs to raise a cow here in Oklahoma, but you know, taking time out of it, looking at different productions, you know, what are the variabilities there for profitability?

- Yeah, that's interesting.

There's, there's tremendous variability from one ranch to another in terms of their, how much money they're able to make, and a lot of that variation is actually under the producer's control.

And so I thought it might be useful to go through some, you know, kind of dig into that, break it down a little bit and just so people would know what keys are that might really have an opportunity under their control where they, they might be able to make some progress in that profitability.

- All right, let's stop right in.

What, what do you have for us?

- Well, so, you know, again, I'm gonna use the Kansas Farm Management Association data set.

It's, they do a really nice job and they had a publication that was actually published in 2021, so we'd like to have a little more recent publication because, you know, the, the business structure has changed with these extremely high cattle prices.

Nevertheless, it points out those, those keys that I just mentioned, first of all, but the way they break up their data is really nice because they look at the, the top one third profitability operations in their data set and compare it to the bottom one third or the least profitable operations.

Yeah, okay.

And the difference in those two groups in terms of net profit, net return to management was $460 per per - Cow.

Yeah.

- Okay.

If you look at it on a per cow basis, huge difference.

And then if you break that down a little bit, you know, $176 of that 460 is due to more income, but the bigger portion, $284 of that difference is due to controlling costs or, or, you know, pushing those costs down.

And so, boy, that's, that's, Dr.

Doy had told me for many years that that was the key to profitability and cow calf operation, much as I hate to admit it, she was Right.

- So what are some other things that, that you've noticed too, as variabilities and the changes and how that impacts, you know, on from ranch to ranch?

- So the total difference in top one, third to bottom one third is about $460 a big deal.

And $284 of that difference has to do with costs.

So let me just mention a few of those key costs and, and most of these, again, people kind of have control of.

So you asked me in another one of these Sunup programs and suggested that probably feed was the most expensive part of raising.

That's, that's what I was trying to think.

Yeah, and, and you were right, because in that data sets, it's, it's about $145 more spent in the least profitable group compared to the most profitable group, $145 more spent on purchased or harvested feed per cow.

- Mm.

- Okay.

Does that make sense?

That makes, yeah, it falls right in line.

The other thing, and really interesting thing is that in their data set, people who spent $15 or, or the, the, the more profitable group spent 15 more dollars on pasture costs.

Mm.

$145 less on feed costs, $15 more on pasture costs.

So they're kind of, you know, maybe renting, leasing, owning a little more pasture and having to rely less on purchase and harvest the feed.

And that turns out to be more profitable.

Three other things I'll just mention right quick that go into that $284 increased cost.

One would be depreciation more on the lower profitable operations, about $32 more per cow machinery cost.

And so those highly profitable producers are more careful about just purchasing machinery that depreciates and minimizing, you know, right steel on the ranch or on the farm steel meaning machinery.

And then labor, $63 per cow, less labor spent in the more profitable operations.

And so, you know, interesting that, you know, maybe those folks have better working facilities, that they, their cattle are easier to gather, they're just more efficient in handle and their feeding system is maybe efficient, convenient, so on and so forth so that they can spend less money on, on hired labor.

In terms, in terms of the feed cost, I mean, it it is the devil is in the details, right?

Yeah.

Just like you're talking about, do you know how much you intend to deliver?

Is that what you're really delivering?

What you are delivering?

Is it appropriate and is it the best fit for the forage in the cattle stages of production?

And we'll get into that next time.

- I look forward to it.

Dave, Dr.

Dave Wallman, OSU extension beef cattle specialist here at Tacoma State University.

Are you a livestock producer and wanna learn more about waste to make your production more successful?

Then come on over to OSU Extension's livestock and Range Field Day.

This event will be October 9th at the Willard Sparks Beef Research Center in Stillwater.

Topics will include cattle and forage management, beef production, parasite control, and much more For registration or more information, just scan this QR code.

- Deworming practices for horses have certainly evolved over time from our traditional every two months and maybe rotating dewormers to now thinking about a more strategic approach based on how many eggs that we actually find in the feces of the horses.

But even so, if you're following a strategic program, we recommend that we do deworm horses in the spring, typically March or April.

That's because as temperatures warm up, those worms inside the horse start to lay eggs.

And so we don't want those female worms passing a large amount of eggs onto the pasture of the horse.

One of the reasons that we recommend strategic deworming is actually due to the growing incidence of antic resistance, or essentially the parasites are evolving to not really be susceptible to the drugs that we use anymore.

So it is important that we do things practically logically, what is best for the horse health, but think about our long-term efficacy of these drugs.

So in general, we're always going to recommend deworming the horse at least twice a year, spring and fall.

Typically in the fall, we're going to use something that's abo aside to take care of the stomach bots.

Beyond that, the frequency of deworming is gonna be based on the horse's age as well as their fecal egg count, or how many parasites they're actually holding.

So we always think about targeting a deworming for March or April, followed by some checks to see if your dewormer has been effective, and then doing our frequency of deworming based on what we find in the horse's manure.

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

A reminder, you can see Sunup anytime on our website.

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

We leave you today with a few highlights from the recent career fair in the Ferguson College of Agriculture, where students meet with prospective employers, all in hopes of landing a great job after graduation.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

We'll see you next time at Sunup.