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

I'm Lyndall Stout.

We have a very special show lined up for you today, looking back at some of our SUNUP favorites.

But first, let's hear from our Extension row crop pathologist, Dr. Maira Duffek, about some diseases popping up in soybean fields.

- I started to see an increasing number of fields showing the symptoms of the disease known as charcoal rot.

This disease is favored by drought stress, soil compaction, and heat stress.

And most of the time the growers tend to not report the occurrence of this disease in the field, because they tend to associate that the damage that they're seeing in the field is due to the very extreme weather conditions.

However, it is very important for us to know which fields are having the symptoms of the disease, because it's gonna help us to guide the growers regarding the selection of varieties, and regarding the crop rotation, if we have the disease presence in the field.

So here I have an example of a disease that's showing symptoms of charcoal rot.

So I pull up some samples from the most affected area in the field.

And one way to diagnose the disease in the field is that close to the base of the stem, if you open up, we can see the presence of very small black dots in the stem, inside the stem, and also in the outside part.

Another disease that start to show up in some fields in the central part of Oklahoma is the disease known as SDS.

So the pathogen that cause the disease infects the root system very early on in the growing season, most of the time when the soybean is planted under cool and wet conditions.

So fields that were planted in beginning of May, or in the first two weeks of May, are more prone to develop the disease.

Consider that we had a spring here in the state that was more cooler and wetter than usual.

So here I have some plants that I collected in a field that is affected by SDS.

And what I'd like to emphasize here is that the growers can use a knife pocket to open up the stem close to the roots, and they're going to see discoloration in that stem close to the tap root, and also a brown color.

And what I need to emphasize here is that this discoloration, or this more dark color is present just in the stem close to the tap root.

But when we go up here, we see that the stem is actually healthy.

But the symptoms that we are seeing here in the upper canopy, in the leaves, is caused by the toxin that's produced by the fungi.

The fungi is not present here in the leaves, this is just a secondary effect of the infection by the pathogen in the root system.

So the diseases start by this yellow spotting among the leaf veins that remain green.

And as this disease is progressing from this yellow spotting, we start to see this more necrotic tissue among the leaf veins that remain green.

So this is a very characteristic symptoms of SDS in the field.

Another disease that I start to observe in the soybean fields here in Oklahoma after the last rains that we got in the beginning of August, is Cercospora leaf blight.

Is that we see in the upper canopy of the soybean plants the occurrence with this browns color in the leaves that sometimes can be more like a dark browns or a light browns, and sometimes these lesions can also become purple.

There are some options available to manage all these diseases in the field.

And the first one, the most important, is to choose a soybean variety that presents some level of resistance to charcoal rot, for SDS, or for Cercospora leaf blight.

And another option is crop rotation.

Choose crops such as small grains or wheat, where the pattern is not going to multiply in these crops, is going to decrease the inoculant that we have in the soil.

(bright gentle music) - Today I thought I'd share a few food safety tips to keep you safe during grilling season.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, rates of food poisoning increase during the summer months, because the warmer weather causes bacteria to grow faster.

With that in mind, here are four steps from the Food and Drug Administration to help reduce your chances of coming down with a case of food poisoning.

The first step is to clean.

Wash your hands before and after handling food for at least 20 seconds, with warm water and soap.

It's also important to wash cutting boards, dishes, utensils, and countertops after preparing each food item.

The second step to prevent food poisoning is to separate.

When shopping, keep raw meat, poultry, and seafood separate from other items in your cart.

Often grocery stores provide plastic bags to help keep these items apart, to prevent cross-contamination.

Never place cooked food on plates that have been exposed to raw meat, poultry, or seafood, until the plates have been washed in hot, soapy water.

The third step to prevent food poisoning is to cook.

Use a thermometer to ensure that food reaches the proper internal cooking temperature.

Color and texture are not reliable methods.

Intact, whole cuts of meat, such as beef, pork, and lamb, should be cooked to an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit.

- And allow to rest for three minutes before serving.

Hamburgers and other ground meat should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

Poultry should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

The fourth step to prevent food poisoning is to chill.

Keep food refrigerated at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below until it's time to cook.

Refrigerate leftovers within two hours.

However, if it's 90 degrees Fahrenheit or hotter outside, refrigerate leftovers within one hour.

An additional food safety tip is to check your grill to ensure that it's clean.

If you use a wire bristle brush for cleaning, make sure that none of the bristles remain on the cook surface.

They could dislodge and become stuck in food.

So just a few food safety tips for summer grilling season.

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

(honky tonk music) - Looking back now at a Sunup favorite, with 4-Hers learning just what it takes to become a veterinarian.

Seth Fish brings us this story.

- [Seth] Bones, organs, and the smell of formaldehyde, an environment that would leave most people squeamish.

But these Oklahoma 4-Hers are excited for the opportunity.

- I just feel super excited.

Like I've done a few dissections before, but today I've gotten to get into like the nitty-gritty, like the lungs and the heart.

It's really giving me a feel for like, especially if I was interested in surgery and veterinary medicine and kind of figuring out if that's something that I want to do.

- [Seth] The Vet Science short course camp is a two-day event for high school 4-Hers across the state who have an interest in veterinary medicine.

- [Instructor] So we've got our show pig over here.

So everything that we are doing today and tomorrow is pretty much all hands-on.

And then we're doing different labs today that include dissection, anatomy, disease outbreaks, small animal examinations.

- How would you describe that?

- They're learning about the profession, but they're also learning about things that they can take home and they can use on their farms and ranches if that's the background that they come from.

But we also know that kids learn a lot better when they're doing those hands-on things, and so they're retaining that information a lot better being hands-on than just sitting in a classroom being talked to.

- [Seth] The College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Sciences, and a number of 4-H educators developed the program in part to address the nationwide shortages in vet medicine and falling enrollment numbers in vet school programs.

- The American Veterinary Medical Association in April of 2021 came out with some data that said, you know, before the pandemic there were around three and a half jobs for every veterinarian looking.

After the pandemic of spring of last year, there's 12 and a half plus jobs for every veterinarian looking.

And so we want to increase the pipeline, particularly of Oklahoma students that are residents here who're applying for veterinary school.

And so we're trying to get them interested in the profession early.

We're trying to give them some things to think about.

They know what veterinary medicine in general is about.

They know what they're getting into, what's exciting about the profession, and also some of the challenges, and this is a great way to kind of open the door for high school students to take a look.

- [Seth] Both the organizers and the students say 4-H events like the Vet Science camp are invaluable to the youth of our state, providing resources and exposure to industries that these 4-Hers will undoubtedly have an impact on in the future.

- I think it's important that we show our 4-H kids different career paths because we want them to go out into the world and be good citizens.

You know, there's lots of different career paths and it's our job as educators to teach those kids different careers that are out there for them.

- I think it really just reminds me like how involved 4-H is and how many opportunities they have.

4-H has projects in whatever you want to do, especially, obviously, veterinary medicine.

And so hearing about this camp made me excited and I'm just really grateful to have a program like 4-H to give me these opportunities.

- I'm a product of the 4-H program.

I was a 4-Her here in Lincoln and Grady County growing up and it really laid the foundation for me to open the doors to what the profession was about, gave me those leadership skills, gave me those communication skills that are absolutely important in any profession, but certainly within veterinary medicine.

And so 4-H is a great opportunity to discover the world around you and to take a look at what you may want to be when you grow up.

- In Payne County, I'm Seth Fish.

(honky tonk music) - Good Morning, Oklahoma.

Welcome to "Cow-Calf Corner."

This week we're gonna talk about anaplasmosis.

It's not a pleasant topic.

It is something that we deal with in the state of Oklahoma when we think about cow-calf production, beef production in general.

And, effectively, we're gonna talk about how we manage around it and try to prevent it.

- Now, anaplasmosis can be spread from beef animal to beef animal a number of ways.

First, there is some evidence that a lot of anaplasmas gets transferred whenever we're just working cattle.

It can be needles, as we give vaccinations, it can be dehorning, castration instruments, anything that transmits blood from one animal from blood to the next animal is potentially a source of transferring anaplasmosis, but we know anaplasmas is also carried by ticks and certain flies, and one of the realities of it, is we have Anaplasmas in beef animals in the state of Oklahoma, and it can be effectively managed so it doesn't become a big issue for us.

Typically, if we see anaplasmas outbreaks, while there are clinical signs of this disease, the way we often figure out we've got an outbreak is we start finding dead cattle, particularly the cattle that are two years of age or older, is where we see this disease manifest itself, and so, what measures can we take to prevent this problem?

First, if we will feed a tetracycline product in our mineral or as part of our supplemental feed program, we can prevent this from causing us issues.

Now, the first and foremost thing that we need to do in 2022, is consult with our veterinarian because it's gonna require a Veterinary Feed Directive, or VFD, in order to get that prescription to have that mineral or purchase that mineral with the tetracycline products in it that are gonna prevent an anaplasmas outbreak.

So consult your vet, get a VFD in place.

It's definitely the time of year right now that we want cattle on a tetracycline product to prevent outbreaks.

If we see clinical signs and we've got animals that are dealing with this, it can be treated with antibiotic products.

Again, you're gonna need to consult your veterinarian to talk about how to address it from that standpoint.

When we think about other measures we can do to try to minimize the impact of anaplasmas, actually, and it is kind of an extra level of management, if we're giving herd vaccinations by actually changing needles from animal to animal, we're gonna prevent that transference.

If we can control ticks and flies to the extent possible, whether it is burning pastures in the spring where we've got a history of tick issues in those pastures or potentially rotating so we're not using those pastures that have got higher tick infestations this time of year, we know that's gonna be beneficial to us.

Controlling flies, and all the means that we've discussed in past "Cow Calf Corners" to try to keep fly populations under control, all the way through insecticide products that we can use on cattle to prevent or control flies and ticks.

So anaplasmas is in Oklahoma, it's a problem we need to deal with, we can effectively deal with it if we follow some of these best management practices, and it is the time of the year to keep it in mind and be getting those products into the mineral for our cow herds to prevent anaplasmas outbreaks.

Thanks for joining us this week on "Cow Calf Corner".

(upbeat country music) - This has definitely been a summer with a lot of changing weather.

Just a few months ago, severe drought threatened much of Oklahoma's wheat crop.

At that time, "Sun Up's" Curtis Hare met with a producer for a firsthand account.

(brief guitar strumming) (feet stomping) (fingers snapping) - There's our old garden seed counter over there.

- [Curtis] It's hard for Steve Calhoun to walk through Raw Seed Company and not be jolted with memories.

- And you can come in here and buy one scoop of cucumbers for a dollar and a quarter.

- [Curtis] But working for 50 years in the same shop will do that to you.

Steve, who now manages the seed company, spends his days with paperwork and giving guidance to fellow producers who have questions about their operations.

- Mr. Calhoun.

- I want something to be easy.

- What are you up to?

- [Farmer] Gotta wait about a week to plant some of that- - Let's wait a week or so and see.

The only thing I'm concerned about, it's still a little cool.

I'd like you to wait maybe.

They're talking like we might get some rain.

- Yeah?

- I'd like for you to wait another week or two, if you could?

- Okay, I can.

- Alright?

- I think- - [Curtis] And Steve knows all about waiting on the rain.

Aside from his day job at Ross Seed Company, Steve is a cattle and wheat producer.

He says one verb that would best describe how his wheat crop is doing right now, teetering.

- Well, right now, it's in pretty good shape.

We had about an inch of rain here a month ago and it really helped it out, but we haven't had any rain since, and so it's kind of starting to get a blue cast to it, which is a stress-type situation.

We're hoping we'll maybe get some rain this week, there's a possibility, because we're concerned about the test weight and filling it out.

Well, really, we kinda had a pretty good crop last year.

This field that I'm standing in last year, of course, it's bottomland, but it made 70 bushel and I was very pleased.

I had some upland wheat that didn't do very well.

It made about 20 bushel, so you can kind of see the difference, the drought.

So we're starting to deal with that again this year.

- Some of the fields look pretty good.

Some of 'em are really stressed, struggling.

They probably.

- Probably are not gonna make any yield at all.

- [Curtis] Denise Wood is the Grady County OSU Extension Ag educator.

She says how the crop is looking in the county right now really depends on which side of Highway 44 you're on.

- Especially in certain areas, I mean, we need rain all across Grady County but we were, in like Minco, eight inches behind the curve there on the drought conditions.

So looking at eight inches when you're dealing with a crop is pretty drastic.

- The field of seeds we just saw looks pretty good, but come a few miles west of I-44, you can really see how stressed this crop is.

- Don't get me wrong, we're blessed.

We're on that line.

You go west of here and these people are really hurt and suffering.

Mark Johnson come and talk to us about the cattle situation, and the ponds are drying up out west.

We're in a little bit better shape than they are.

We're not great, but we're in better shape than they are further to the west of us.

- [Curtis] Although Steve is grateful for the condition his crop is currently in, if it doesn't rain here in the next few days, decisions will have to be made.

- If we don't get a rain this week, we'll probably be looking at something else.

We were looking at this field a little earlier and it's starting to put a head out.

So if we do it for hay, we're gonna have to do it pretty quick.

- [Curtis] But regardless, when you've been farming as long as Steve has, you try not to focus too much on the negatives.

If the sky doesn't cry soon, well at least he'll have some hay for his cattle.

You take what you can get, that's farming.

- You know, farming is an up and down deal.

One year is completely, and you really can't judge it from one year to the next.

You just gotta take it year by year.

It's gotta be in your blood, it is.

My family's been farming for over 100 years, and so anyway, it's gotta be in your blood.

- [Curtis] In Grady County, I'm Curtis Hare.

(upbeat music) - As we're coming into the summer season, we're also gonna see an increase in chigger populations, and historically, when we have chigger populations you're always gonna know where those areas are, whether it's, you've walked through an area and you know that you had chiggers' feet on you, but traditionally, if you have any area that you're walking around that has high vegetation, that has vegetation that can come up to mid-thigh, to waist area then it's a likelihood of supporting chigger populations because it's maintaining humidity within that vegetative cover.

Some of our common misconceptions of chiggers is that you can suffocate the chiggers away by putting different substances on your chigger bites and that's really not true.

The main thing is that a chigger mite feeds on you and leaves.

It's a non-burrowing mite.

It doesn't burrow into your skin like a lot of outlets may share with, but essentially what a chigger does is it feeds on you, then leaves, but the bite is what's causing the irritation, and so typical things that can relieve the chigger bites are typical things that you use for any kind of irritation to your skin, such as antihistamines, creams, or anything that can kinda counteract that inflammatory response on your skin.

That's gonna be our best thing, but try to avoid putting substances thinking that you're gonna suffocate these chiggers because they're simply just not there.

So when we think about chiggers, and where they prefer to feed, think about anywhere that there may be some kind of tight clothing around waistlines and your ankles, so sock lines around your ankles and any kind of waistline.

That's where we tend to see more of our chigger feeding sites.

Again, it's all about the type of vegetation you're walking through, so if you walk through something that's low that's always in contact through your ankles, check your ankles, but it doesn't prevent them from feeding around your waistline because they can crawl up to your waistline.

The other thing is as you walk through tall vegetation, then more than likely they're gonna be around your waistline.

Very rarely do we see a lot of chigger bites just in and around the face or neck region, unless you simply take a nap in some vegetation.

Then we'll see some chigger bites around those areas, but some other misconceptions is that chiggers can transmit some pathogens and they're really a low risk in when we consider what transmits significant pathogens and chiggers are simply just causing a lot of irritation because of compounds in their saliva that your skin is reacting to.

(upbeat music) - Finally today, we remember our time with a sixth generation farming family in Noble County as they were trying to get ahead of the rain to bring in their wheat.

- [Curtis] A wall of dark blue, rain-filled clouds drift closer and closer, threatening to throw a roadblock up for today's wheat harvest.

This is what Marty and Crystal Williams have been dealing with for the past few weeks here on Frontier Farms in Noble County.

Get ready to fire up the combine and then boom, a slow rumble echoes in the distance.

The soft warm breeze turns cool and then the rain comes.

- With these little rains that have come through, it's made harvest windows very, very challenging, very, very small.

Two days maximum we've cut in a row, and then it rains and we're out for two days.

Then we've had another two days and then it rains.

So we've harvested really only a total of six days probably in three little small incremental windows.

- [Curtis] Normally.

- [Curtis] Crystal is in the cab of the combine, while Marty is in the field handling other details.

Their kids, Ava and Morgan, are busy with summer activities and the dogs, well, not much has changed.

Dive bombing for field mice is still on the agenda.

(grass rustling) But for the Williams', this harvest and this year has been anything but normal.

- So this year I was really heavy on the amount of wheat that I planted, because of the drought and then it didn't rain all winter, all through planting season.

So our wheat was very, very thin all year.

We thought maybe spring rains would bring it out of it and for the most part it kind of did.

It was gonna make a marginal crop, but it was so thin, now the weeds have come on.

- [Curtis] Aside from the drought and untimely rains, there's a lot going on personally for this sixth generation farming family.

They just moved into their newly built home, literally days ago.

Ava's off at church camp and Morgan is the one climbing in the cab of the combine because Crystal is about a week away from delivering the new addition to the Williams family.

- We have a baby coming, so that's been a pleasant surprise.

And I did actually try to combine the other day for two hours and my feet were swollen, so I learned real quick these last two weeks, I need to rest.

- [Curtis] With a baby on the way and thin wheat fields, Marty decided to shift his focus to summer crops and hired a custom crew to help take care of the majority of his wheat fields.

For this wheat near the house, Morgan and his co-pilot best friend, whose fittingly named Corbin, are ready to pick up the slack.

- Our son is really talented with running equipment.

He has been since he was little and we're very safe, overly safe, but he's just got a knack for it and he pays attention to what's going on.

- Well, you start it up, you put the backend on first, and then it has to be on the very low, like not fast.

Rev it and then you start the header up and then you rev it up more and then you lower the header and start cutting wheat.

- It's been a challenging year for sure, but Marty and Crystal are on their 19th year of marriage, and when you have that much time under your belt, you sometimes look at these challenges as gifts, because you never know how quickly things could change for the better.

Just takes a little time.

- It's no secret that from 2013 to 2018, farming went through really tough economic time.

During that time we had several challenges, emotionally, spiritually.

There were several times we thought we were gonna lose the farm, and we always prayed that someday we could build a new home for our kids to enjoy and my wife to enjoy and me.

All of a sudden, we were extremely blessed with a shift in crop growing conditions and prices and things of that nature.

Financially, things just came around, and then we were fortunate enough to be able to build a home and get that process started and then all of a sudden, woo-hoo, we have a baby on the way.

I thought I was coaching my last little league team and now might not be.

- I didn't grow up farming.

I don't know as much as most people do, but I'm learning.

The 19 years we've been together, we've already experienced as a young farm family so many trials and errors and learning to adapt.

It's still stressful, but we're able to kind of navigate and support each other through it a little bit better than when we were younger.

- My family's been in this area since the land run of 1893.

Every day I can wake up and drive by the farms that several great grandparents have farmed on and left from several generations and it's really cool that I get to do that.

- [Curtis] If the rains hold out, harvest should be wrapped up not too long after their baby boy arrives.

Though Morgan still hasn't quite wrapped his head around having a baby brother.

- I honestly don't know what to do when he is here.

It's gonna be a lot of stuff.

- [Curtis] It's just another challenge, but also a gift.

In Noble County, I'm Curtis Hare.

(upbeat country music) - Soon after that story aired, we're happy to report that Crystal and Marty welcomed a healthy baby boy, Ridge Reese Williams.

And no doubt he'll be helping out on their farm very soon.

And that'll do it for our show this week.

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

I'm Lyndall Stout.

Have a great week everyone.

And remember, Oklahoma Agriculture starts at Sunup.

(upbeat country music) (upbeat country music) (upbeat country music) (guitar strumming)