(upbeat music) - Hello, everyone and welcome to "SUNUP" I'm Lyndall Stout.

With fall right around the corner, we wanna spend some time this week taking a look back at some of our favorite stories from this past summer.

We'll get to that in just a moment.

But first, here's Dr. Kim Anderson with a look at the markets.

- This morning on "Market Monitor," let's talk about wheat, corn and soybean prices.

Three biggest things that are impacting prices now are tight stocks.

You've got the drought.

The stocks and the drought, we've talked about the last couple weeks.

Lot's going on, though, in the Russian-Ukraine war.

You look in Ukraine, last month they allowed them to start exporting agriculture commodities.

Reports this week said that they had 87 cargoes leaving the Ukrainian ports.

However, it's also reported that very few of these cargoes are wheat.

Most of the cargoes have been going to Turkey.

However, they've also been shipments to China, India, Yemen, and Somalia.

So, if you look at Oklahoma wheat prices, you go back to late June, we hit down in that $7 to $8 range.

It wallowed around around $8.

Last couple weeks, it's been between $8.25 and $8.75.

When Putin came out and said that he may stop the exports out of Ukraine, our wheat prices went up 47 cents, and then they backed off later in the day down to around 25 cents up.

But that shows the volatility in wheat prices just at what could happen in Russia and Ukraine.

If you look at corn prices, Ukraine has been exporting more corn than wheat.

And you'd think when Putin says that he's gonna stop the exports, or that he may stop the exports, you'd have a big increase in corn prices.

Well, you had about 11-cent increase when the markets opened, and it backed off to pretty much even.

You look at Oklahoma new crop prices for corn, go back to mid-July $5.50.

We've had a $2.10 increase in those prices to about $7.60.

60 cents of that $2.10 price increase was increase at the basis, and only $1.60 or $1.70 was on the board.

So, corn price is going up.

Basis on the corn is going up.

That says that the market wants corn now and needs corn now.

You look at soybeans, they've been moving sideways $13 to $14.

Right now, you can forward contract or sell soybeans for around $13.50.

Crop prices are relatively high.

There's a lot of uncertainty in this market.

These prices can change relatively fast.

It's just a wait and see on what's gonna happen.

We'll see you next week on "Market Monitor."

(upbeat music) - Hello, Wes Lee here with this week's Mesonet weather report.

Warmer than average temperatures seem to be the new normal for Oklahoma.

At least it has seemed that way for the past year or so.

This monthly graph displays statewide average temperatures going back to the summer of last year.

The blue lines are the observed temperatures, and the red lines are the long-term average temps.

Since last September, we have spent nine months above average, indicated by the red arrows, and only three months below, the blue arrows.

For our summer crops, this warm weather should have them further along than normal.

We measure this by something called degree days.

This graph is for cotton at Altus.

You can see that this year is by far the warmest in the last five years.

But due to the lack of moisture, degree days may not be all that important this year.

One of the reasons for this warmer-than-normal trend is the La Nina weather pattern.

This is where the surface water near the equator in the Pacific is cooler than normal and typically causes fall, winter, and spring to be warmer and drier than normal in Oklahoma.

It was in place the last two years, and there is a strong chance it will continue through this year.

Bottom line, expect the heat to stick around.

Now here's Gary covering the rainfall situation.

- Thanks, Wes, and good morning, everyone.

Well, another week with some heavy rains, but they were extremely spotty.

So, what did they do to the drought monitor?

Let's take a look at that new map.

Well, not a lot of changes because, once again, those rains were pretty spotty.

But we did have some improvements in central Oklahoma where parts of Logan and Oklahoma and even down into Cleveland counties dropped a level, but we also had that D3, or extreme drought level, increase out in Blaine and Kingfisher counties.

We also had a little bit of improvement down in far south central Oklahoma into parts of southwest Oklahoma but also worsening up in north central Oklahoma.

A little bit of improvement over in east central Oklahoma.

So, once again, some improvements, some worsening, but it was all very spotty.

If we start to look at the 90-day rainfall map from the Mesonet, we can see some of those rainfalls from early June starting to drop off of this accumulation map, so.

- Again, much of the area, three to four inches, but there are some areas that go less than three inches.

Those are in the green, the light yellows.

And we had some areas that go up into the five, six, seven, eight-inch area.

Those are in the oranges and reds.

And of course, over is Sallisaw, we did have almost 15 inches of rain.

But again, that was very localized.

It shows up even better on the Percent of Normal Rainfall map from that timeframe.

We do see much of the area less than 50% of normal rainfall over the last 90 days.

Some areas less than 25% of normal, so definitely dry, indeed.

Very few localized areas are above normal over that timeframe.

South-central Oklahoma, far east-central Oklahoma, and even getting close to normal out in the far western panhandle.

Other than that, very dry over that 90-day period.

If we take a look at the longer range outlook at least for the latter part of next week from the Climate Prediction Center, we do see that heat dome has returned over the state.

So we will see those temperatures start to tick up again as we get into next week.

And it hasn't been really cool this week, but it's gonna be even hotter next week, probably, inching closer to that triple-digit territory.

So we definitely need the rain but those higher temperatures are not going to help.

So as we go into fall, we need those temperatures start to fall and we also need some of that rainfall to start to kick up a little bit, get some more of these drought conditions out of the state as we prepare for the winter months.

That's it for this time.

We'll see ya next time on the Mesonet Weather Report.

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

This is part four on the question of retained ownership if you're considering that.

This is the week that we actually talk about USDA yield grades that get assigned to beef carcasses.

Now, last week we talked about quality grades.

In general, fatter live cattle that have been fed longer or are on feed longer are gonna tend to have higher beef quality grades.

But yield grades have a different purpose.

A beef yield grade is a numerical value with one being the best and indicating the highest level of cutability.

Going two, three, four, and five, which indicates the lowest level of cutability.

And beef yield grades indicate the percentage of red meat yield on a trim basis that we should get from the round, loin, rib, and chuck, the four wholesale cuts out of the beef carcass.

Now, obviously, trimmer animals that are more muscular are gonna be the ones that yield higher cutability carcasses and have lower numerical yield grades.

So what specifically does a USDA grader look at on a hanging beef carcass in order to assign a yield grade?

As we go back to that interface between the 12th and 13th rib, where a beef carcass is been ribbed open, they're gonna measure an adjusted fat thickness right there, or external fat cover.

That's gonna be the first step in arriving at a yield grade.

They're then gonna look inside of that carcass in the abdominal cavity and come up with an estimate of the percentage of kidney, heart, and pelvic fat, then make an adjustment to yield grade for that.

And the third thing or potentially fourth thing, depending on how you wanna look at it, is the degree of muscularity.

But muscularity in beef carcasses is looked at in terms of the square inches of ribeye-size relative to the hot carcass weight.

So ribeye size and carcass weight are a third and fourth factors, but they work in harmony because carcasses should have a little larger ribeye as they get heavier, so it is all relative to a schedule in terms of how big should the ribeye be to be above average degree of muscle or below average degree of muscle that we make that third adjustment on.

Typically, when we think about carcass value marketing of beef carcasses, there's not quite as much economic incentive for really low numerical yield grade beef carcasses.

Flip side of that coin, yield grade fours and fives represent a lot of inefficiency and waste in cattle finishing in the beef industry, in general.

And there are some pretty substantial discounts that occur as we get into those yield grade fours and fives.

So there again, a beef yield grade indicates red meat yield.

Your trim or more muscular animals are gonna tend to excel on that side of the grid.

If we think kind of a concluding type of thought relative to what we've been through the last few weeks talking about the concept of retained ownership, there are selection tools available in all pedigreed seed stock that are a means by which to select to improve beef yield grades or beef quality grades.

Specifically, what are some of those EPDs or genetic values if we wanna improve yield grades?

Higher ribeye areas, less fat thickness, and even taking some carcass weight into consideration because that's gonna determine our final pay weight.

If we're interested in improving upon beef quality grades, most beef breeds have got a marbling EPD that we can base selection on.

One of the questions that we referred to a while back that you need to answer if making that decision on retained ownership is how you put selection pressure - On those EPDs in your bull selection program in the past.

Hope this helps, and thanks for joining us on Cow-Calf Corner.

(bugs chirping) - [Kurtis] A light haze of dust in the air, cracks in the red earth, and waves of unrelenting heat are familiar sights for Noble County Producer, Randy Shiever.

- We had this drought back in '10, '11, and '12, and it sort of prepared us for what we're going through right now.

We completely ran out of forage in our pastures back then, 10 years ago.

- [Kurtis] This year, timely May rains after months of drought, helped Randy establish a good stand of forage sorghum or haygrazer.

But just when the field was ready to be cut, the flash drought and the extreme Oklahoma heat set in.

- I was talking to my neighbor, Dennis, and he had planted haygrazer.

I said, "Dennis, I'm gonna cut mine."

He said, "Boy, you better look at those light spots out there."

He said, "I lost two cows by unrolling a bale of haygrazer."

Go back the next day and they're laying there dead just like anaplas does.

- [Kurtis] In drought stress plants such as forge and Johnson grass, nitrates can be an issue.

Prussic acid can also occur.

Thinking his field might be like his neighbor's, Randy contacted OSU Extension Beef Cattle Specialist, Dave Wallman and Pawnee and Osage Ag Educator, Rick Clovis, just to make sure.

- Typically, we get these call in when the producers are getting ready to bale the hay.

And so we would prefer to take the test from recently cut plants.

Or, you know, just cut 'em and then test them.

And we'd strip the leaves off, split the stem, put the reagent on it and see what the reaction is.

So this is a diphenylamine reagent and acid.

And it's very toxic so it's not available to everybody.

You need to go through your extension office to be able to do this test.

When nitrates are present, it's gonna show a blue to purple color change in the stem; wherever we drop the reagent.

- The nice thing about the quick test, if you get a negative answer, in other words, it does not react to the reagent, there's low chance of getting a false negative.

And what that means is that if you send it in to get the quantitative test, it's probably gonna be really low.

- [Kurtis] If the quick test is positive for nitrates it doesn't mean that the forage is now useless.

- If it does react with the quick test, it's just a real consistent signal that you need to send it in to the SWFAL laboratory here in the Division of Agriculture.

That test only costs $6 per sample.

We recommend people go ahead and bale the hay, take one or two cores from each bale out of about 20 bales scattered throughout the field.

Mix it up in a bucket real good and send a sample.

- A few weeks ago a number of producers lost cattle to prussic acid.

And although prussic acid and nitrates are both harmful and even fatal for livestock, prussic acid will eventually go away once the plants are cut.

But for nitrates, it's nowhere near that simple.

- Once it's cut, generally speaking in a hay crop, it's there.

Now, you know, one way that may be an option for a few producers is to put it up as silage because the fermentation process in a silo reduces the nitrate concentration by somewhere around 20, 30, even up to 50%.

- [Kurtis] The quick test did show presence of nitrates and plants from one of Randy's other fields.

But for this hay here, it's looking like he'll have some forage for his cows this winter, though he's still planning to test once it's baled, just to make sure.

- What that means for me, I don't wake up at night about this much hay that I need.

I think it's gonna be okay.

So many people don't have the option.

I'm very fortunate to have a little bit of land that it was fallow here that I could plant this.

Most cattlemen don't have that opportunity.

When they're out, they're out.

If there's none for sale, or if you have to drive so far with the prices of everything, you might as well load your cattle up.

Mother Nature, I guess, my final statement.

Mother Nature's always in charge.

(bugs chirping) - [Kurtis] And we are all at her mercy in this hot Oklahoma summer.

In Noble County, I'm Kurtis Hair.

(country music) - [Narrator] Oklahoma cattleman are all too familiar with these tiny arachnids.

However, these USDA and OSU researchers are studying ticks that haven't been seen in Oklahoma for a very long time.

Tim Propst is a researcher with the USDA and the Oklahoma Water Resource Center.

- The Cattle Fever Tick Eradication Program actually started in 1906.

And there are two species of tick, the the southern cattle tick and the cattle fever tick that carry a protozoa.

That's actually a blood parasite and that causes anemia and a bunch of other complications.

And actually in naive animals that have never been exposed before, there's a 70 to 90% mortality rate.

So it's actually, some literature shows that it's like the most financially significant ectoparasite to cattle in the whole world.

- [Narrator] In the 1920s and '30s, the US implemented cattle dipping programs to combat the bacteria-carrying ticks.

The project eradicated virtually all of the problematic ticks from the Southern United States.

- [Seth] But colonies along the US/Mexico border and in Puerto Rico are causing problems to this day.

- Because of these efforts, they were able to eradicate it from the southern US.

But because the animals, the ticks themselves are still existence in those southern areas outside of the US, strays can come across and they carry the animals with them.

One female will lay up to 4,000 eggs.

It's really hard to control that.

That's why even after 100 years or more, that we still have the program going on.

- [Seth] The USDA Ag Research Service and the Oklahoma Water Resource Center, with the help of OSU are seeking to streamline the process of tracking and treating animals affected by the cattle tick.

(cattle mooing) And they're doing it with RFID chips and readers, technology that is probably in your wallet right now.

- [Kade] So we've developed as a survey that works with off-the-shelf devices that currently scan the RFID tags to get their number, and then gets their weights from the squeeze shoot themselves.

- [Seth] Soon The same technology used in your credit cards will be used by researchers in Texas and Puerto Rico to monitor tick activity in buffer zones.

- So we've tied those devices together, allowing the survey to be manually entered and fill out all the metadata, and it can be stored in the cloud and viewed by researchers almost instantaneously after it's submitted.

The ARS researchers, their old method was to count the ticks by hand, which is always gonna be by hand, and they have to write the number of ticks on the body of the animal, then the animal goes through the squeeze, and they weigh it manually, and they have to relook at a chart that has the weight of the animal and the approximate number of ticks that are on the animal, and that would give them a dosage for that animal.

So that is a very messy way to do it 'cause you have to worry about handwriting, incorrect accuracies, it getting rubbed off before they get there.

So what this does is reduce the number of data inputs and data touches that the user has to do, and it overall increases the efficiency and accuracy of the test.

- [Seth] The Cattle Fever Tick Eradication Program is yet another example of the continued relationship between the USDA and OSU, and their shared mission to improve the security of the agricultural industry.

- It's just a matter of finding all the pieces that are necessary to make a project successful and produce something that's useful for folks out in the state.

And sometimes we'll have those pieces, whether it be personnel or physical resources like livestock and land here at Oklahoma State, and sometimes the Ag Research Services groups have those resources, then we can combine them in a synergistic way to help produce beneficial information for people out there in the livestock industry.

- A live animal demo of it was huge and really helps us see all these things go from basically the lab or the computer to actual animals.

So the partnership has been a huge part of what we've been able to accomplish.

- [Seth] For SUNUP, I'm Seth Fish.

- Together we are embarking on New Frontiers.

(audience applauding) - [Reporter] Ample confetti, lots of balloons, and of course, President Shrum and Pistol Pete set the stage for the event on the OSU campus this week, completing the $50 million New Frontiers campaign.

It's all for this building under construction on the corner of Farm Road and Monroe.

- We're going to have research facilities in our laboratories that are state of the art.

And in our teaching laboratories as well, students will have an opportunity to learn with the latest technology.

We've also designed it in a way so that as technology changes, we're not locked in.

We aren't putting things in concrete.

We're making sure that we can move in and out as different technologies come along.

- [Reporter] New Frontiers is one of the fastest capital campaigns at OSU.

Generous gifts from more than 600 donors to advance agriculture in Oklahoma for generations.

(audience applauding) - New Frontiers also, I believe means new technologies and the College of Ag has been advancing in our technologies, I think that also entices students to come here, that we are a premier place to study agriculture and just all the opportunities and advancements that they're gonna be able to have with this new building.

- [Reporter] These renderings show what the building will look like when it's complete.

- It will help us do a better job of preparing graduates to be in the workforce, serving farmers and ranchers, and working as partners with farmers and ranchers.

It will help us to advance our research program so that we are at the leading edge.

That's why we call it New Frontiers, we're at the leading edge of discovery that will help to transform our agricultural practices, our ranching practices for the future.

- [Reporter] OSU president, Dr. Kayse Shrum says agriculture is one of her key priorities, with the ultimate goal of helping to feed the world.

- We very much appreciate what you do, I understand the challenges.

And it's key, and that's why we wanna make sure we have another generation of students that we're educating that can continue the great success that we've had.

- [Reporter] New Frontiers Agricultural Hall is set to open in the fall of 2024.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (engines hum) - [Lyndall] This iconic scene of wheat harvest, is the fabric of Oklahoma.

Farming is what holds us together and helps to feed the world.

It's what the Moffat's have been made of for four generations.

- My folks moved down here in about, I think '47 or something like that.

And I was five years old.

- [Lyndall] Jim Moffat is the patriarch of the family farm, his son, Jerry and grandsons Coy and Conrad run the day-to-day.

Today, they're cutting wheat and getting ready for soybeans.

- We're just north of Lexington, in the South Canadian River bottom.

We, right now, it's kind of our wheat harvest time.

We double-crop soybeans behind the wheat.

We normally try to no-till, if the grounds conditions are right.

This year, it's a little bit wet harvesting, so we got some fields that's gonna be no-till some that will probably be conventional tilled, back into soybeans - [Lyndall] A bit wet may be an understatement.

Muddy fields slowed progress.

- So we got five and a half inches there in a matter of about two days.

And we had luckily got two loads out before the rain, but then we had to wait for it to kind of dry out the ground, so we could get on it to combine.

- [Lyndall] And combine they are.

A few hot and dry days means it's full speed ahead.

- This year, actually, has been a real good year for us.

The wheat looks good, it stood good.

We switched to Doublestop a few years ago, and the variety, that variety of wheat for us, has been a lot more, just more tolerant to our conditions here.

This year, even with that five and a half inches of rain on it, we had very little wheat went down.

- You know, we're double-cropping, so this year making 45 bushel an acre's been really good.

Normally we were doing good if we make 30 after double-cropping soybeans in.

Got the right rain at the right time and didn't dry out too much for it.

So we had to start to pivot a little bit this year on some ground to get it up, but other than that, it's been a really good year for wheat.

- [Lyndall] Oklahoma's 2022 wheat crop is hit or miss.

Drought led to abandonment of 45% of fields in the state.

Spring's heavy downpours and hail caused further damage and disease pressure.

But areas with timely rains are thriving, with good yields and protein, depending on the variety.

- At Apache, we've been getting the highest protein over there.

We've been getting paid for 20 cents extra, for 15% protein.

So we've been, we really like the Doublestop.

It stands up, so it doesn't sprout as bad, is what we like about it.

- [Lyndall] At age 20 Conrad does more than farm.

This fall, he starts his senior year at Oklahoma State University, majoring in animal science with an interest in livestock genetics for their cattle operation.

His grandpa says Conrad's education is already making a difference.

- And he's real good on keeping track of the bulls and what breed line we need to stay with and all that, I mean, he's good on that.

And good on the computer.

- [Lyndall] He is indeed the embodiment of the future of agriculture.

- Dad's farmed here all of his life and that's of course, I kind of grew up in it.

That's all I knew what to do, and exactly what I wanted to do.

And for us, I mean, for me, it's been a big benefit.

I enjoy the way of life.

I mean, it's, I couldn't ask for anything any better.

And then to see my boys come up and kind of wanting the same way, it makes you pretty proud.

- Conrad and his brother Coy plan to carry on the family farm.

- So long as they want to do it, whatever they want to do.

Thing about it, we're not gonna take it with us.

So raising food for people, that's what it's all about.

- I grew up on the farm, so I've always really enjoyed it.

And I'm hoping after college to come back and take it over.

Always walking in my dad and grandpa's footsteps.

Hope to continue that on.

- Is grandpa retired?

- He says he is, but we, he'll always come around and help some still.

He says he's retired but we still don't see it and believe it, so.

- And that will do it for us this week.

Remember, you can see Sunup 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.

(soft music) (soft music continues) (soft music continues) (guitar riff)