- Hello everyone and welcome to sunup.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

We're all smiling extra bright this week thanks to some timely rains.

We'll take a look at just how much rainfall the state received coming up a little bit later in the mezzanine weather report.

But first, we're talking about hay and back by popular demand Ag economist Dr. Eric Deve this week talking about relative value.

- I'm Eric Devuyst, extension farm management specialist at Oklahoma State University in the Department of Agricultural Economics.

And today we want to talk about the relative value of hay.

About four or five weeks ago, we talked about the cost of putting up a bale of hay.

So we're back here at the hay barn to talk about what, what's the value of hay that's being putting up put up at different times during the summer.

So if you look at the hay market this year, a quality bale of prairie hay around 1400 pounds put up in in July has been running about $50 a bale, 1400 pounds.

So you can still see hay for sale like that, but right now here we are, we're late September and we still see the hay bailers running on on prairie hay.

We have to question, is it worth running that baler right now?

So there's a couple ways to look at it.

One would be what would be if I had to go out and buy the nutrients, the crude protein and the TDN for example, in that bale of hay that we're putting up right now and we had to pay market price for TDN and crude protein from the grocery store, the feed store, is it worth it?

So as we look at hay right now going up, we're looking at hay that's in the low threes in terms of crude protein.

And that bale of hay is right about break even with the variable cost on a per ton basis.

So it's right now on a per ton basis, it's gonna cost you about $55 to put up a ton of hay ignoring land costs.

Why land costs are sunk right now, whether you bail that hay or not, you're incurring those costs.

It's opportunity cost if you own it, it's rent if you're leasing it from somebody else.

So that's right about break even on the variable cost and the value of that hay if you're buying those nutrients.

In terms of at the feed store.

However, there's another way to look at this, which is probably more important if I have to replace the protein that was in a bale of hay that was put up in early July, say at 5.5% crude protein.

So I put up the hay, now I incur the variable cost and then I have to buy range cubes to get up to the same level of crude protein.

What would that cost me?

And so you're looking at around $68 to buy that same crude protein with the hay you're putting up the variable cost of putting it up plus those 20% range cubes, you're at around $68 a ton for that crude protein, the same crude protein that I could have bought with a July bale of hay for around $50.

So the lessons to this are right now you're probably behind the curb and bailing hay on Native Prairie.

The other lesson is test hay Before you buy it, go put a probe in it and make sure you're getting what you think you're buying.

If you think you're getting hay now that's worth the same as hay that was put up in early July.

You're way off, you're probably 20 to $30 behind on a bale of hay that's put up now versus one that was put up in early July based on the nutrient content.

So the moral story is late, late put up hay is probably costing you more money than it's worth, certainly as we slip into October and those protein levels are gonna fall pretty quick into the mid twos.

You're gonna be way behind whether you're buying it or you're bailing it.

- Wes Lee here and welcome to the Mesonet weather report.

Fall has finally arrived after a long dry summer for most of us.

The first fall rains came earlier this week right on track to end the Oklahoma City state Fair.

While it was not a statewide rain, it was focused on some of the driest parts of the state that desperately needed it for wheat planting.

You can see here that the heaviest rains were in the northwest and in central to south central areas.

Norman saw the highest totals with four and three quarter inches of rain.

Totals were much lighter in the eastern half of the state, but midweek rains might add to this.

There is also the possibility of rain in the east over the weekend when the remnants of Hurricane Helene make a glancing visit.

The welcome rains in the west dramatically help shallow soil moisture in all counties except Harman, who mostly missed out this four inch percent plant available soil moisture map shows a lot of green 90% numbers.

We are not fully out of drought conditions though, as you can see when we look deeper at soil moisture levels down to 16 inches here, you continue to see a lot of red and yellow colors indicating we're much more rain is needed.

Let's hope that additional rains will come soon to keep shrinking areas of drought.

Now here's Gary finally with some rain to discuss.

- Thanks Wes, and good morning everyone.

Well once again, we got a really good rain in parts of the state and once again, much of the state missed out on that heavy rain.

Let's get right to the new maps and see where we are.

Well, the drought monitor sh still shows pretty bad drought conditions from southwest Oklahoma all the way over to nearly the Arkansas border along the Red River and also some really bad areas up in north central and northeast Oklahoma as well as parts of West central Oklahoma.

So basically about the same.

We saw last week a little bit of improvement up in northwest Oklahoma, but we did have some intensification up there in northeast Oklahoma as well where they largely missed out on the rainfall.

And I can show you that on this five day rainfall map.

This was the big rainfall event over the weekend and you can see northwest Oklahoma got the best rainfall, the most widespread.

And now we did have some in central Oklahoma that was really heavy, four to six inches of rain fell or right around Norman, but by and large southwest Oklahoma and really the eastern half of the state missed out on that good rain.

So those are areas that are still hurting.

In fact, if you look at the blue and light green areas on the 30 day rainfall map, you can still see areas that need a lot more rainfall, especially if they want to get rid of that drought.

Now that shows up even better on the departure from normal rainfall map from the MES net for the last 30 days.

Again, you can see those heavy rains up in northwest Oklahoma.

Really good surplus amounts of one to two inches and a little bit more in some cases, but by and large across much of the state, one to three inches below normal, up in far northeast Oklahoma, over four inches below normal in just the last 30 days.

And that far northeast Oklahoma area, if you look, percent of normal of what they would normally expect less this time of year over the last 30 days, 4% up in Miami of the normal rainfall they would expect over the last 30 days and only 3% up there by Bartlesville.

So you know much of the eastern over into west central area of the state, less than 25% of normal rainfall.

Now again, you look up in northwest Oklahoma.

Really good and that's really strange because the, the panhandle in far northwest Oklahoma has easily been the, the, the most bountiful surpluses over the last 30 to really 120 to 180 days.

We might see some rainfall from Hurricane Helene, the remnants of that, that would be in far east Oklahoma.

We'll just have to wait and see if that impacts the new drought monitor map for next week.

That's it for this time.

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

- Although we're happy to have received some timely rains this past week.

Drought of course is far from behind us.

So this week our OSU extension equine specialist, Dr. Kris Hiney has some drought management tips for horse owners as well as some blister beetle information.

- The lack of rain can certainly bring new challenges to horse owners.

Pastures right now are probably struggling and it may be advisable to remove horses and feed them alternative forge sources so that long term damage to the pasture is not maintained.

So horses, if they continue to graze the same grass over and over, that's really gonna weaken the plant's reserve to essentially survive the drought conditions.

Also, for owners, drought conditions mean hay prices might go up.

We need to really think about securing hay supplies if you've not done so already.

Remember, forage has to be the key component of your horse's diet.

So we can't just substitute grain or concentrate instead of forage.

So at a minimum 1%, but ideally 2% of that horse's body weight has to come from forage.

One concern that horse owners often have is blister beetle contamination.

Typically, blister beetles are going to be more associated with alfalfa as the beetles are going to be attracted to the flowers.

When we purchase alfalfa, we do need to make sure we know where our sources are coming from and really trust our hay producers.

So first, cutting alfalfa may be considered more safe, but we have to remember when that first cutting takes place is key.

So if your hay producer is not able to tell you the precise date at which that cutting is coming from, you may wish to look for alternative sources.

As always, any sort of beetle contamination can be deadly for your horse.

Typically, these beetles will cluster together in the field.

So while a large portion of a shipment may be safe, if you see any beetles in a flake or in a bale of hay, again, discard those immediately and contact your hay producer buyer beware if you're sourcing hay from outstate producers.

Be sure that you have gotten a video or photographic evidence of the hay quality.

Verify it before it's shipped to you because certainly in times of drought we hear about consumer scams in hay producers.

So best bet really try to preserve those pastures, maybe use some sacrifice lots, get those horses off of that pasture so you'll have something left to turn them out onto next year.

- We're joined now by Dr. John Michael Riley to talk about the crop markets this week.

And John Michael, since we last talked with you, the WASDE report has, has come out.

Any big surprises there?

- Not for the most part.

I think the expectations coming into their report were largely in line with what we got from USDA.

We're in the stage where we're getting more on boots on the ground data coming in about how yields are looking and, and just the condition of the crops for our summer crops.

So that was largely in line with expectations.

No big surprises on the wheat side.

We're obviously, you know, in the planting stage and trying to get our, our bearings on how planting's gonna shape up and then coming out of planting with wheat.

So for the most part, the wisely report was, was in line with what we thought was gonna be no big surprises.

Obviously there's always movement when that report gets released, but, but since then it's kind of shaken out and, and been on par with what we, what we thought.

- So let's kind of analyze some of those prices now.

What are you seeing starting with wheat?

- Well, with wheat, it's, it's been under some pressure here lately.

It's, it's dropped about 40 cents from, from getting above the $6 mark and that was a really, really enjoyable moment there.

But it's, it's since fallen back about 40 cents.

And some of that can be traced back to wheat exports for us.

Wheat obviously a very competitive global landscape with regard to the wheat market.

You know, a lot of, a lot of price pressure from the Black Sea region and from Russia, but that's really what wheat's dealing with right now.

Most recent planting numbers, 25% planted across the US 16% here in Oklahoma.

Both of those are 1% above where we were at a year ago.

- A little better than I thought it might be for Oklahoma, given how dry that it's been.

Certainly everyone's happy about the rain these past few days.

- Absolutely.

- Let's talk about corn now and what you're seeing there.

- Very choppy market in corn.

We spent some time up, we spent some time down.

Right now it's on a little bit of a rally, some of that kind of inverse of wheat.

We're, we're seeing some strong export numbers with regard to corn and that has helped boost the, boost the marketplace up about 15 cents from the recent lows.

But, you know, I'm only about three or three or 4 cents over the past few days.

- And then how are soybeans looking?

- Soybeans have been pretty strong.

I I, it's really hard to pinpoint anything.

Exports aren't real strong, but I think it's getting a little bit of spillover from those strong export numbers for corn.

Maybe there's some expectation in the marketplace that that soybeans gonna eventually get there, but it's, they're up about 50 cents from the recent lows.

- And then how is cotton looking - Cotton strong?

It's been, it's been working higher over the past few days.

Some of that has to do with strength in the dollar or weakness in the dollar, excuse me.

Anytime we get a little bit of weaker dollar, we export so much of our, of our cotton that that it, it benefits from, you know, those, those beneficial exchange rates.

- This time of year, you and your colleagues in the department getting ready for a big meeting, the Rural Economic Outlook Conference.

Tell us a little bit about that and what you will be talking about in particular.

- Absolutely, that's coming up October 16th.

A pretty robust agenda, but the normal, the normal topics for us there on our outlook for livestock and crops.

I'll be handling the crop side of that and looking forward to that to, to have an opportunity to, to see some folks in person.

- Always a great meeting.

John Michael, thanks for your time and we'll see you in a couple weeks.

Registration is now open for this year's Rural Economic Outlook conference, October 16th at the Conoco Phillips Alumni Center on the OSU campus in Stillwater.

Cost of the day long event is $50 and includes a catered lunch For more information and a link to register and pay online, go to sunup dot OK state.edu.

Production agriculture can be very stressful to say the least, and men in particular who farm and ranch die by suicide at a higher rate than people in other professions.

As part of Mental Health Awareness Month, sunup Kurtis Hair talked with extensions, Ty Gregson to learn about some tools and resources that are available to anyone who could use them.

- We're joined now by Ty Gregson, OSU extension specialist when it comes to opiate and substance abuse.

And TY as September comes to a close mental health awareness, that's coming to a close as well.

But obviously mental health is still really important just because mental health awareness month is over.

- Absolutely.

So it's, it's a wonderful thing to have awareness, mental health.

We know that when people have stigma or whenever there is negative beliefs about mental health, people sometimes don't go and seek treatment.

So just having the awareness about mental health so that people know that hey, we all suffer, we all struggle, it's okay to get help.

That's a wonderful thing about this month.

- Yeah, and what's great too is that OSU extension has a lot of resources available to assist farmers and ranchers and just really anybody who's, you know, kind of suffering.

- Yeah, so one of my colleagues, Matt Broey has a phenomenal, he's done a phenomenal job at creating a page that talks specifically about farmers and mental health.

It's very extensive, it's very detailed.

So if it's something that you know, it's something that you're concerned about, you can go and read about that online.

But we also recently have developed a card game that talks about mental health and how to cope with stressful events in our lives.

And we're very excited about it because it gives people the opportunity to kind of gameplay scenarios in life as well as learn coping skills to deal with that.

- And other than OSU extension, there's some national resources available right as well?

- Absolutely.

So there's nine, eight, eight, so you can call 9 8 8 and you go, they actually shoot you to your state from the national line and you talk to an individual about, hey, these are the things I'm struggling with.

And either one, they'll get you set up with some resources or they can help you kind of talk down, maybe deescalate a situation that you might be going through.

- And that's always good 'cause you just, just having somebody to talk to really is just kind of, sometimes it's just all you really need.

- Very true, very true.

So we know within our state there's a large population of people that don't go seek help.

And what's wonderful about several agencies throughout the state is that they've been funded where they have telehealth resources.

So whether you live in a rural community and there's limited professionals in your area, there are other, again, organizations and agencies that have the ability to give you iPads and allow you to reach out and talk specifically and have a therapist help you through whatever you might be struggling with.

- And I imagine that does probably feel like a barrier if you are in those rural communities where it might just seem like there's just no access to really a lot of really help at all, - Which can be very feeling alone, feeling isolated.

Nobody's there.

Nobody can help.

And that's the wonderful thing about telehealth just in general, especially with mental health, is that the outcomes are very similar.

Sometimes people worry about, you know, we're not face to face, we're not able to have the same connection.

And though that might be true, we're not face to face, face-to-face outcomes, which is what we're looking for in treatment is very similar, which is a good thing.

- Alright, thanks Ty.

And if you'd like some more information about the resources that Ty talked about, just go to our website, sunup dot OK state.edu.

- And one more reminder, Oklahoma's mental health helpline is available to anyone who needs it 24 7 by dialing 9 8 8.

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

Typically in the cow calf business, we focus our marketing efforts on the calves.

One of the overlooked opportunities in a lot of cases, particularly in spring calving cow herds, is the marketing opportunity on our cull cows.

If we look at a typical cow calf operation, over time about 20% of our gross revenues is a result of selling cull cows or cull bulls.

The nice thing about this as we think about some extra management and effort we can put into marketing is that the ebb and flow of the cull cow market is very predictable and it has been for decades.

We can consistently show over time that cows are at their seasonal lows in price per pound in October and November each year, and then through the end of the year begin to increase in value.

And typically we'll do so up until about the point of march, and usually when we get into grilling season and summer and on through the end of summer, about August, those seasonal highs of cull cow prices, we'll be at their peak.

And since it's predictable, it's something that we could plan, manage around because it's easy in spring calving herds when we wean and do preg checks in the fall and identify those cows, we're gonna cull typically a quick, simple trip to the local sale barn to liquidate those cows, turns them into cash this fall, if we are willing to potentially keep those cows on inventory, maybe put a little additional weight on them, potentially fatten 'em up to the point that they get into a higher quality grade.

If we're willing to hang onto those cows into 2025, we're gonna probably see somewhere in the ballpark of a 15% price increase from that November low up into the early part of the year when those prices go up, say February and March.

And so those are really the three forms that we can add value to cull cows, putting on some weight, improving potential quality, and just catching the better season and time when our annual price values per pound are gonna be at a little better rate.

If you're a fall calving operation, typically your normal production cycle is gonna be such that if you're weaning in the month of March, you're gonna be identifying those cull cows and probably catching those seasonal highs in price.

So this is more pertaining to a spring calving operation.

I hope this helps and consider what you're gonna do in terms of marketing those cull cows this fall.

We potentially see increases of 25 to 45% if we're willing to invest a little extra time, maybe some feed resources and management into holding onto those cows for the next year and consider the cost.

I know we're slipping back into a drought situation right now in Oklahoma.

If you've got the feed resources, the potential to do it, you can potentially capture some additional value out of those cull cows later on.

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

- There's a couple things to think about when it comes to catching and tagging newborn calves.

One quick tip is if your intent is first thing, let's say first thing in the morning to go out and catch baby calves to tag weigh them, don't take the feed truck because the, the cows are going to come aggressively to the feed truck if they're trained that that's, you know, that's where they get their supplement and so they're, they're very likely to leave their calve hit out off in the pasture somewhere and leave them there to come to the feed truck.

And so good luck finding that baby calf.

If that's, if that's your intent is to find those calves and tag them, take the four-wheeler walk out there.

If it's not a big pasture, you know, something besides the feed truck so that you can find the cow and usually close by the calf will be hidden in, in the grass.

So that's just one, one thought that might be helpful to, to many of you, and there'll be quite a few more of these quick tips as time goes by.

- We just want to take a quick break in the show to tell you about a great event coming up in just a few weeks.

On Friday, October 11th, the beginning, sheep Producers Field Day will take place at the Northeast Technology Center in Afton.

This event is a great opportunity for those interested in the sheep industry to find out more about this type of small livestock.

Now this event is free, but if you would like to attend the deadline to RSVP is October 1st, so don't delay and head right over to sunup dot OK state.edu to register.

- Perhaps the most upsetting thing that can happen to a pond owner is to walk down to their pond and discover that they have had a massive fish kill.

In the great majority of cases, the cause of that fish kill is highly unlikely to be toxic algae.

It is far more likely to be the simple lack of oxygen.

Oxygen is always in scarce supply in water, and excess amounts of decomposition can quickly use it up leading to a suffocation situation for the fish.

There are two common scenarios that we see with fish kills in this part of the world.

The first is a phytoplankton die off during the summer months, and the second is a fall turnover.

Phytoplankton die-offs occur when a pond receives high levels of nutrients, usually in the runoff entering the pond in the form of either animal manure or chemical fertilizers, especially chemical fertilizers coming off of residential lawns.

If you can find a practical way to reduce those nutrient inputs, you will also reduce the risk of a fish kill due to a phytoplankton overabundance and die off.

As to the second problem, the fall turnovers, these occur in extra deep ponds that have an extra thick layer of anaerobic water on the bottom.

And unfortunately, there's not a lot, practically speaking, that we can redo the, reduce the risk of fish kills in these situations.

I do not recommend aeration systems for most ponds.

If however, you have a high nutrient pond and you can afford the possibility of purchasing an aeration system and the power to keep it going, then I would recommend working with a well established aeration company, especially one that has an engineer on board who can properly design a system that will fit your pond.

They need to take into account not only the surface acreage of the pond, but also the average depth, the depth profile, the nutrient levels, and several other factors that go into the equation.

For more information about fish kills, just go to the sunup website and look for the fact sheet titled Fish Kills.

- That'll do it for sunup this week.

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

I'm Linde Stout.

Have a great week everyone.

And remember, Oklahoma Agriculture starts at sunup.