(gentle guitar music) - Today on "Sunup", it's go time at the Tulsa State Fair.

We're checking out the 4H and FFA exhibits and getting up to speed on all things agriculture.

Plus talking fertilizer application as more wheat is planted across Oklahoma and learning all about Jack-o'-lanterns just in time for Halloween.

"Sunup" starts right now.

(upbeat music) Hello everyone and welcome to "Sunup".

I'm Lyndall Stout.

We're on the road this week at the Tulsa State Fair.

We'll have much more from here at the fairgrounds a little bit later in the show.

But first, we caught up with Dr. Brian Arnall to talk about fertilizer for both dual purpose and grain only wheat fields.

- So if we look at the current status of Oklahoma wheat crop, nutrient management, we got a couple things happening.

One, we've had some wonderful rains and spots, so that means our early wheat, even some of our wheat that was dusted in is up.

Like this field we're in right now, it's really starting to go and starting to kick off, which is good.

We have good potential on this early wheat that is in the ground, of course for grazing or dual purpose, that's why it's in prior to October.

We wanna make sure we have 30 to 50 pounds.

I like the number of 50 because it's 30 pounds per thousand pounds of forage.

So we want about 50 pounds of nitrogen down for our forage production.

Now, if we think about it a lot of our ground due to crop losses in the previous years might have a fair amount of residual.

So I don't really want to put too much into this soil, too much into this forage 'cause while we've got a nice stand right now, so here in Stillwater, we got a beautiful stand of wheat from that early sown, but we're getting dry again.

In fact, there's not much moisture below the top three or four inches.

So I don't want too much down, right?

We just want enough to get the crop up and going and get moving.

Once we have more soil moisture, we get some more rain then we can feel more comfortable in investing more in this crop.

For our grain only, that's gonna be starting to drop the first week of October through October I'm still on the bandwagon of I don't really want a lot of nitrogen up front.

I'm good with the in feral fertilizer, the 18460, the 11520, 1034, those nitrogen and phosphorus.

I like the phosphorus in furrow.

The nitrogen's not giving me a whole lot of value.

So it's all about the phosphorus that are lower pH, soils are high pH soils and low phosphorus.

Make sure we got a good root establishment get up and going.

You guys heard me talk on "Sunup" time in and time out that waiting on nitrogen for our grain only has a lot of value because we're establishing a better root.

We're exploring the soil more, kind of keeping the plant a little more compact as it goes through winter.

Of course, time in and timeout I'm gonna tell you using an enriched strip, you guys can use spreaders of ATVs, all kinds of ways to put out 30 to 50 pounds in nitrogen in a strip.

If you cannot see the strip, the field is not deficient on nitrogen and you don't have to rush.

So let the field do the talking.

Let us use that enriched strip to guide when we need it.

And then you can use OSUs sensor-based nitrogen rate calculator for a free recommendation on how much to apply when you see that strip show up.

It is the time of year where we're extremely busy, a lot of questions, and a lot of decisions.

Great opportunity to utilize that county extension office, go there, visit with those folks in that office.

They have the contacts, they are the front door to Oklahoma State University.

(pleasant music) - Welcome to this first fall edition of the Mesonet Weather Report.

I'm Wes Lee.

Fall season has arrived, but the seasons don't appear to have paid any attention to the calendar.

Summer heat still wants to persist and that is drying up our precious soil moisture.

As of Wednesday afternoon high temperatures had reached the nineties almost statewide.

This was much the same for earlier in the week and expected to remain the same into the weekend.

Looking back into the year at high temperatures, we can see how the temperatures have changed due to the seasons.

For the winter months, the state saw two to three degrees higher than normal high temperatures.

Mesonet uses the climatological seasons, which change every three months.

For Spring, March, April, and May it depended upon where you live, but for the most part it was normal in the east or cooler than normal in the west.

The climatological summer that ended August 31st was again split depending upon where you live.

Very warm in the southwest, slightly warmer than normal in the east, and cooler than normal in the northwest.

September statewide average has been warmer than normal on most days.

- Forecasters are not predicting a change in the heat for at least the next two weeks, as is seen with all the red colors on this forecast map.

Next, Gary's drought map shows improvement in one part of the state.

(graphics whooshing) - Thanks Wess, and good morning, everyone.

Well, it was an interesting few weeks there with our annual state fair cold front and rainfall, who came out ahead, and who came out behind.

Let's take a look at the newest drought monitor and see where we are.

Well, not a lot of improvement across the state, just as it's been happening, a lot of that rain fell in that street from northwest Oklahoma down through Southeast Oklahoma where the drought's not quite as bad, or it's not there at all.

However, we did see some improvement in that far southeast corner, where generally, six to nine inches of rain fell, so really good improvements down in that area.

Not so much across the west of the state, in fact, we saw more drought develop that extreme drought, the red in far Southwest Oklahoma, little bit more down in South Central Oklahoma.

So, same thing we've said a lot over the last few months, last few years, in fact.

We just need more rainfall.

And sure enough, how it keeps happening, the Mesonet consecutive days with less than a quarter inch of rainfall in a single day map?

And that dry streak is starting to accelerate once again, now we're about two weeks into it.

It looks like we might get a little bit longer into it, hopefully some rain next week.

But this is how these little drought episodes start, they get a little bit of rain, a lot longer period without rainfall.

Just take a look at the rainfall departures from normal for the last 60 days, and we can see, a lot of heavy rain up in far Northwest Oklahoma, a lot of heavy rain in East Central, down through Southeast Oklahoma.

Again, most areas where there's not a lot of drought, and we have those large areas across the southwestern third of the state, also up in North Central Oklahoma and the Western panhandle with growing deficits once again.

Well, we're due for some good news, so the monthly outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for October does see above normal rainfall, at least increased odds for above normal rainfall for the month of October.

So, that would definitely be good news.

This is a little bit dated, and then it came out last week.

But hopefully, this still comes through for us.

And then, if we look for the October through December period, and we are getting into the first bit of winter here.

We do see, again, increased odds of above normal precipitation for nearly the entire state.

Just missing that far northeastern corner.

So, lot's riding on this, (country music) what's expected to be a strong El Nino, so we'll keep an eye on that.

That's it for this time, we'll see you next time on the Mesonet Weather report.

(country music intensifies) - It's time to check in on the livestock markets with our livestock marketing specialist, Dr. Derrell Peel.

And Derrell, the USDA just released their Cattle on Feed report.

So, what did it tell us?

- The September Cattle on Feed report showed that placements in August were down 5%.

Marketings were down 6%, so 94% of last year, and that gave us a September 1 on feed total of 98% of a year ago.

(wind whooshing) So, down 2% year over year.

- So, were there any surprises?

- Well, the report itself wasn't really a surprise, pretty well anticipated.

Mostly in line with expectations.

One of the things that does surprise me a little bit though with each month, is the fact that we are pulling these feedlot inventories down, but we're doing it at a very slow pace.

We've had feedlot inventories down every month for the last 12 months, and yet we're still only down 2% on a year over year basis.

So, it's a slow process, but we are slowly pulling the total inventories down.

- So, in regards to that inventory, are there still any heifers out in the feedlots?

- The heifers is the biggest reason the feedlot inventories have stayed high.

So, the last data we had on the heifers on feed was in July quarterly data.

And we still had right at 40% of all the feedlot inventories were heifers at that time, and that was the highest level since in 2001.

So, next month October's Cattle on Feed report will give us another quarterly read on that.

I suspect that we'll see some decrease in the heifers on feed, but that too has been a very slow process.

- So, is heifer slaughter still pretty high?

- It has been.

It has decreased faster a little bit since, really it's in the second half of the year since the 4th of July.

But it's down only about 1.1% for the year to date.

It was only down about a half a percent in the first half of the year.

And that compares to steer slaughter, which is down right at 5% for the year.

So, the heifer slaughter again is coming down, but it's coming down quite slowly.

- So, what about heifer retention?

- Well, based on all of that, and everything we get at this point in time, would suggest that we're not really moving very aggressively towards heifer retention.

And in fact, in the meetings I've done, talking to producers, I think they're moving very cautiously.

So, it remains to be seen where we'll be on January 1, but it looks like we're not necessarily making a really aggressive effort to retain heifers at this point in time.

And what's really the impact of price is gonna be with all that?

- Well, the longer we delay this, cattle numbers are tight, the herd is smaller than it has been since 1962.

And so, the longer we push off rebuilding, then the longer we're gonna be in these tight supplies, and the longer we're gonna have (upbeat pleasant music) record high prices.

- Alrighty, thanks Derrell.

Dr. Derrell Peel, Livestock Marketing Specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

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

I'm Mark Johnson, and this week's topic is beef quality assurance.

Last week, we talked about OQBN sales, and how a necessary part of that is for producers to be BQA certified.

- In order to get those calves in to Beef Quality Network sales in Oklahoma, and so we followed up this week on the topic of Beef Quality Assurance.

And we're fortunate to be joined today by Dr. Barry Whitworth.

He is the coordinator of the BQA program in Oklahoma.

And we'll kinda go through this, Barry, and just talk about what is BQA.

- Well, Beef Quality Assurance is just really a program that is designed to help producers using science-based production practices to assure that we're taking care of those cows, cattle well-being, beef quality, and safety.

That's in a nutshell what it is all about.

- And this idea has been around for awhile.

We've been doing certification trainings for awhile.

What is the long-term consequence of more of us in this industry being BQA-certified?

- Well hopefully, I think one of the bottom line things is, is that consumers can rest assured that we're producing a quality product that's wholesome and it's safe, and that those cattle are being treated well.

- Great, and in the BQA training, what are the areas we actually cover?

- There are several areas in Beef Quality Assurance that are covered.

There's herd health, there's cattle handling, there's safety, just a variety of topics that are covered in if you go online or wherever you go to get your training that are gonna be covered in those training modules.

- And speaking of getting trained, Barry, if I decide I wanna get certified today, how do I go about doing that?

- We have two methods that you can get certified.

One is you can go to BQA.org and you can do the online training.

The other is in-person trainings, and for the most part, we like those trainings to be conducted by our county agriculture educators.

So each county has an agriculture educator, and they will be certified, and they can put on in-person trainings for those people.

- So if someone's out there in the state, they can go online or reach out to their county office to see when an in-person training may be taking place?

- Yes, and they occur at variety of times across the state, so.

- And I know we'll include your contact information with this segment like we did in the newsletter.

But producers could also reach out to you if they wanted more information on how to become certified.

- Sure, they can, yeah.

They can call my office.

It's, you know, 580-332-7011.

Or they can get me at barry.whitworth@okstate.edu.

Be happy to assist 'em in any way that I can.

- And once we get certified, are we certified forever or do we need to get recertified?

- No, your certification lasts three years, and then you're gonna have to be recertified.

Currently, there are modules that you can take, and one of 'em that's available right now is biosecurity.

And there'll be other ones online that you can take and you can get the three credits that you're gonna need to get recertified.

Not all of those are up yet, but they are being worked on at the BQA.org.

Or you can just go back through a regular training session like you did before and get recertified.

- Okay.

Well, Dr. Whitworth, I appreciate you joining us today.

And as always, we appreciate all of you joining us on Cow-Calf Corner this week.

(light country music) - Today I thought I'd share a little bit of info about jack-o'-lanterns.

Along with trick or treaters and candy, it would be hard to imagine Halloween without jack-o'-lanterns.

However, both the holiday and the lantern were heavily influenced by Irish immigrants.

Early Northern European Celtic cultures had traditions of using fruits and vegetables to represent human faces, though their purposes at that time is unknown.

These traditions would merge with pagan harvest celebrations to form the holiday known as Samhain, which would've been the equivalent of New Year's Day and was celebrated on November 1st.

Samhain Eve was celebrated on October 31st and would have been what we now consider Halloween.

It was on this day that spirits were thought to move among the living as they passed into the afterlife.

The Celts would build bonfires, dress up in costumes, and carve scary faces into root vegetables, such as turnips, to help protect themselves from the spirits.

Eventually these vegetables would later serve as lanterns.

As metal lanterns would've been expensive and out-of-reach to many.

Carving faces and designs into the hollowed out turnips would allow light to pass through while protecting the candle or ember inside.

The name jack-o'-lantern may have originated from an 18th century Irish folktale about a man named Stingy Jack, who enjoyed drinking and mischief.

He would eventually be doomed to forever walk the earth with only a turnip lantern to light his way.

This would inspire the nickname Jack of the Lantern, or jack-o'-lantern.

When Irish immigrants arrived in the United States in the 19th and early 20th century, they brought these traditions, folktales, and holidays with them.

- They would also find a winter squash that was much larger and easier to carve: the pumpkin.

So just a little bit of information about Jack-o-lanterns.

Happy spooky season.

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

(lively music) - [Announcer] And just a quick reminder about the upcoming 2023 native pecan field day.

This event will be on October 12th at Leon Bailey's Pecan Farm in Payton, Oklahoma.

Topics will include establishing a native grove, equipment needed for tree cleanup, grazing and forage and much, much more.

Now, this field day is free, but the registration deadline is October 10th, so don't delay.

For more information about this event, just go to sunup.okstate.edu.

(lively music) So, what's going on with crop prices?

Well, we have our crop marketing specialist, Dr. Kim Anderson, to help us walk through it.

So Kim, what is going on with prices?

- Well, let's start with wheat prices.

They've been worming their way down since, oh, the last two or three weeks.

They're down to around to $6 and 40 cents, $6 and 45 cents, lower in southern Oklahoma, say around $6 and 15 cents.

So we've seen wheat prices inching their way lower and I'm concerned that they, I believe, broken a support level and they may go a little farther down.

You're looking at corn prices sideways.

So forward contract or harvested corn right now, somewhere around $4 and 70 cents.

It's been in that area for the last couple weeks.

The soybeans, we took, oh, 80 to 90 cents off the beans over the last three or four weeks.

I think they've stable down there.

We gained around 5 cents over the last week, down around $12 and 30 cents now.

Cotton, cotton like wheat's going down.

Cotton's inch inching its way back north.

It's up to around 88 cents on the futures contract.

That'd be about 85 for Oklahoma.

And you've got the value of the dollar.

Of course, that's the impact in both corn and beans and cotton.

Bean and corn prices is mostly gonna watch what the harvest is gonna be in the US.

And the same with cotton.

And cotton, as one analyst said, this is the most uncertain year we've had in cotton production.

So that's what's gonna impact prices there.

- So, what's causing all this fluctuation?

- Well, if you are looking at what's going in the wheat market, I think probably watching the Southern hemisphere, mainly what's going on in Australia.

They planted, had good planting conditions, then the weather turned dry.

They've been losing production.

So they're watching that relatively co close.

Also, what's going on in Argentina.

Russia's always in the picture.

President Putin's messing with prices.

The market's concerned that he's gonna put a minimum price for exporting Russian wheat, but Russia's got a massive amount of wheat to export.

So there's a little bit of uncertainty there.

And then you've got the value of the dollar going higher.

It's up to about 108 now.

- So how are the summer crops harvest progressing?

- Well, if you look in at to harvesting summer crops, oh, about 20% of the corn's in the bin.

17% of beans and cotton around 16%.

- Let's shift on to 2024 wheat harvest.

As we can see, there's wheat coming up already.

So how much percentage give or take is actually in the ground?

- Well, midweek is about 17%.

Oklahoma crop wheat plantings is about 18%.

- So what are forward contract prices for 2024 wheat?

- Well, again, let's go to Pond Creek, somewhere around $6 and 30 cents up to 6.45, 6.30 in southern Oklahoma, 6.45 in northern Oklahoma.

- Alrighty, thanks Kim.

Dr. Kim Anderson, grain marketing specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

- If you have old pesticides around the farm to get rid of, there's a way to do so safely and at little to no cost.

OSU extension and the Department of Agriculture are organizing three unwanted pesticide disposal days, October 17th in Walters, the 18th in Buffalo and again on the 19th in Dewey.

You can bring up to 2000 pounds to the drop-off sites for proper disposal at no charge.

There is a fee for more than 2000 pounds.

Farmers, ranchers, commercial and non-commercial applicators are welcome.

Dealers should register in advance, due to the expected large quantities.

Since 2006, 1.2 million pounds of pesticides have been properly disposed of in Oklahoma, keeping the chemicals out of rivers, streams, landfills, and illegal dumps.

To pre-register and find tips on safe transport, go to sunup.okstate.edu.

There is still time left for you to register for the upcoming Rural Economic Outlook Conference coming up on October 11th in Stillwater.

Topics include discussion on the challenges that ag producers face, the Farm Bill and the Russia-Ukraine War's impact on commodities and the supply chain.

Registration is $50 now and $75 after October 4th, and also includes your meals.

Go to our website, sunup.okstate.edu for a link to sign up.

(lively music) Finally, today we're taking you behind the scenes at the Tulsa State Fair and having a greater understanding why the hundreds of projects entered here, including this one, are rooted in agriculture.

- We bring all of the exhibits from all of the counties that participate in the Tulsa State Fair.

They're entered, they're judged, and then we begin the display of all of those exhibits.

So lots of volunteers, lots of educators working together to show off all of the things that the kids have made and have done over the past year.

All of the exhibits are wonderful.

There's everything from sewing, and foods and nutrition, to rocketry and science and technology.

So there's lots of things for people to come and look at and enjoy while they're here.

- It is absolutely awesome, yes.

It's an exciting time, and they do such a good job with their projects.

And I look at some of the drawings as far as like the soil profiles and the plant lifecycles.

It's just incredible the jobs that they are doing on their projects.

Eight different areas and then there's obviously over 300 occupations that students can go into.

And so their projects help lead them down a path, help them explore what their interests are, and come up with what it is they wanna do in their lives.

For the people visiting the fair, to come in and see what is going on in this world, that's where the fair actually started.

Fairs began literally hundreds of years ago so that farmers and ranchers could show what it is they do, show their products.

And it's morphed into so much more than that, but this is the heart of the fair, coming in and seeing the agricultural and the projects the students have done.

So it's an important part and I hope that everybody does come into the FFA and 4-H building and see what the students are doing.

- With 4-H, it's life skill development.

Kids learn all of the different, you know, responsibilities of the project.

They are able to learn organizational skills, time management skills, how to use a sewing machine, or how to build a rocket and why does this rocket work.

There's a curriculum that goes with the different projects.

It's not just, "Oh, I wanna make a rocket, and you know, let's Google it."

They develop goals that they want to set for themself, and then, these projects are a part of that learning process.

And so those life skills are so, so important.

And they're able to learn those different things through their 4-H project work.

(upbeat country music) - That'll do it for our show this week.

Remember, you can see us anytime at sunup.okstate.edu and also follow us on YouTube and social media.

From the Tulsa State Fair, I'm Lyndall Stout.

Have a great week, everyone.

And remember, Oklahoma agriculture starts at "SUNUP."

(upbeat country music continues)