(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Hello everyone and welcome to SUNUP.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

We join you today from the LeFlore County Livestock Auction for the first ever Oklahoma Quality Beef Network sale this far east in our state.

We'll have much more from here in just a moment.

But first, and also on the subject of cattle, we're talking about a vitamin deficiency that presents itself in times of drought.

Here's SUNUP's Kurtis Hair, and Dr. Dave Lalman.

(upbeat music plays out) - Well, during drought years Oklahoma cattle producers know there's a lot of issues that can impact their cattle.

But Dave, there's kind of a hidden issue that producers need to be aware of.

- vitamin A deficiency is the one I was concerned about.

You know, when we talked about it before on SUNUP, I think it bears addressing again because of the continued dry conditions we've had and we're getting some feedback that some of the veterinarians are concerned about that problem.

- So what are some issues that vitamin A deficiencies can have for cattle?

- In general, it lowers immunity in cattle and so, you know, you might have calf death loss, you might have more susceptibility to things like scours and other diseases.

So, that would probably be the primary concern.

- So what are some ways to actually, you know, mitigate that issue?

- vitamin A supplementation.

You know, it's not difficult, it's not expensive and so that's gonna be the best way for most people to address that challenge.

You know, if we talk about the natural source of vitamin A is really a provitamin we call carotene and green, lush forages, legume hay, for example, the yellow pigment in corn grain actually contains carotene.

And the animal can convert that carotene to active vitamin A.

So as plants mature, the carotene concentration in that plant material declines.

And so you can imagine in a drought year like this, that probably by the middle of of this past summer most of our forages would've had very minimal carotene left.

Consequently, if those cattle haven't been getting supplemental vitamin A consistently, they may be deficient.

Cattle can store vitamin A in their liver for two, maybe up to a maximum of about three months.

And so as we're approaching calving here, adequate vitamin A in a cow is really important prior to calving, so that she can build vitamin A concentration in the colostrum that she's gonna provide to that baby calf.

- So it's not too late.

- It's not too late at all.

No.

And in fact, for spring calving, this is a good time to be thinking about, you know, making sure that you're providing adequate vitamin A through your supplementation or a supplement of some type.

- So when we get into that actual process of supplementing, what's some guidance that you have?

- So vitamin A is expressed in international units, rather than grams or pounds or whatever.

But a gestating cow requires around 30,000 international units per day of vitamin A.

A lactating cow requires somewhere between 50 to 55,000 international units per day.

And so a real quick example of how to go about, you know, determining if they're getting adequate vitamin A from a supplement, let's say we've got a mineral, a free choice mineral supplement that's supposed to be consumed at a rate of around four ounces per head per day, or a quarter of a pound.

And the feed tag will tell you on a commercial product, the feed tag's gonna tell you how much vitamin A is in that product, and if this product has 200,000 international units per pound of feed or supplement, in this, case mineral, and those cattle are getting a quarter of a pound, that means they would be consuming about 50,000 international units.

So it would be adequate for that lactating cow.

- So the drought has impacted producers differently and not everyone was in severe drought.

So how do you know if you have a cow that's deficient in vitamin A?

- Well, you can't tell by looking, but it's not difficult to test for vitamin A, you know, we recommend that people contact their veterinarian and have them assist or guide them through that process.

But basically, a blood serum sample can be sent to our diagnostic laboratories like ours here at Oklahoma State.

And they can send it off for testing for active vitamin A.

- And they can also contact their local county extension office, right?

- Yeah, extension educators are gonna be real helpful especially with the mineral... - Implementation program, determining how much mineral you know, the cattle are getting and mineral concentrations in different feed sources.

- All righty, thanks, Dave.

Dr. Dave Lalman, beef cattle specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

And if you'd like a link to find your local county office, go to our website, sunup.okstate.edu.

(playful music) - Hi, Wes Lee here with the Mesonet weather report.

After spending most of the summer sweltering away in the hottest summer in the last decade, November came in refreshingly cool.

This map shows how far below the November maximum air temperatures came in compared to the long-term normal.

Negative numbers across the state, ranging from two to six degrees.

In fact, November stopped a 14-month stretch of statewide average monthly high temperatures all coming in above the long-term average.

We must go back all the way to August of last year to see the last time high temperatures averaged below normal.

Since December started, temperatures have seemed to be quite variable.

This long-term average chart shows we should expect highs to be around 51 degrees this time of year.

To start last week, we had high temperatures reach all the way up into the low 80s in the southwest.

The warmer than normal continued into Tuesday with highs reaching the high 60s and 70s in the southern half of the state.

Then midweek, the clouds seemed to lock in and rain started showing up and most of the state came back down near the long-term normal range.

Next week, the forecast map looks at least promising that the cool weather might stick around a while.

Now here's Gary with a drought map showing limited improvement.

- Thanks Wes, and good morning, everyone.

Well, we had some lovely rainfall the last few days but we're gonna take a trip back to right before that rain fell and look at the calendar date to present period rainfall totals, and all the deficits and surpluses.

So let's get to that new drought monitor map, which is based on that rainfall and see where we're at.

Well, basically the same picture we've had for the last couple of weeks, a little bit of worsening out in the western panhandle where they continue to miss out on any appreciable precipitation.

We do have the same basic picture across the eastern parts of the state where we have a very sharp gradient between the D0 or abnormally dry conditions to the D4 conditions, which is the one in 50 to 100-year event type of drought situation.

Let's take a look at the rainfall totals for the year to date thus far, at least through early December 7th.

So this is right before the rains of the last few days.

We do see lots of good rainfall across East Central down into southeast Oklahoma a little bit over into south central Oklahoma.

But once you go to the northwest, those values drop down quite rapidly.

We go from close to 40 to 35 to 30 in central Oklahoma and then we get right straight to the less than 20 inches as we go to northwestern corner of the state.

And then of course, out in the panhandle, we have, in one case, at Goodwell, we have 6.47 inches for the year thus far.

The record lowest rainfall total anywhere in the state of Oklahoma in history is 6.53 inches from Rainier in 1956.

Now, when we look at the deficits over that timeframe, it's not a pretty picture.

We do see lots of areas from 10 to 15 inches below normal down in southeastern up into north central Oklahoma.

We do have one area of surplus that's over in far east central Oklahoma that has gotten continual repeated heavy rainfall events.

They're about five to eight inches above normal in that region.

So for the calendar year to date, we look at those percent of normal rainfall numbers and we see lots of areas in the yellow, that's less than 75% of normal.

As we get up into the panhandle, it's less than 50% of normal, especially at Goodwell at 38% of normal.

We do have some areas closer to normal and even above normal as we go down into southeastern, east central Oklahoma, a little bit over into west central and southwest Oklahoma.

Been an all still, at least through the year drier than normal conditions continuing.

That's it for this time.

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

- Now back to the OQBN Sale in LeFlore County, the first this far east in Oklahoma.

(cows mooing) If the parking lot crammed with trucks and trailers is any indication, then this is going to be one heck of a livestock auction.

The first-ever Oklahoma Quality Beef Network sale this far east in the state.

- [Narrator] In the small town of Wister, LeFlore County.

- Brought 115, I think it was 56 steers and 59 heifers, calves I'd raised there on the farm.

- [Narrator] Mike Andrews has raised cattle his entire life.

Mike's new to the OQBN program and his calves just went to the highest bidders.

- There was probably four or five different buyers today than there were two weeks ago here.

That was type cattle they came to buy.

- [Narrator] He learned the ins and outs of OQBN from OSU Extension livestock expert Brian Freking.

- Heard about the program and Brian had a meeting here in Wister and I attended that.

Felt like it was a good deal and tried it and been well pleased with it today.

- OQBN is a health program and this is what OSU is part of.

And so we make sure that the producers have given the vaccines when they should and that kind of thing.

They need to be weaned 45 days minimum and had those rounds of shots and then they come to town and they get sold at a certain time of the day compared to the other cattle that come in at that same time.

And some of 'em may say they've had rounds of shots but we know that they've had the minimum requirements that we wanna see for a good health outcome for the buyers.

- [Narrator] And it's working.

- We've had a great turnout today.

We've got somewhere around 900 a head that were enrolled in OQBN.

And then there's somewhere around close to 4,000 total head here today.

So the word got out to bring your calves to the sale today.

So it's kinda like the field of dreams of if they build it, they will come.

And then that's what we've got today.

- We have had a overwhelming turnout.

- [Narrator] Ricky Crane and his family own the LeFlore County Livestock Auction from the sale ring to the front office.

- [Ricky] 12, 13 hours.

- [Narrator] Things are hopping today.

- [Ricky] We'll work into the night tonight.

- [Narrator] This is one of a half dozen OQBN sales so far this fall.

Program coordinator Paul Vining is pleased with the number, especially during the drought.

- It's gone well so far.

Really happy, especially compared to last year.

We're pretty close to the same amount of calves enrolled in the program and think things will continue to go well.

Happy with the prices so far.

They've been competitive, had a lot of really quality cattle, been very happy with the quality of the calves.

- [Narrator] Person most happy of all?

Mike Andrews cannot stop smiling.

- I can see the difference in the price when we got to the certified cattle and that's why I raised cattle, for the money of it.

I enjoy it, don't misunderstand, but that's how I make my living.

So I ended up with a bigger check today than I expected and that's always a good thing.

- You know, that's the end goal is bring more value back to the home producers - [Narrator] OQBN is a joint project with the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association.

Veterinarians also play a big role and the cattle are BQA certified.

Learn more at OQBN.OKstate.edu or from your local county OSU Extension office.

(auctioneer speaking indistinctly) (lively music) - Good morning, Oklahoma and welcome to Cow-Calf Corner.

This week's topic is proper hay storage.

Proper hay storage is always important, but in a year like this where hay is so scarce and at record high prices, proper hay storage is probably more important than ever.

Now, there's some things that we address up front in our conversation this week.

We know that if we've got net wrap bales as opposed to twine wrapped, if we've got more density to the bales or to say that a bale weighs more relative to its size or if we just haven't had a lot of moisture or humidity on those bales relative to when they got harvested, all those things are gonna contribute to less spoilage and more of that bale of hay still being in good form to feed the cows whenever we get to it.

But a lot of those things are past the point that we can do anything about because we're not in hay harvesting season right now.

So first thing we wanna talk about this week is just selection of a site to store our hay and the possibility of elevating that hay just a little bit.

And here's why.

Drainage and keeping moisture away from those hay bales is critically important to reduce the amount of spoilage that we're gonna have.

If we're just selecting a site to unload some hay and put it in rows, better elevation is gonna work to our advantage.

Minimization of shade around that is gonna help a little further.

And if we can do something to get those bales off the ground, prevent moisture from getting up into 'em, it's gonna preserve that hay a lot better.

This could be something like old pallets, old fence posts, old tires, anything we've got sitting around that we might put under hay to keep it away from the ground, keep that moisture from coming up into the bale is gonna work to our advantage.

Second thing we talk about is just the orientation of these bales whenever we set 'em in.

And what we really want is a north-south orientation like what is right behind me right now as we think of that as the sun comes up and goes down through the course of the day.

- We're gonna have an equal amount of sun shining on the east and west side of those bales.

It's gonna help things to dry out once we get a little bit of moisture.

On top of that, we'd like to keep our rows about three feet apart, or maybe a little bit more.

It's gonna permit more wind flow to roll through these rows of hay.

It's gonna, again, facilitate that drying process, help that hay be preserved.

What we're looking at right behind me is actually a bad example where we've got these bales stacked a little too close together.

As we think about storing that hay and getting those rows three, four foot apart, to mow down any grass that's growing between them is another thing that's gonna prevent moisture from getting up into those bales.

We can potentially put some kind of a wrap, tarp, or cover over our bales, keep moisture off the top of them.

Final thought, try to avoid anything of triangle shapes with like two rows of hay with one stacked in the middle.

That, over time, if we get some moisture, just permits more moisture to get into the tops of bales and we start to not only see spoilage from the bottom and ground contact but more issues up high in bales contributing to spoilage.

I hope this helps, and I appreciate you all joining us this week on "Cow-Calf Corner."

(light upbeat music) - Dr. Kim Anderson is here now to talk about the markets.

Kim, why don't you dive right in and tell us what happened this week.

- Well, this is an exciting week.

On a negative side, you look at wheat prices.

We knocked about over, in the last week and a half, we knocked off about a dollar off those wheat prices down around a $7.90, under 8.

Remember last week, we talked about, we broke that 8.50, and that was a negative sign, but you go back a month ago, we had $9.50 wheat prices.

So wheat took a beating this week.

Corn, we talked about last week, they'd been moving sideways for the last several weeks really over the last several months.

Corn turned down, was down about 30 cents this week, so that's, you know, negative there.

You look at soybeans, they're still watering around.

We had a good uptrend there.

We still got that uptrend in beans but they've been moving sideways for the last two or three weeks.

Of course, China was in here buying beans and that always supports those bean prices, but wheat and corn is looking a little shaky right now.

- Let's look at some of the other things that are happening around the world that are affecting those markets.

- Well, we talk about, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, not much going on in the market, and the US markets do get kind of thin there.

You'll have farmers and producers coming in selling the corn, selling the beans, selling the wheat, get a little Christmas money in there.

I think we've seen some of that selling going on.

You have less buyers on the market during this time period, but you look around the world.

There's a lot still going on.

The countries are still buying wheat and beans and corn for imports.

- Most of Oklahoma has sold the crops for the year.

What kinds of things, as producers look ahead to 2023, do you think they should keep in mind?

- Well, they're looking at how are they gonna use that land and equipment and capital next year.

Are they gonna produce wheat, are they gonna graze the wheat, or if we get some rain to get, that weed up, but they graze out wheat, they can sell the wheat, they can go to corn, they go to beans, they've got cotton.

I think they need to look at what the market's offering for those commodities right now.

Right now is a very good time to plan for that '23 marketing year.

Figure out how you're gonna use these scarce resources to maximize the profit, the return to your farming enterprise.

So now's a good time to make those plans, but the information for that is, of course, weather is totally uncertain, but the market tells you what they're expecting for next year.

- In your opinion then, how should producers sell their crops?

- I'm a dollar-cost-averaging-type guy.

You cannot predict prices.

You cannot predict production.

You know, we know we can't predict weather out very far, and it's the same with prices.

You get some big moves relatively fast.

I'd probably sell in fifths or more, but I would stagger it out over time.

Dollar cost average, you know, on buying the inputs and on selling the commodity.

- Okay, Kim, thanks a lot.

We'll see you next week.

(light upbeat music) - Once again, Oklahoma finds itself in the midst of a drought.

This is a common occurrence in the southern Great Plains and obviously it affects people negatively, from limited water to forage availability for livestock, but also affects wildlife.

A few ways that wildlife are impacted, one is a lot of ponds are dry or low, and they have been for quite some time.

So waterfowl don't have a lot of food or loafing areas and so a lot of them are just migrating right through and going straight to the Texas coast this year.

But also things like resident birds and mammals like cottontail rabbits, white-tailed deer, bobwhite, pheasant, these species don't have a lot of cover this year.

- A lot of pastures were grazed heavily because there just wasn't a lot of grass growth.

So pastures like this that actually still have cover are tremendously important in these drought years because a lot of areas just can't support wildlife.

And there's also food resources out here.

So as you're thinking in the future about drought planning, it's really important for wildlife considerations to try to leave some residual cover, have some areas that are as lightly graced as possible, and just basically have a drought mitigation plan in place that not only is accommodating livestock and human needs but also wildlife needs to the degree possible.

During these drought periods, obviously wildlife are really stressed.

They don't have a lot of cover, they don't have a lot of food.

In some cases they're trying to find water and so that can put them in conflict with people where you might have rodents coming into your garage, or you might have a lot of whitetail deer on limited wheat fields that are available.

So these wildlife damage issues are difficult to resolve.

If you need some help, contact the Wildlife Department or Wildlife Services with USDA and they might be able to offer some technical assistance to you.

But long term, the solution is just to try to provide as much wildlife habitat even during the drought periods as possible.

So the more cover, food and water that we can provide on the landscape, the less wildlife damage and conflict we're gonna have with people.

(lively music) - Finally, today we introduce you to a truly remarkable supporter of Oklahoma agriculture, Mrs. Elizabeth Logan, one of our OSU agriculture champions for 2022.

- [Ron] 95-year-old Elizabeth Logan is a legend in the Oklahoma horse racing industry but it was originally her husband George W. Logan that did most of the work around the horses.

- He was the horse lover.

I was always afraid of them.

I'd help him at the barns until he took sick in 1995 and had open heart surgery.

- [Ron] A Palomino horse named Scottish nurse helped as well.

- We had a little filly in the barn and I got real chummy with her and decided that I was gonna try and show her.

And so I came in and told him that I was gonna show Scottish Nurse.

He liked to fill out the chair.

- [Ron] Elizabeth showed horses for more than 20 years until her hip surgery.

With the encouragement of a local veterinarian though, she decided to try race horses.

- Started out with EC Revenge in 2019 and he won the Oklahoma Futurity.

(Elizabeth chuckling) Oh, I get excited - And it's fun to be with her at a race, you know, because you can feel the horses coming down the track as you're down near the track, and hear them and see them and so on, and so she just gets really excited.

- [Ron] Several years earlier, OSU played a critical role in saving the life of a new colt.

- My husband bought her at the Palomino World as a weanling, brought her home and we didn't have her only a few days.

He went to the barn to feed her.

She was down and was stalling, could not get up.

- They took her to the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine, which found out she had a muscular disease.

The horse would go on to live 16 years and produce prize winners.

The couple remembered this incident when they were deciding what to do with their ranch after they're gone.

- Then in '99, we made the decision to leave the place to OSU because they were the only ones that could find out what was wrong with the horse.

- [Ron] In 2011, George W. passed away.

Elizabeth decided not to wait to donate the land but start now.

- But she decided, you know, why wait?

I'd like to make this gift now.

And so she changed her plans, donated the land to OSU Agriculture now so that we can go ahead and put it to use and she can start to see how we're going to use that land.

- [Ron] The ranch is the newest OSU Ag research station.

- So the agricultural research stations provide opportunities across the state to conduct research and demonstrations, and communicate knowledge in local environments.

- [Ron] The Logan Ranch soon will be at the forefront of virtual fencing, a technology that can forever change cattle production.

Elizabeth and George W's estate will also provide scholarships and an endowment.

- You know, it's expensive, and maybe it would help somebody, help 'em with their education and give them a better job and a better life.

- While the future of their ranch is exciting, the loss of George W. makes it bittersweet for Elizabeth.

- Well, I wish my husband was here to enjoy it too.

You know, I feel blessed.

You know, at this point in my life, my gun is, look, here I am 95, soon be 96.

So it's too bad this couldn't happen 10 years ago.

- [Ron] Celebrating Elizabeth Logan, 2022 Champion for OSU Agriculture.

- To learn more about this year's honorees, just go to sunup,okstate.edu.

And that'll do it for us this week.

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

From LeFlore County.

I'm Lyndall Stout, and we'll see you next time at SUNUP.

(lively music)