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

I'm Lyndall Stout.

With Spring just a few days away, we're also wondering if more consistent temperatures are also on the way.

The Mesonet Weather Team will let us know in just a few minutes.

But first, there have been several cases of bloat in cattle reported across the state.

Dr. Paul Beck tells us what to look out for and also offers some guidance on prevention.

(upbeat music) - Well, good morning.

This is the time of year in Oklahoma where we expect to see a little bit of wheat pasture bloat, but over the last few days, I've gotten quite a number of phone calls from across Oklahoma.

Certain producers are saying that, you know, they will have rode through the calves early in the morning, not seen any signs of bloat, leave to go look at the cattle at the next farm, and they're getting calls from the neighbors saying they've got cattle laying dead from bloat.

So it can be very rapid, and it can come on very quickly.

And it's important to, you know, whenever you see cattle that are slightly distended, it can go up to severe bloat very rapidly and cause death.

One of the things that we expected this year, because we've had short wheat pasture, was likely less problem with bloat, but I think it's led to even more issues.

The pasture has been very short all winter.

And whenever it's been grazed, like these cattle here behind me, they're keeping it very short.

As it grows, they're consuming everything that grows back.

And what's happened is, we've gotten a little bit of moisture and some nice weather to get it growing, and everything that grows in these immature wheat plants is very highly digestible.

It's highly soluble, and it's rapidly available in the rumen.

And that causes a matrix across the rumen mat.

And the gases of digestion bubble up through that, or create that foam that causes the bloat.

And then whenever we have a cold front come through like we did with some frosts, that disrupts those cell walls to make it even more rapidly available.

So very bloat provocative pastures right now.

And we're seeing a lot of rapid onset of bloat and death from this when normally we just can identify it and take some measures to get the bloat controlled.

I often recommend that we feed a supplement or a mineral that contains monensin that decreases the incidence and severity of bloat.

This helps in that, if we do see bloat, it's usually less severe and not fatal.

And then we can take steps to control it.

This year, we've had a lot of breakthrough bloat where even producers that are putting out the next step, the poloxalene, Bloat Guard type products, are still seeing some bloat.

And that's because we may not be seeing uniform intake of those supplements by the cattle.

So most of the cattle are slightly affected or not affected by the bloat, but the cattle that aren't consuming those supplements are getting drastically affected by bloat.

We do have, OSU Extension does offer the Bloat Tracker app where you can report incidences of bloat in your area, and then other producers can see what conditions of bloat are in their area.

And this can help you know when to keep a better eye and help inform your fellow producers that bloat is a problem currently.

This is available through your normal app stores.

And for more information, (upbeat music) look at the OSU SUNUP website.

(upbeat music) - Hi.

Wes Lee and welcome to the Mesonet Weather Report.

It's the time of year when fruit growers hold their breath hoping to miss the last killing freeze.

This chart is the minimum temperatures for Oklahoma City and Tulsa, showing February 24th as the last time a hard freeze occurred, allowing many of the fruit tree species to now reach the full bloom stage.

While every year varies, we are still a few weeks away from the normal last spring freeze date.

Shown here, are the median freeze dates, where half the last freeze dates were before and half were after the date shown.

It is not the latest freeze date by location, which would be much later in April and even into early May in the north.

For Oklahoma City, you can see how variable the last freeze occurred just over the last 10 years, as early as March 6th and as late as April 24th.

- According to this chart on peaches, we need to stay above 26 degrees after bloom to ensure that fruit will survive this year.

Our next statewide freeze appears in the forecast for this weekend, coming severely close to the temperatures needed to kill peach blooms.

Even if we make it through this weekend unscathed, more cold fronts will likely need to be dodged for a good peach crop.

Now here's Gary with a new drought map.

- Thanks Wes, and good morning, everyone.

Well, we once again had some really good rainfall amounts across the state.

Unfortunately, they weren't across northwestern Oklahoma, the area that needs it the most.

Let's take a look at that newest drought monitor map and see where we're at.

Well, it's the same basic pattern we've had over the last couple of months, improving conditions across the southeastern half of the state, pretty dire conditions across the northwestern half of the state.

So that's the story for Oklahoma and it's been that way for months, with areas to the south and east of I-44 still needing a little bit more rain, but areas to the northwest of there needing a lot more rain.

And we have a very interesting rainfall pattern.

If we look back to the percent of normal rainfall since October 1st, 2022, we see those enormous precipitation amounts across California, especially the southern 2/3 of California up into Nevada.

But you see the driest part of the country since October 1st is the Oklahoma panhandle, also included with the southwestern portion of Kansas and southeastern Colorado, so that's the epicenter of the drought currently in the United States, unfortunately, northwestern Oklahoma and the surrounding areas.

What do our outlooks look like from the climate prediction center?

These span April through June, so the bulk of our rainy season, we see increased odds for above normal temperatures across the entire state, especially across the southwestern third of the state.

For precipitation, not a good look for western Oklahoma and the panhandle, increased odds of below normal precipitation, especially across the very western tip of the Oklahoma panhandle, so that's not good news if it comes to fruition for the folks in the worst part of the drought out there.

And finally, the drought outlook, this extends through June 30th of this year.

Unfortunately, we do see that drought expected to persist across the western fourth of the state, including the panhandle, but with some improvements and possible removal to the east of there, so that would certainly be good news for the folks east of that line.

So we see with the spring rainfall coming on, hopefully, we get some improvements in some parts of the state.

Now we do hope that that spreads up into northwest Oklahoma.

Time will only tell, unfortunately.

That's it for this time.

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

(upbeat music) - It's that time in the show where we check in on the cattle markets with our livestock marketing specialist, Dr. Derrell Peel.

Derrell, last year, beef exports, as we know, were at a record high, but the situation's a little bit different for 2023.

Explain why.

- Yeah, the latest data that we've got for January of this year shows that beef exports were actually down 15.7% in the month of January.

And actually, you know, even though we had record exports last year, we began to see some weakness at the end of the year, so we're sort of anticipating this, certainly something that we're watching going forward.

- So, which beef markets were the most negatively impacted in the month of January?

- You know, it was primarily in the Asian markets in particular, South Korea was down almost 37%.

China, Hong Kong was down over 24%.

And you know, South Korea is our number two market, China, Hong Kong is our number three market, and the number six market, Taiwan was down about 34% in January.

- So was there any good news coming out of that data at all?

- There was, you know, our biggest market still by just a little bit is Japan, also one of the Asian markets, but it was actually up 6.9% in the January data.

So that's good news.

Mexico, which is our number four market right now, they've been a little bit weaker the last couple of years, but they actually were up over 30% in January, so maybe we're seeing some recovery in that market.

- So what do you expect to happen going forward as we enter spring and then look ahead to summer?

- Well, we anticipated there was gonna be some weakness, so we're monitoring this very closely.

You know, the strong dollar has been a big impact.

That, I think, is what we're seeing mostly so far.

But one of the things that's gonna happen going forward is that beef production in the U.S. is gonna fall, and so we're gonna see less availability.

That's gonna tend to keep prices even higher.

And when you add the strong dollar to that, that'll be a particular concern or a challenge, a headwind, if you will, in these beef export markets.

- So does this change your outlook at all?

- It really doesn't at this point in time because we anticipated that we were gonna see some weakness in this market and in general, we're watching beef demand anyway in the current situation, both domestic and international, so we sort of expected this to happen.

We're monitoring it to see if it gets worse.

If demand actually weakens significantly, then it might change our outlook a little bit, but in general, we've already sort of factored this into the market.

- So before we let you go, just checking in on the drought situation, you know, how's things looking in the Southern Great Plains and you know, really Oklahoma?

- Well, we've seen some improvement in Oklahoma in our drought conditions, the southeast part of the state in particular.

- We still have a lot of drought in the northwest, in the western part of the state in general.

You know, the situation broadly speaking, is kind of the same at this point in time.

We do anticipate perhaps some improving conditions through the year, but we may still have some challenges in the early part of the year, in terms of where we're at with forage conditions.

- Alrighty, thanks Darrell.

Dr. Darrell Peel, livestock marketing specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

(upbeat music) - Dr. Kim Anderson, our crop marketing specialist is here now.

Kim, there appears to be an above average amount of uncertainty in the market.

Can you tell us kind of what's going on, and how this might affect producers?

- Of course, some of the uncertainty is the financial risk that's going on, but that's mostly in the financial markets.

I don't think it's split over into the crop markets very much.

The risk in the crops is that you go to Brazil, their record soybean production, record corn production, Brazil may become the number one exporter of corn this year for the world exports.

And China of course is speculated to start going to Brazil, relative to US.

You got the drought in Argentina, you got the record crops in Australia, and of course you got the war.

Now there is some protection for producers, for yielding for price with the crop insurance program.

Now sign up ended on March 15 for the summer crops in wheat last fall.

You look at that guaranteed price, wheat $8.77, corn $5.91, grain sorghum $5.84, soybeans $13.76, and cotton at 84 cents.

Now, yield risk protection is gonna depend on the percentage that the producers bought, but like I said, those insurance contracts are closed, but that protection is there for producers.

- Let's talk now about what the market may be offering for 2023 harvested crops.

- Well, let's use the Pond Creek Medford prices to start with.

You go with wheat, oh somewhere around $7.60, that's 50 cents under that July contract price.

If you're going to the Panhandle, it's an, oh nickel or dime higher.

If you're looking down in southern Oklahoma, about 30 cents less.

And of course current cash wheat prices are about 20 cents higher.

Corn around $5.30, that's 25 under that December corn contract price.

And soybeans $12.40, that's 85 under that November contract price.

Cotton, 84 cents.

- Gotta squeeze cotton in there.

- Well, 84 cents is the guaranteed price.

About 79 cents is a forward contract price now.

- Let's briefly talk about Russia, and how they impact exports.

- Russia's the guerilla that China caused.

You look at five year production for Russia, the average is 2.9 billion bushels, 3.4 billion bushels essentially this last year, 290 coming up for 23.

Ending stocks in Russia, average 364 million, 530 million, 'cause they've stocked enough in that big crop last year, and not been able to get it out on exports.

If you look at their exports, their average annual exports is about 1.4 billion.

They're expected to, even with the war, export 1.6 billion.

So what you gotta look at they're coming out with well above average any stocks.

They're looking at an average or better crop this year, lots of wheat coming out of Russia next year for exports.

And if that happens, then I think that's going to indicate our prices down closer to that 6 dollar level.

- Okay Kim, thanks for keeping an eye on it for us, we'll see you next week.

(lively music) - Good morning Oklahoma and welcome to "Cow-Calf Corner."

This week's topic, do you have ample bull power going into breeding season?

As we tape this in early March, we're just a few weeks away for those spring calving herds that wanna begin in early January.

We're gonna be turning out bulls by the end of this month, or early April.

So, we go through our checklist of things to think about.

What is essential in breeding season, is to get as many cows bred, at the early part of breeding season, as we possibly can.

If we have a cow that goes one extra heat cycle without getting bred, that equates to about 40 to 50 less pounds of weaning weight, we have got following that next time we wean calves.

So we want our cows to breed up quick.

We need ample bull power to get that done.

We're gonna kind of approach this in different layers.

First thing we can address at this point in the year, let's make sure those bulls are in a body condition score 6, to have batteries charged up, and be ready to go out and cover cows.

We know bulls are gonna lose weight during the course of a breeding season, but we want 'em in good shape at turnout, so that they're gonna be charged up and ready to get more cows bred early on.

Second thing we can do, monitor the health.

A good deworming and vaccination program, same as what we follow with our cows is gonna be important for those bulls.

We wanna make sure we get a breeding soundless exam done on those bulls.

This is the time to be getting that done.

If we're doing that about a month out, prior to turning out bulls, it gives us time to potentially recheck.

- Gives us time to secure other bulls if we're gonna need 'em to replace a bull that's gone bad.

So a breeding soundness exam is always a best management practice going into breeding season.

Leaving yourself some extra time as a buffer zone is important there.

Final thought, how many cows should my bull be able to cover?

So let's take a look at that relative to age of bulls.

We always say that a bull that's beyond two years of age and up to about the age of six is pretty much in prime of life.

At that age a bull should be able to cover 25 and even up to 35 cows in a defined breeding season.

Now, bulls younger than that is where we need to do a little math and think about making sure we've got an ample amount of bulls to turn out.

Typically, if we're using yearlings, a 12 month old bull that has passed a breeding soundness exam we should be able to count on to cover 12 cows in that first breeding season.

Now remember, it's the age of the bull at the time we turn him out, we know bulls are gonna lose a little weight during breeding season.

So if by the beginning of April, my 12 month old bull who's just passed his breeding soundness exam and I intend to have him out there for 90 days I need to count on him for 12 cows during that 90 day breeding season.

Every month of age he is older than that, going into breeding season, just tack on an additional cow he should be good for.

If a bull's 15 months old at the beginning of breeding season he should be good to cover about 15 cows that first time.

If he's 18 to 20 months of age, 18 to 20 cows is what he's good for.

I hope this helps as you plan ahead and make sure you've got ample bull power going into the breeding season.

Do the math.

Don't short yourself on bulls.

Again, in a defined breeding season we want as many cows bred as quickly as possible.

That subsequently leads to more calves born early in the breeding season and increases the profit potential of our cow calf operation.

Thanks for joining us this week on Cow Calf Corner.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] And just a quick reminder about the upcoming 2023 Oklahoma Peanut Expo.

The event will be held at the Business Enterprise Center at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford this coming Thursday on March 23rd.

Attendees will have the chance to visit and learn from other industry experts and other peanut producers.

The event will be free and lunch will also be provided.

For more information on the Peanut Expo, just go to sunup.okstate.edu.

- Edmond Bonjour joins us now to talk about the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program.

Edmond, you and the group are getting ready to initiate a new class right?

- That is correct.

The Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program is just finishing up Class 20 and then we'll start, we are in the process of taking applications for Class 21.

- So for someone who maybe hasn't heard about this or maybe heard about it a ways back and may be interested, tell us a little bit about the program and what people do during their time with the program.

- Well, the OALP is a 18 month program, and so during that 18 months we have what we call 13 seminars and there are 10 of those that are three day seminars in Oklahoma where we travel all over the state, learn about various aspects of agriculture, government, economics.

Then we do a three day trip, one days in northern Oklahoma, then two days in Kansas and then we take an eight day trip to the East coast.

So we go out to Pennsylvania for a couple days and then in Washington DC and then we do a little bit in Virginia and Maryland.

And then the ultimate trip is the international trip.

It's usually a two week trip somewhere in the world.

And that changes with each class.

- And you and the class just got back from the latest international trip.

Tell us about that.

- Yes.

We spent two weeks in Israel in February and it was a wonderful trip.

We saw a lot of innovative agricultural entities, learned about their culture and the class really enjoyed that trip.

- So lots of experiences with agriculture of course, but then I'm sure that that networking and those relationships that are built during that time are also very important professionally.

- Yes, that is one of the things that all alumni claim that is the best benefit from the program is the networking that they experience, not only with their class but with alumni throughout the state 'cause when we go out and visit various areas of the state we try to interact with the alumni from those areas.

And there's that instant connection when you say OALP and someone else has been in that program, that there's a connection that it's just kind of uncanny how it happens that you feel that you can talk to those people with a different experience than you can with other people.

And then also internationally, we had an excellent agricultural tour guide when we were in Israel, and there's a lot of people that are friends with him now and he's planning on coming to Oklahoma hopefully in the next year.

- That would be great.

And see everybody he met, of course.

- Yes.

- Talk about the criteria and eligibility that you are looking for when someone's applying.

- We do have a minimum age requirement of 25 years old.

- We don't have any top limit on age, and we want the person to be either an ag producer, or like a farmer or rancher, or involved in some aspect of agribusiness.

And that can vary anywhere from a banker, to a real estate person, to a fish farmer, to someone in the forest industry.

So the whole gamut of anything and anyone that is involved in any of those aspects of agriculture.

- And someone in ag communications, for example, right?

- Exactly.

Certainly.

(laughing) - So the application process, as we mentioned for the next class is starting to get underway.

Tell us about that and kind of what the timeframe is.

- Yes, the, the application is available on our website right now, um, so it's open from now until May 1st is the deadline, and you fill out the application form, and you have to submit four references.

And then we have a committee that reviews all those applications, kind of does the screening.

We want a very diverse group, both in age, in experience, in geographical region in the state, um, 'cause the more diverse the class is, the better interaction we have, and the better it is for the participants to get a lot more out of it.

- And it's under the umbrella of OSU extension, right?

- That is correct, yes.

- Okay, great.

Well, great information.

Congratulations on reaching 20 years, and, and best wishes with the next 20 years with the program.

- (laughs) Great, thank you very much.

- Thanks, Edmond.

And for more information on the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program just go to SUNUP.okstate.edu.

(upbeat folk music) - United States Food and Drug Administration promotes the judicious use of antimicrobial drugs, or what we refer to as antibiotics, in human medicine.

Uh, the FDA also promotes judicious use of antibiotics of medically important antibiotics in animal medicine.

Now, medically important antibiotics are those antibiotics that are important in human medicine that we also use in veterinary medicine.

Judicious use of antibiotics means that those antibiotics are only used for treatment, prevention, and control of disease under the guidance of a veterinarian.

On January 1st, 2017, the veterinary feed directive was implemented.

With this implementation, about 96% of the antibiotics that were being used in animal medicine became veterinary feed directive drugs or prescription drugs, which means they were meeting the definition of judicious use.

Examples of drugs that are still over-the-counter are injectable penicillins, uh, tetracyclines, uh, sulfa drugs, uh, oral medications like neomycin, drugs that we use to treat mastitis, like the intramammary, uh, tubes.

Uh, all these drugs have an over-the-counter label.

On June 11th, 2023, in order to get those previous mentioned drugs, you will need to have a prescription.

In order for a veterinarian to write a prescription, they have to have what is referred to as a proper veterinary-client-patient relationship.

A proper veterinary-client-patient relationship is defined by the Oklahoma State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners.

In a sense, it's, it's basically this.

A veterinarian makes the medical judgements for an animal.

He has to have sufficient knowledge about that animal, uh, usually by examining it or having a very good idea of how that animal is taken care of on a livestock operation.

For livestock producers, now's the time to, if you don't have a vet, a relation with the veterinarian, you need to get one.

Uh, you need to take an inventory of the drugs that you're currently using on your operation.

Take that to your veterinarian, uh, have a conversation with them about what's gonna be necessary for you to continue to get those drugs.

Um, I think that for most of you that have that relationship, there'll be no problem on June 11th.

For those of you don't, you're gonna need to establish a relationship with a veterinarian.

(upbeat country music) If you'd like more information about over-counter drugs switching to prescription drugs just go to SUNUP.okstate.edu.

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

I'm Lyndall Stout.

We'll see you next week at SUNUP.

(guitar notes)