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

I'm Lyndall Stout.

In this season of gratitude, we're especially grateful for the opportunity to tell so many great stories here on the show.

And this week we're looking back at some of our SUNUP favorites from the past few months.

But first, here's SUNUP's, Kurtis Hair, and Dr. Derrell Peel to get us up to speed on the markets.

- Well, like we've been talking for the past couple weeks, we have had some moisture in the state.

So Derrell, you've actually been traveling a lot.

So what's the wheat pasture situation?

Have you noticed wheat coming up at all?

- You know, as I drive around, there is wheat coming up, you know, a lot of stands, some of 'em are a little spotty, some of 'em actually look pretty good, but of course they're very small at this point.

The wheat's way behind.

So I don't think we're gonna get much, if any grazing, really before the end of the year.

Depending on what temperatures do, you know, we may get some after the first of the year that'll help supplement folks that are looking still for hay or for something to get through the winter.

Certainly we're not gonna see the usual kind of stocker loading on wheat pasture.

We're just not gonna get enough wheat pasture to do that this year.

- Do you think other calls for season forwards like oats will maybe help some producers?

- It could, you know, and that's an option for some producers.

Again, depending on temperatures and so on, it's probably gonna help 'em more next spring depending on moisture and so on.

But yeah, those can be an option as well.

- Let's shift to the markets right now.

What's the fall feeder run looking like?

- You know, we've been watching, of course all summer.

We had large runs, year over year increases, three of the last four weeks, the volume for the combined Oklahoma auction total for feeder cattle has been down on a year over year basis.

So as we expected, you know, we moved cattle early.

And so they already were marketed, the fall feeder runs.

We're still getting the seasonally large runs but they're not as large as usual because we've already moved a lot of those cattle through the market.

- So what about cow slaughter?

- You know, we've been watching cow and heifer slaughter all year on a national level.

Obviously, the herd liquidation issues are very important, not only for what's happening now, but going forward.

Cow slaughter has slowed down just a little bit but it's still up on a year over year basis.

Heifer slaughter as well.

So we're continuing to see significant female slaughter that is gonna have a lot of implications for cattle markets in 2023.

- So what kind of implications would would those be?

- Well, we're gonna see dramatically tighter numbers here going forward at some point.

Obviously we're still in the drought right now, we're still liquidating, we're still getting worse.

We hope, of course, that by next spring we see some relief from that, that things start to look a little better.

But once we do, we're gonna find that the herd is down, feeder cattle supplies are tight.

All around, we're gonna see a dramatic tightness of numbers and it all leads to the fact that we're predicting anywhere from a 4 to 6% decrease in beef production on an annual basis in 2023 compared to this year.

- Well, and obviously that impacts prices and that's something we haven't talked about with you in a couple weeks.

So, you know, we're heading into the holiday season.

What is retail price looking like?

- Well, the latest data we have for October, retail beef prices, we're down a little bit from the previous month and down a little bit from the peak actually a year ago in October, but if you look at it across the whole year, beef prices have stayed remarkably steady.

We know consumers have had a lot of challenges with inflation, high gas prices, lots of things impacting their bottom line, their budgets, but beef prices have actually stayed fairly steady through that process, and as we said, if beef production tightens up in the coming year, beef prices will actually go a little bit higher.

There won't be as much beef, so some folks will likely get priced out of the market and we'll see some adjustments, but we'll probably see higher beef prices on average.

- So going into the new year, what are some things that you're looking at to maybe alleviate that situation?

- Well, I don't know that at this point there's anything we can really do to change, the die is sort of cast at this point.

We're still waiting for all these pieces to kinda line up.

We haven't actually seen cattle slaughter drop yet that would lead to that decrease in beef production, but it will happen.

We're not sure if it's gonna get here before the end of this year, but certainly as we go into next year, we're looking for a significant decrease in cattle slaughter.

- All righty, thanks Derrell.

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

(upbeat music) - So the technology that we're talking about today is virtual fencing and that's, it's pretty new concept in cattle production.

It's not a new concept in general, a lot of people are very familiar with pet containment systems that have been developed.

- [Narrator] But where systems for your dog use buried lines, these collars communicate wirelessly to a base station.

Producers use a computer, or cell phone, to designate where cattle can, or cannot, graze.

- Great thing about the virtual fence collars for cattle is that they're totally based on GPS, so there's nothing in the pasture.

We don't have, there's no wires buried in the ground.

There's nothing, there's nothing you have to put in the physical infrastructure of the pasture.

It all works off of GPS.

- It's enabled us to pull out miles of electric fence.

- [Narrator] A startup company, called Vence, provided the system, and it promises to do more than just reduce fencing costs.

Producers can easily manage exactly where cattle graze, improving the quality of their grazing lands.

The systems can also address animal welfare.

- If an animal doesn't move for a period of time like we expect that it should normally, we can get an alert from the system, and go check that animal.

We know exactly where it is, and so we can quickly go check on that animal and make sure everything's okay.

- And that was very useful this spring.

We had them on when the cows were calving, which made tracking the cows at calving much easier.

We had 'em in a native pasture with a lot of brush, so it was a real time saver.

You could actually go to that individual cow that had separated herself from the herd, check on her status, if she was in difficulty, if she'd had the calf, and go on about your business.

(fence clanging) - [Narrator] Virtual fencing may also help with securing cattle from theft, or even keeping them away from noxious weeds.

Another aspect, the research is looking at improving watersheds.

- One of the things we're interested in from the water center perspective, is the benefits of virtual fencing to water quality.

A major barrier of adoption of improved grazing management practices, has been the implementation of permanent fencing.

And so we feel like virtual fencing will help overcome that, and can be utilized for implementing repairing protection, as well as rotational grazing systems, and other grazing systems.

It can improve water quality.

- I think it could be a way that we can improve long term sustainability of grazing lands in Oklahoma and across the world.

And we're real excited to be on the forefront of investigating this new technology.

(instrumental music) - I'm Kim Anderson, Crop Marketing Specialist, with Oklahoma State University.

Now's a good time to sit back, relax, get a good cup of hot coffee, and review what happened in 2022.

Starting with production on wheat.

In the state of Oklahoma, we produced 68 million 600 thousand, bushels of wheat, compared to 115 million last year.

That's down 40%.

You look at corn, 37.2 million bushels compared to 44.3 million last year.

Down 16%.

Sorghum, 9.4 million compared to 20.5 last year.

That's down 54%.

Soybeans, 8.9 million bushels compared to 12.3 last year.

That's down 28%.

Cotton, 210 million bales compared to 693 last year.

Down 73%.

Now peanuts, quite a bit better than that, 64.6 million pounds compared to 66.8.

Only down 3%.

Yield was not good to us in 2022.

However, price made up for some of that.

You look at wheat, $8.58 average price there, compared to 6.35 last year.

Up 35%, almost covered that 40% lower production.

Of corn, $7.49 compared to 5.26 last year.

That's up 42%, more than covering that 16% decline in production.

Soybeans, $13.72, up from 11.71, 17% higher, and again, didn't quite cover all the 28% decline in production, but a good part of it.

As we're looking out into 2023, wheat, you can forward contract for $8.70, corn, $5.90.

That's down a a $1.60 from this last year.

You look at cotton, around 80 cents, that's down from the 80 cents we're looking at right now.

Prices look relatively good, but yields is anybody's guess.

If we can get the wheat crop established, we know, and that our experience teaches it, that the wheat crop for the 2023 is gonna be made in March and April.

So there's a lot to watch, to see what goes on with yields.

In reality, we don't know what the market is gonna do.

We've got those forward contract prices, but over time, we know one thing, those prices are going to change.

We do know that the market, over time, is gonna offer us a profit, and that things are gonna be good in 2023.

- In reality, how hard can it be?

Thank you for joining us (upbeat music) for Tailgate Talk on Market Monitor.

We'll see you next week.

- Good morning, Oklahoma, and thanks for joining us on Cow-Calf Corner.

This week's topic, we kind of follow up some stuff we've talked about a little earlier in the fall, but basically our topic is considerations if you're gonna be buying your hay, particularly if it's a unique source of hay maybe somewhere from outta state.

And some of the considerations we should have as we do that.

With regard to what we should keep in mind if we're gonna be purchasing hay, coming out of a summer like we've had where we know our normal sources of hay have been kind of scarce.

Typically in Oklahoma, we'd feed a lot of Bermuda grass hay, some prairie hay or native grass and potentially even have a lot of wheat hay.

This summer has been unique and there's not as much of that around.

And so greater likelihood, we're gonna be purchasing hay supplies from outta state.

And we talked a few weeks ago about the importance of a feed analysis on that hay, and still strongly recommend that.

That's gonna give you things like a crude protein and an energy content that you can kind of base how much of that is gonna be needed or if supplementation along with that hay is gonna be needed to meet your cow's nutritional requirements, be it they're dry or lactating, whatever the case may be.

But in addition to that, as we think back on the last drought period we went through about a decade ago, some things to ask a potential hay vendor if you're getting ready to purchase hay and we'll just kind of go through a checklist or bullet point list here with regard to things to keep in mind.

First, I would ask when the hay was baled.

In a year like this, we may find some hay, it may be a year or two old.

The older the hay, the greater the potential there's more spoilage in the bale.

We know bales that are stored on the ground are gonna have a lot more rot than potentially bales that have been stored on pallet crates or something like that.

So even to ask how that hay has been stored.

If it's been kept in a barn, we would expect it to be in pretty good shape.

The longer it's been stored outdoors, potentially more spoilage, more issues to deal with there.

The other question along these same lines is to find out how the hay has been wrapped.

Was it twine or net wrap?

Most modern net wraps are gonna preserve hay and lead to less spoilage over time.

So in a perfect world, we'd find hay that was baled this year, net wrapped and stored on pallets or potentially even inside a barn so that for what we're buying, we know we're getting more hay to actually feed.

Along those same lines, I would also consider, and I think this is very important, buying hay by the ton, not buying it by the bale.

In a year like this, there's unique sources of hay.

There's gonna be some potential roadsides or hay meadows that we don't typically see get used, but out of dire necessity, somebody might have baled those up.

Buying hay on a tonnage basis means that the density of the bale isn't as big a problem for us, and we are not in for any surprises as far as the weight of those bales and some things like that.

So general things to keep in mind and questions to ask if you're gonna be purchasing your hay supply as we go a little bit later in the fall and that potential hay supply becomes more scarce.

One other thing to keep in mind if it's coming from outta state, make sure that (gentle music) you aren't bringing in fire ants.

There are some areas where that's gonna be a problem so you don't wanna be shipping in those.

I hope this helps, and thanks again for being with us this week.

- Recently in Grady County, we were able to attend the first ever extension Cow-Calf boot camp designed especially for women.

Sanab Seth Fish put together this story.

(cow mooing) - We've done this Cow-Calf bootcamp similar to this for several years now, but this is the first one that's exclusive for women which has been kind of fun.

Part of the reason why we did that is there's sometimes safety when women are together and there's camaraderie that doesn't always happen in a regular, our regular Cow-Calf bootcamp, which is men and women.

So this is a lot of hands on.

It's kind of like drinking from the fire hose, so to speak, but there's a lot of good information that they can take back, kind of go back over.

They'll also get the beef cattle manuals so they're gonna have everything they really need to effectively run a Cow-Calf operation.

- So this morning we have a variety of hands on sessions.

They're working cattle, working them for a local producer that is, we're doing vaccinations, we're ear tagging, we're putting parasite control on and letting other participants really get involved with that.

- We have a session that is doing bleeding and mouthing aging cattle, as well as body condition scoring, and we have animals for them to actually do that with, and then our session here is vaccine handling and implanting and some of those, you know, how-to's with those types of things.

We want to give a comprehensive look at just a local beef operation, you know, what producers do on a daily basis, what you do on a yearly basis for cattle, and we want to give people an opportunity to do those skills, to learn about those skills, and maybe use some techniques that they've not used before.

- I think it's just a very genius offering.

I think, as women, we want to have a bigger part in the cow operation on our farms, and sometimes we're not sure how to get into that.

It's been mostly man-run since I was a kid.

I feel like my dad, and my grandpa, and my husband, they do most of the work, and I wanted to have a little more part of that.

So, I like the confidence that it gives you with a group of women you can ask questions, and feel like you're in a like-minded group.

- I feel like I'm a pretty strong part of our cattle operation at home, but I do think that there are things that we're doing, because we've always done 'em that way.

So, I mean, there's not, really, any other places I can think of where you can get this close to Dr. Biggs, and Dr. Stein, and Dr. Whitworth, and ask one-on-one questions.

Networking has always been really important to me, so, being able to meet different women from around the state who also raise cattle, and maybe you'll run across them in other aspects of life.

So, getting to know those people is really important.

(upbeat music) (grain pouring) So, today we have one of our first feeder calibration clinics that is hosted, really, across the state.

We're collecting some data on how producers feed their cattle, what amounts they feed and how accurate they are.

- Some people think they're feeding three pounds, some people think they're feeding five pounds, and in all reality, they're feeding eight and 10 pounds, so, they're off.

So, once their feeding is off, the amount of nutrition is off, the amount of their cost is off.

- So, what we're looking at is, the producer, we wanna know what type of feeder they're using.

We wanna know what type of feed they're feeding.

So, whether it's a 20% cube, or a 38, the size of the cube will make a big difference on how much comes out, as well as a different type of feeder, and so, every producer that's feeding a 20% cube isn't gonna feed at the same rate, because everybody has a different feeder, and so, we are are helping them to kind of test that out.

So, what we do is, we have them release some feed three or four times.

It depends on how accurate I am as catching the feed in the bucket, and then we're measuring it.

- The cost of feed is very expensive, and if you're thinking you're feeding three pounds a day, and you're feeding 10 pounds a day, that multiplies very quickly, especially, with the more head that you have.

- So, typically, this is the best time of year to look at supplementation, but this year is anything but normal.

So, with high feed costs, and reduced forestage supplies, even more producers are feeding more feed types, and so, it's even more important for them to really accurately hone down on what they're feeding, you know, and it may not...

The number may not show up very quickly to them, but over time, over 60, 90, 120 days of feeding, that cost really adds up, and, especially, if you're off just a tiny little bit, you could feed an extra ton of feed in a season, and if you're feeding a high protein supplement, that could be an extra $500, and so, that makes a huge difference.

- I found out that I wasn't putting on a nut, so, I'm gonna have to take, and adjust my count as far as, how much did I take and put out for the count?

It's just as bad if you don't put out enough, if you put out too much.

It's been real dry in my place.

We haven't had any until the last week or so.

We haven't had any measurable rain since about the end of May.

We'd get a 10th of rain or so.

So, the grass and stuff, and the hay situation, you really need to know what you're doing to think, and be able to keep your cattle going like they're supposed to.

- Calibration clinics are offered throughout the state where I have quite a few on the western part of the state coming up in November, both the northwest and the southwest., a couple on the eastern side of the state.

So, talk to your county extension educator if you would like to have one, or give 'em a call, and a lot of people, I mean, I would be happy to come out, and talk about your feeder, if we wanna test it, or readjust it, or what we can do to help people.

- This is a free opportunity to come in, and just get an idea of what they are doing.

We, as an extension, are providing information to them to help them know what they should be feeding, what they need to be feeding.

- I'm glad that we take and have this, because it's going to take, and really make a difference in the performance of the cattle, and making a good deal for the farmers and ranchers around the country.

(upbeat music) - So, when we're talking about hunter safety, we're often thinking about how we keep the person that's hunting safe.

As far as not falling out of a tree stand, or not injuring themselves with a knife, or not getting in contact with a zoonotic disease.

But also need to think about people that are not hunting, but are just out enjoying the day, maybe hiking or walking their dog.

What can they do during hunting season to make sure that they're as safe as possible?

And the main thing you wanna think about, as a non-hunter during the fall, is just to keep yourself visible.

You wanna be able to be properly identified by someone that's hunting.

And that often means wearing brighter clothes, trying to be more out in the open, not in thick brush.

Also, avoid low light times when it might be difficult for people to see you clearly.

So, just try to be visible.

And even make noise and speak, if you're walking through an area.

And certainly, make sure you know where you're at.

If you're on private property, do you have permission to be there?

Do people know that you're on that property?

And if it's public land that you're on, you need to know the regulations and what else is happening out there and who else might be on that property.

So, just a few simple things to try to stay safe and make sure that you're seen when you're out.

And that both you and hunters have a safe and enjoyable experience.

- Finally, today, we revisit the program that teaches young people some of the harsh realities of adulthood.

Once again, here's "SUNUP's" Kurtis Hair.

- What you see going on behind us is something called Reality Check.

It's a really cool program put together by the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, where they just kind of arbitrarily give kids a station in life with a salary and all this stuff.

And they have to go around and make budget.

- [Kurtis] Ron Cox is an OSU Extension family and marriage specialist.

He says, the workshop is designed to help these young students understand, well, the realities of adulthood.

- Right, so all the different tables, all the different volunteers, are different stations like their insurance, or it's housing, or it's cars, or it's entertainment.

There's even a chance, right?

Where you can get in an accident and have to go to the hospital.

Or you get a bonus 'cause you hit the lottery or something like that.

But different things that happen to help kids understand the value of a dollar, how to make a budget, but also the importance of education.

- [Kurtis] This workshop is a piece of a broader outreach program for minority families that aims to increase parental involvement in schools, academic achievement and self-sufficiency, and reinforce positive relationships to limit negative behaviors.

- It's called United We Can, or in Spanish, (speaking Spanish).

So you can't really tell a kid who to be friends with, but if you can create activities, so they're together, they're having fun, they just naturally start bonding, but it's with kids who are all in a program all kind of going in a positive direction.

So you see these kids behind us are having a great time.

At the same time that they're learning about finances, they're forming relationships with each other, right?

But those relationships help promote the positive kind of behavior and attitudes that we wanna see in kids that will lead them to success.

- [Kurtis] Before the Reality Check workshop, students who are all from Tulsa Public Schools, got the chance to tour the OSU campus and learn about various career paths offered at the university.

And that chance made participant Milton Ahamilton's day.

- Going to different places and learning about new jobs, new opportunities you probably never thought of, it's been pretty fun, most of the time.

We got to go to different places.

Time to time we got to relax, like during the yoga session.

- [Kurtis] For the Reality Check workshop, each student is given a worksheet detailing their adult self's lifestyle and occupation.

Whether they're a single construction worker making about 35 grand a year, or the sole income provider of a family of four, just about every scenario is on the table.

For Ruby Escalera, her exercise was a little, well, frustrating.

- So we're supposed to be simulating like what's it like living as an adult.

And I'm not very happy because my husband doesn't do anything.

Why do I have to pay for everything?

Why can't I have a second income?

I have two incomes.

It's a two income family.

Why do I have to pay for everything?

- [Ron] The challenges of being an adult, I guess.

- Why would I marry a deadbeat?

Why did this game think so low of me?

- When I start going through something like this, I get a much better understanding of what my parents have been going through day after day, week after week, month after month, taking care of me.

So it gives me a whole new perspective how to appreciate my parents, which then can have impact on the family cohesion.

- It also makes them think about something else, their future.

- Learn my priorities.

Don't be a correctional officer.

I don't wanna work in a prison.

I'd make no money.

Do the right thing and don't have kids.

God forbid, my poor friend is a single mother, single mother, and broke.

- In Payne County, I'm Kurtis Hair.

- 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.

As we leave today, we wanna say a special big congratulations to the 2022 National Championship Livestock Judging Team at Oklahoma State University.

All of us here at "SUNUP" are so proud of you.

I'm Lyndall Stout, We'll see you next week at "SUNUP.

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