Hello everyone, I'm Lyndall Stout and we have a great show lined up for you today on SUNUP.

We learn how a failed cotton crop can have another use for cattle.

Then we find out about another issue that could be impacting your soybean crop and what it took to get this year's OSU Cowboy Stampede Rodeo ready for the competition.

Grab that hot cup of coffee because SUNUP starts right now.

We begin this morning with Dr.

Mara Dufek, our OSU Extension Pathologist, talking about an issue in the soybean crop, the nematode.

Mara, tell us all about this pest.

What is it and where do we find it?

So the soybean cyst nematode is an organism that survives in the soil.

We call them a parasitic roundworm and because it survives in the soil, it's going to affect the root system of the soybean plants because it's going to start to feed on the soybean plants and also to reproduce.

And then because of this feeding and this reproducing in the soil, in the roots of the soybean plants, it's going to affect of course our yields because the plant is going to be more stunted, they're going to be yellow, and also they're going to die early in the growing season and then the plant doesn't have the chance to fill up the grains.

So it's definitely going to affect our yields.

So not a good thing at all.

You are seeing it in the eastern part of the state but then also some other areas that we haven't seen it before in Oklahoma?

Yes, that's correct.

So we have reported this pest in the past in the counties that are close to Arkansas, in the eastern part of the state.

That's where we have a lot of most of our soybean production in the state.

However, now with the expansion of double crop in other parts of Oklahoma, we reported for the first time this organism affecting the soybean yields in the southwest part of Oklahoma, especially in Carroll County.

So we are seeing the expansion and distribution of this pest.

What kind of guidance do you have and what can producers do?

The first step that the growers should take is to have their soils tested for this organism.

So we're going to need to go to the fields and collect soils in the same way that we collect the soils for doing a nutrient test.

But in this case, we're going to send the samples to a laboratory that's specialized in the nematodes and they are going to give us an estimate of what's the number of those nematodes in the soil.

And then the growers can have these numbers.

Do I have this pest and what is also the number?

Because the number is very important.

You may have in your soils in low numbers, it's not going to really affect your yields.

But if the population starts to build up over time, it's definitely going to affect yields.

So the first step is having your soils tested.

Can you test the soil if you've already harvested or you've had to take a loss because of drought?

Yes, we can collect soils during the growth stage.

We recommend to collect at the end of the season because if you have the nematode there and you have the soybean crop there, that population builds up.

So it's easier for us to have these numbers and have them tested.

However, we can also collect soil after harvest.

And of course, that field is also affected by drought because if nematode is there and we do a good soil sample, we're going to pick the numbers in there.

So say I get my sample back and it shows a number of nematodes above that threshold that you're talking about.

What are the treatment options for the soil and for the next crop that you need to put in that field?

Yeah, so the first step if you find this pest in your field, this nematode, is to establish a system that is crop rotation, choosing crops that's not going to help to increase these numbers, right?

So small grains such as wheat, cotton, corn are good options that you should use as your options for crop rotation that's going to help to decrease the numbers of this nematode.

Something that we need to keep in mind is that we need to have this crop rotation system going for years because this nematode survives in the soil for several years.

So it's not just going to be for two years, three years.

We need to have crops that doesn't reproduce this nematode for a longer period of time.

The second step is to identify the race of this nematode because we have this population and have different races and identifying the race is going to guide us which soybean variety we can use next because some soybean varieties have some resistant genes and we're going to need to select them accordingly to plant a soybean variety that is resistant to that specific race of the nematode.

They can contact me directly by email, also calling my office number or they can also contact the Extension educators and then they can contact me as well and we can coordinate a visit to your fields to collect the soil samples.

Okay, great.

Mara, thanks a lot.

Some great information for us and for more information on contacting your local Extension office, you can just go to sunup.okstate.edu.

Talking cattle now and how a failed cotton crop might have some other uses.

SUNUP's Kurtis Hair visits with OSU Extension Beef Cattle Specialist Dr.

Paul Beck to learn more.

Well, Oklahoma received some much-needed rainfall but unfortunately the drought reared its ugly head for some of our summer crops and Paul, for crops like cotton though that you know some producers may have failed, there's some other uses that can be get out of that crop, right?

Yes, I've gotten quite a few questions from western Oklahoma, Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma Panhandle about using some of these failed crops.

One that we don't think about very often is using a failed cotton crop as a grazing resource and there's you know quite a lot of good forage value in a failed cotton crop.

You know this year with our drought through the summer I have a lot of producers that have called that are feeding hay way earlier than what they normally would and they have a lot shorter hay pile or smaller hay pile than what they normally have.

So, limited hay and early feeding kind of makes you want to look for you know some alternatives and you know cotton crop if you have some failed cotton or a neighbor with some failed cotton can be a really good grazing resource to keep some cows off from hay for a while.

So, if producers do have the opportunity, what are some things to consider?

I mean, do you just turn cattle loose just out on the field or do you have to do anything to the field at all?

So, just think about a standing cotton crop.

You know there may be two or three thousand pounds of total biomass out there.

About 50 to 60 percent of that is stalk which is essentially you know inedible or so limited value a cow wouldn't eat it.

So, you know of the rest of that the leaves, the lint that's out there, and also the the bowls and other plant parts you know make up quite a good forage resource.

So, we're talking about 20 percent lint for instance, 20 percent bowls, and then 50 to 60 percent leaves and and cotton seeds.

So, you know all that together you know makes about a 12 to 15 percent crude protein forage source with about 55 to 60 percent total digestible nutrients.

So, that meets a more than meets a gestating cow's requirements and but we know that cows will go through and and get the their most palatable things first.

They'll eat the leaves, they'll eat the cotton seed, and so the the quality of that will decrease as the cows can you know go through and consume.

And you know if a person has the resources to limit graze and have an electric fence to give them two or three days of forage they'll utilize it much better and have a much even more even diet quality through the time you're using that.

So, they you know that could extend the use of that decrease the trampling losses and that type of thing.

But a person could just turn the cows out let them eat what they're going to eat and then pull them back.

It just they won't get as quality a diet throughout the whole time or utilize it as efficiently.

And it's not just cotton you know for this time of year if there's a failed crop there's there's other type of you know stands that cattle can be turned down on as well like corn for example.

Grazing failed corn is is is very common especially when we get into the western midwest in dry land areas where where they just didn't get a corn crop.

Also after corn harvest there's a lot of producers that can use just grazing the corn stubble.

A lot of those rules of thumb they'll eat the leaves, they'll eat cobs, they'll eat the shriveled grain that didn't make it into the combine and get a fairly good resource.

And with corn and sorghum crops as well as is there a concern for nitrates this time of year?

Yes there's a there's a real concern with nitrates especially if a large amount of nitrogen fertilizer was put out that wasn't utilized by that crop.

Also corn although it looks like it might be a plant that would make a prussic acid issues it does not have that prussic acid issues but grain sorghum does.

So stressed and and regrowth of grain sorghum can cause both nitrates and prussic acid issues.

And you recently just wrote a one of your Cow Calf newsletters just like I think it was last week I believe about this issue and so people can go there if they have questions or concerns or just contact their local extension office right?

Yes contact your local extension office we have fact sheets on on this subject.

The CalCalf Corner newsletter we back issues within the last two weeks has some information on this with a link to that fact sheet as well.

All righty thanks Paul.

Paul Beck OSU Extension Beef Cattle Specialist here at Oklahoma State University and if you'd like a link to that newsletter just go to our website sunup.okstate.edu.

Good morning Oklahoma.

I'm Aaron Long Agricultural Weather Specialist with the Oklahoma Mesonet and Oklahoma State University Extension here to give you your weekly Mesonet weather report.

So I'm sure everyone's aware that we received tremendous amounts of rainfall throughout much of the state in the past week or so.

So over the last 10 days we had that really heavy band of rain stretching from west central Oklahoma northeast through the heart of the state.

You can see the red areas in that map are where we really got the heaviest rainfall.

Many stations on that band recorded more than six inches of rain and we even have some topping 10 inches now.

Totals really dropped off outside that heavy band though especially over in southeast Oklahoma where some areas didn't receive anything and the rainfall was more limited across a lot of our stations.

If we back up a little bit and look at our 30-day rainfall map it starts to look even better.

This 30-day period leading up to my recording today October 20th is actually the 16th wettest statewide in the last 106 years but I will say that number is helped by that extreme amount of rainfall received along the heaviest band through central and western Oklahoma.

In southeast Oklahoma and parts of north and northwest Oklahoma the rainfall totals were still only between one and three inches total in this period.

Just a quick refresher a value of one in the fractional water index means that the soil is completely saturated and zero means that it's bone dry.

So at our 10 inch depth most of the state is getting pretty close to a one.

It shows you again the result of all that rainfall we've received recently.

The driest readings are again back there in southeast Oklahoma with a few spots in the panhandle in northwest but that gives us a good picture that down to about that 10 inch depth we have had some infiltration of that rainfall that's really helped build up that soil moisture in our top soils.

But if we go a little bit deeper to our 24 inch depth the picture changes.

We do still see some wet soils at this depth again on that band where the heaviest rain fell through central and then parts of south central Oklahoma.

But whenever we look at the north the west and southeastern Oklahoma we have a lot lower values.

Many are even zero or near zero.

So that deep moisture is very important because it's our long-term water storage.

It's what our plants are going to need to use over the winter and it's also very important for drought recovery.

So we could definitely still use some additional rainfall throughout the state to help us saturate these deeper soils and start seeing some long-term improvements on our drought monitor.

And again the intensity of that dry period leading into this rain event is part of the reason why we're seeing just a reduction in drought on the drought monitor rather than a complete elimination in most areas.

Again it's going to take a little bit longer for extended periods of rainfall to really rebuild the saturation to the soil profile and have us start to see areas of the state that are no longer in drought category at all.

But again we're well primed with the El Nino and our climate outlooks are at least projecting improvement on the drought over the course of the next few months into the next year.

So many of us got a much needed dose of rainfall this month but we're still looking for more rainfall in the long term to help us recover from this drought.

Stay tuned with next week's Mesonet weather report and we'll just keep you updated.

Thank you for listening.

I'm Aaron Long.

It's that time in the show to check in on the livestock markets with our livestock marketing specialist Dr.

Darrell Peel.

And Darrell the USDA just recently updated their beef market expectations.

So what countries were the biggest beef producers and consumers?

Yeah so you know if you look at the beef producers for many many years historically the U.S.

was the biggest beef producing country.

However in the last couple of years Brazil has actually exceeded us.

Part of that is because we're down right now obviously where we are in the cattle cycle.

But the other thing is Brazil's been growing for a long time so they finally just reached a point where they've moved past us a little bit.

You know beyond that India, China are big beef producing countries as well.

So which countries are their biggest like importers and exporters?

So you know as far as exports go Brazil is by quite a bit the biggest beef exporting country right now.

Australia is second and India are large exporting countries.

The U.S.

is number four but we're down quite a bit of course again because of where we are with the cattle cycle.

So for the U.S.

where do we export most of our beef?

You know our biggest export markets are Japan and South Korea.

Up until last year China, Hong Kong had emerged in the last few years as our third largest market.

Of course right now we have political issues with them so they've dropped back a little bit.

Canada and Mexico are large export markets for us as well so those are all important.

Beef imports have received a lot of news and attention lately and you recently had an opinion article in the New York Times so congratulations on that.

Thank you.

So what's the current situation with beef imports right now?

You know we always import a significant amount of beef.

It supplements our lean beef supplies largely for our ground beef market.

But of course because of you know record high prices right now and there's a lot of political attention on this, imports have received a lot of attention.

So we import mostly from Australia.

Brazil are the two largest ones right now and we've seen some changes in that you know with new policies to allow some additional imports of beef tariff-free.

That'll largely favor Brazil going forward.

So you know we've got a special deal with Argentina right now so we're seeing some increased imports from there.

So it's been the subject of a lot of attention on the part of producers who are always wary when we start changing the rules as far as trade goes.

But you know the market basically is working here.

We're importing beef that we need to support our ground beef market.

Alrighty, thanks Darrell.

Dr.

Darrell Peel, Livestock Marketing Specialist here at Oklahoma State University.

Good morning Oklahoma and welcome to Cow-Calf Corner.

Our topic this week is the value of information as we market cattle.

As ag producers we have historically marketed our commodities pretty much as price takers because whether it is cotton, dairy, beef cattle, whenever that commodity comes off the farm or ranch it tends to be pretty interchangeable with a lot of other commodities like it and we end up as price takers in the market.

When we talk about using information and the value it has as we market cattle this really pertains to cattle of about any type.

Whether we're selling weaned calves, yearlings, bread heifers or purebred registered seed stock, the more information we can provide about the product really gives us marketing power and we go from potentially just a price taker to influencing the value of those cattle and making a market for ourself and having more control over the outcome as to what that value is.

How do we do it?

It's got to be a very intentional thing whereby we invest the time and effort to substantiate the value what makes our cattle different or unique and have value to the person who is going to own them after us.

We walk through a few different examples because again this really pertains to all classes of cattle and how we want to go about it.

We can think of something like the Oklahoma Quality Beef Network sales that we used to have here.

We can look at the long-term impact of what that documentation of management practices actually backgrounding those calves for 45 days, documentation that we had followed a vaccination protocol on those calves and we can look at that data for the last 10 years of the program and see that on a 500 pound weaned calf it was worth about $65 a head.

We can also look at data that we have from a program like Angus Link.

You can get more information on this at angus.org but to this point there have been about a million calves marketed through Angus Link.

This program through an enrollment process whereby we put in the registration number of the bull that sired those calves, we get a genetic merit scorecard.

It tells us and informs us about the post weaning growth and carcass merit of those cattle relative to an industry average.

Last year the calves marketed through Angus Link sold at a premium of over $20 a head as compared to commodity.

Another nice example from the purebred sector, Express Ranches after a 30-year breeding program recently dispersed those females.

Over 24 head of Angus females, the result of a 30-year program and extensive record keeping averaged over $13 ,000 a head.

Now those cattle sold with an extensive volume of information.

We had genetic values or genetic prediction for over 30 different traits.

We had pedigree information, age information, breeding status, service sires, all that information leads to value out of a program that collected a lot of phenotypes and invested a great deal into being able to provide that information.

Recent sales of commercial bred heifers, if we want to look at that aspect, we see buyers paying a premium and more interested in heifers that can be documented to be AI bred with a known calving date as opposed to those that may be bull bred or calving over a wider range of time.

So again it takes intentionality, it takes planning, but in an age of information we are seeing that information provided with cattle at the point of sale that documents their unique value to the next owner is paying dividends and permitting us to influence and have more control over the value of that product that comes off of farms and ranches for cattle producers.

I hope this helps and as always thanks for joining us this week on Cow-Calf Corner.

Finally today the OSU tradition that is the Cowboy Stampede.

SUNUP's new multimedia producer Kyle Batt tagged along with some rodeo team members to see just what it took to put on the event this year.

Yes this is start of my 15th season.

Yeah it'll be 15 years in February.

One of the big things is we're adding a bunch of new seating as you can hear in all the background.

It's just grown by leaps and bounds.

I think we had my very first semester there I was in the middle of a season but I think we took maybe eight or ten students to a rodeo and this year we've got 48 students and all of them go to the rodeo.

Well it's a lot different being on the production side.

There's a whole lot of leg work to it but it's all for a good cause.

Making sure our team's prepared for the rodeo just make sure the facilities in top shape so we can have a great rodeo.

Whatever works.

I've been rodeoing since basically I was born.

I grew up in Texas.

My parents own a ranch down there and we raced cutting horses.

So I've been riding since before I could walk.

My grandpa always rodeoed and then my older brother wanted to get into it and so obviously me and my younger brother had to follow in big bro's footsteps.

Cody rodeoed for a long time that helps a lot but having Joby who's rodeoed recently and been to Claude Ronald's and actually rodeoed under Cody he understands kind of what we're thinking what we're doing how practice it works and how it feels as a student not just as a coach so I think having that insight's great for us.

I think we put on a great rodeo and the community makes it pretty special.

Last year's my first year competing and I made a decent run myself and just the music and the fans it was it was so awesome.

The first time with Cowboy Stampede was my first time I was competing and I just I think it's the best rodeo in the region.

We won rodeo of the year last year and I think that kind of speaks for itself.

Of course with an outdoor event Mother Nature can play a very big part in that at any point.

The decision to postpone Thursday was a super hard decision and you know and we rodeo in the rain and the mud and everything else but we got so much there I just didn't feel like it was going to be a very safe situation for the students or the livestock for that matter and we knew we had partners that were willing to try to help us so we decided that then we had to start making phone calls.

So I just want to thank the partners that worked with us you know we just did the best we could and I think we went on and had a pretty decent rodeo.

The saying iron sharpen iron kind of holds true to this team especially having I said the coaches that have been there and done that and even the students we have kids from California, Mississippi, Nebraska, Texas we have all over and so we all have different perspectives on how things work and maybe how things how people should do things and I think that really helps us to build as not only competitors but as people to learn to take feedback in.

Kind of my first priority is the students always and so I want to develop students of strong character work on their abilities inside the arena but I just hope to create great people outside of the arena as well as inside of the arena and if you do that enough times in a row you have a great program.

We've been very very fortunate very blessed to have success just being able to get that exposure for the students and within not only within the community but within the college as well it's really helped our team grow get some exposure for our team and it helps us attract top quality athletes and students as well.

Thanks to Kyle Batt for that great story about the rodeo.

By the way Kyle is the newest member of our SUNUP team having joined us recently from KOCO in Oklahoma City and that'll do it for our show this week.

A reminder you can see SUNUP anytime on our website follow us on social media and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel youtube.com/sunup tv.

We leave you today with a few more highlights from the Cowboy Stampede Rodeo.

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