This show includes the following segments: 

• Managing ticks & anaplasmosis
• Cow-Calf Corner
• Vet Scripts
• Market Monitor
• Reading soil sample results
• Mesonet Weather

 

Managing ticks & anaplasmosis

(upbeat music)

>>> Hello everyone and welcome to SUNUP, I'm Lyndall Stout.

Livestock producers in Oklahoma work a lot

of cattle this time of year

and now is the perfect time to plan ahead

for managing horn flies and ticks.

SUNUP's Kurtis Hair catches up with our

extension livestock entomologist Justin Talley.

>>> With this warmer and nicer weather

cattle producers will be out working their cattle

and its time that they need to start checking for ticks.

So Justin what are some things they need to be looking for?

>>> Yeah right now there's two main ticks

that they're concerned with and one is the ear tick

also known as a Gulf Coast tick.

The other is the Lone Star tick

and we have an overlap of both of their seasons.

And as they progress and as they work their animals

they need to really look for where these ticks are.

The Gulf Coast ticks is fairly easy

it's usually on the ears either on a calf or on the cow.

But the Lone Star tick is more inconspicuous

and it can be around the udder regions

or along the brisket.

As cattlemen work the cattle they really need to look

for those, those spots and see

if they're really infested with ticks.

>>> Well because they're not on the ears

and in those places might mean that cattle producers

might not even know that they actually have a problem.

>>> Yeah exactly if you just look at your animals

out in the pasture then they're not really gonna be noticed.

And so the best way to look for ticks

is put them in a chute and what we call "scratch for ticks."

Sometimes you'll feel a tick before you see a tick

and so as that animal's in the chute

or in a kinda confined area then kinda feel along

the brisket, along the udder region

and then as you feel that tick

and if you come into some very engorged ticks as well

so that's usually an indication

that you probably need to start treating.

>>> Yeah and we know what ticks do to us as humans

but what's the impact that ticks actually have on cattle?

>>> So there's two main impacts that we're concerned with

in ticks in general mainly the dermacentor ticks that

are gonna become active as the summer progresses

and as well as some other ticks can cause production losses.

Gulf Coast ticks causes Gotch Ear where it

actually makes the ears fold in

and especially on a calf where the cartilage

is not as developed as say a mature cow or heifer.

And so as that cartilage starts folding in

those ears will start folding in.

And then which is a significant stress

and when you think about the Lone Star tick

and some of these others like the American Dog tick

and the come on later.

We're really concerned about production

and on the production side when we get 10 or more

engorged females so those big gray ball looking ticks

then we see production losses.

And the biggest concern that we're really going into

is as we get into more of a tick season is anaplasmosis.

>>> Well speaking of anaplasmosis,

talk a little bit about exactly what that is

and how that impacts cattle.

>>> So anaplasmosis is what we call a intercellular bacteria

that can be carried by ticks and both biting flies.

And our biggest concern is it affects

some of our older stock that our cow

that's a really good cow that's producing a calf every year

it can get into her and cause her to either become sick

or even cause her to die.

And so usually what we see with this

is there is a seasonality to this

and so usually August through October

is when we see increased cases of anaplasmosis.

The Oklahoma Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory

usually gets more cases of anaplas coming into their lab

in the latter summer months and into the early fall months.

And the reason for that is because

as the tick population builds

we've got more what we consider biological vectors.

So you have a tick that can pick up the anaplasmosis,

anaplasma marginale bacteria from an infected animal

and then that bacteria can actually multiply

inside that tick.

And so it's what we consider it's amplifying the bacteria

and so later on in the season as you have more ticks come on

you have more infected ticks that are amplifying

that bacteria which means they're more infected.

And then later on you also have an active horsefly season.

Horsefly seasons is what we're gonna consider

our mechanical vector.

So what we have is a anaplasmosis infected animal,

the fly feeds on that animal,

then it's usually a short time period within the herd

it feeds on another animal and it transmits it that way.

But because of the seasonality of both ticks and flies

we tend to see more anaplasmosis coming on

latter on in cattle production systems.

>>> So, obviously, we can pick the ticks off

as one form of control, I guess,

but what are some other means of control

in trying to eliminate this problem?

>>> Yeah, there's two ways you can control a tick.

One is that, what we call a systemic product,

so that means that when you apply it,

it's soaked in through that animal's skin

and then it's located through the animal's blood.

The other way are whole body animal sprays or pour ons.

Pour ons can be systemic or non-systemic.

Pour ons in the systemic category are what we consider

Abamectin, Cydectin, anything that's what we consider

in the chemical class of a macrocyclic lactone

non-systemic pour ons include pyrethroids

and then some sprays that can include organic phosphates.

Our biggest issue is when you treat an animal

for ticks you wanna get the product where the ticks are,

especially if you're not using a non-systemic product.

The other balancing act that we need to do with that

is if you're using a systemic product,

those are also labeled for internal parasites

and so you don't wanna overuse those because we could

have resistance on the internal parasite side.

>>> Alright, thanks Justin.

If you'd like some more information on ticks

and corn flies go to our website, sunup.okstate.edu.

(upbeat music)

 

Cow-Calf Corner

>>> For those Oklahoma cattle producers that have

spring calving herds as we head into the late spring,

early summer months, they may be considering

whether they want to use creep feeding

as a management practice

in order to put some added weight gain on those calves

this summer before they sell them next fall.

Before you make the decision to put creep feeders

out this summer I really encourage you

to spend some time with pencil and paper

and perhaps a calculator

and make sure that that particular practice

would be profitable in your situation.

You see what you need to consider is the conversion rate,

the amount of feed it takes to increase

weight gain on these calves.

If we have a situation where we've got plenty of grass,

the cows are in good body condition and they're giving

basically their genetic maximum amount of milk,

then the conversation rate for creep feed

in those calves is going to be pretty poor.

It'll probably be in excess of 10 pounds of feed

for each one pound increase in the gain of the calves

and in many instances it may be as high as 15 pounds of feed

to increase the weight gain by a pound.

That's going to be pretty expensive,

because if the creep feed is costing us

say about $300 a ton,

that's 15 cents a pound for the feed

and if we're got a conversion rate of 10 to one

that's a $1.50 that we're spending

for each one pound of added gain.

Now in first glance that may look

like a pretty good deal with calves bringing

about $1.80 a pound right now,

but when you consider the value of the added gain

because those heavier calves will bring fewer

dollars per 100 weight then will the lighter calves,

you'll have a slide in the pricing of those calves

and the value of added gain will often be only about

80 cents per pound, so we have to have

the creep feeding program be cheaper than 80 cents

amount of feed for each one pound of gain.

If we have a situation where we have some real thin

two year olds that perhaps aren't giving as much milk

as they should perhaps we've got some drought situations

where the milk production is poorer than we'd like,

then yes in that situation we might have conversions

of five pounds of feed to one pound of gain

and then that would be borderline profitable.

I really, really encourage you to spend some time

doing the math because we've got good growing conditions

and most cases those cows are gonna give

enough milk to get that calf grown out to be adequate

in size at weaning time.

Hey we look forward to visiting with you again

next week on SUNUP's Cow-Calf Corner.

(upbeat music)

 

Vet Scripts

>>> I know many producers,

whether they be cattle, sheep or goat producers

will probably be working their animals before long

and a lot of you will be de-worming your animals

and the question I have this morning is,

how do you know if your de-wormer is working?

>>> We do have a simple test that we can do

to evaluate the effectiveness of your de-wormer,

and it's called a fecal egg-count reduction test.

And basically what we do is we take an animal,

we take fecal material

and do a fecal egg count on that animal.

We deworm the animal,

and then two weeks later, we repeat that fecal egg count.

And then we compare that post-treatment to the pre-treatment

and we get a number.

De-wormers should have a fecal egg count reduction test

of 90% of better.

If we have less than 90%,

then we consider that we have resistance

in those animals,

that those worms are resistant to the product you're using.

And you need to look at using a different product

if that happens.

You should contact your veterinarian

about doing one of these tests.

They're simple and easy to do.

If you'd like more information

about monitoring the efficiency of your de-wormer,

just go to sunup.okstate.edu.

(lively music)

 

Market Monitor

>>> It seems like just a couple months ago,

Kim, you were saying forward contracted wheat

could be around $5.

We're under $4 now, what's going on?

>>> Well, quite a bit's happened in the market

in the last couple months.

You look at the Oklahoma wheat crop

or the hard red winter wheat crop overall.

We were talking about the key to that price

is protein and test weight.

And I think the market is concerned about protein now

when the projected production is coming in

significantly higher than last year.

You look at the crop tour.

You know it came in 119 million bushels,

120 million among friends here.

That's compared to 70 last year, 70 million bushels.

That's a 70-75% increase in production.

If you look at the average for Oklahoma,

it's around 97 million bushels.

Southwest Kansas, that crop tour's been going on.

It came in at 48 bushels, compared to 35 last year.

Colorado, 46 and a half versus 36 last year.

So the hard red winter wheat crop

in the United States right now,

if it keeps going, it's gonna be significantly higher.

It's gonna be well above average.

And the protein is a question,

and I think that's impacted price.

Plus, you'd look at Russia.

You ever heard of Russia?

>>> [Dave] (laughs) Yeah.

>>> You know, we was talking a couple months ago,

you know, 2.4 billion, 2.5 billion bushels.

They're up to 2.9, 2.95 billion.

Now you know, I said last week

that it could possibly 3.1 the way it's going.

It really looks good.

And then you've got the managed funds in the market.

They're record short.

One estimate had them about 60,000 contracts short.

That's around 300 million bushels short

in the market right now,

and of course, that has a big impact on prices.

>>> So why are the markets short again,

the funds short again?

>>> Well, that's a big question because

record short, and I think they see what's going on

in the rural.

I think they're concerned about the export demands,

especially if we don't have protein,

that prices will stay relatively short.

Plus, I read an article this week

that said that some large investors

and big managed fundies were looking at climate change

and the impact of climate change.

Now, that's not what we're talking about,

you know, global warming and that stuff.

We know that weather works in cycles,

and right now, the cycle is,

for in the Black Sea area for good wheat production,

we know if they produce it, they're gonna export it.

We know that their production costs

are significantly less than ours,

and that can keep us out of a lot of markets,

and that has an impact on prices.

>>> So, if this is indeed cyclical,

when was the last time we saw a cycle like this?

>>> Well, if you look at how low prices could be,

you can go back into the World War One time period,

we had a big rally,

and then prices were, 10 or 15 years,

prices were relatively low

with the producers just hanging on.

And you can go back over time,

and four or five-year periods

or six-year periods for that cycle.

So if I had to just guess,

and the market is changing right now.

We've massive changes in the world wheat market.

It's no longer a U.S. market,

it's the world wheat market,

and so, it's hard to say how long these prices will last,

but I think they'll last until the weather changes

or the production environment changes

in the Black Sea area.

>>> So, it seems like every week,

Russia comes up somewhere in the discussion.

What is the significance of Russia in this latest price?

>>> Well, if you look at Russia, like I said,

their production costs are significantly less

than ours on a bushel.

A lot of that is land charges.

I read one article that said that with the cheap ruble,

that they could in the inputs,

the fertilizers, and pesticides and such

less expensive or at a lower price than we get them.

When you look at the value of the dollar versus the ruble

>>> You've got that, in Russia, their policy,

government policy now, is to get these agricultural products

out on the export market to bring in those dollars

because with the relatively low oil prices,

they need that currency for trade.

>>> So, there was some news about Russia

selling a lot of wheat to China.

It seems like a lot of the Russian wheat

from that area right there has been going to Egypt.

How does that move to China impact prices?

>>> Well, I read that headline.

Record amount of wheat and corn exported to China this year.

It was 2.2 million bushels to China.

(laughing)

That's their record amount, that's sensationalism.

I read it in the early morning,

I wasn't able to get back to the article,

I said, what's going on here?

They've got a significantly higher

transportation cost into China than we do.

How can they compete?

Well, they can't compete with us in China,

but China wanted to bring in a cargo

of Russian wheat just to show they could.

Mexico brought in a cargo of Russian wheat

this last year, just to show us they could.

Now, is it price-wise or smart to do that economically, no!

But it's there and they want to show us that,

hey, there are other sources, but the question is,

are they, over time, willing to pay the bucks for it?

I don't think so.

>>> You're famous for your third to third to third.

Does that hold true for marketing the 2019 crop as well?

>>> I think as you look at it right now, I think so.

If you look, the Russian crop, the Ukraine crop,

the Black Sea crop, the other crops aren't gonna come in

until the August, September, October, November time period.

You know, when you get down to South America,

so you don't know what's gonna happen.

I mean, Russia may be looking

at a three billion bushel crop right now,

but by the time they get to harvest it in late July,

you know, it can just really go bad fast.

We've experienced it here, they can experience it there.

And if you go back to 2010,

remember we've got a $5.70 price increase

from August 1 to mid-February,

and the reason was is because reduced production,

unexpected reduced production, in the Black Sea area.

>>> What's the odds that this

is the floor for the price right now?

>>> I think they're relatively high.

I really do, I think we may have turned

or at least bottomed out this wheat.

We got that July contract on KC above $5,

I think that's significant.

It might just be wishful thinking, but I think,

I think we'll kind of turn our way out of it

and maybe even pick up another 50 cents or so.

Least that's what I'm hoping.

>>> Okay, thank you much, Kim Anderson,

grain marketing specialist here

at Oklahoma State University.

And actually coming up on Friday,

Kim will be one of the speakers at the Lohoma Field Day

at the North Central Research Station near Lahoma.

Along with Kim, OSU State specialists will be on hand

to answer questions about industrial hemp,

cotton management in North Central Oklahoma,

new herbicides in winter wheat,

managing terraces, soybean populations, and a lot more.

And as always, registration starts at 8:30

and the trailers roll out at nine,

and the first 10 people get to sign Kim's arm brace.

For more information, go to our website, sunup.okstate.edu.

(jaunty country music)

 

Reading soil sample results

>>> One of the common questions that comes up

when referring to soil tests

is how different labs report the analysis.

If you send a sample to Oklahoma State University

Soil Water Forage Analytical Laboratory,

you're gonna get reports in terms of pounds-per-acre,

for nitrate, calcium and magnesium, and you're gonna get

in terms of soil tests phosphorous and PPM,

for things like phosphorous and potassium.

One of the most common questions we get

when looking at soil test reports

is how do we tell the difference from one lab to another?

If you send a soil sample to Oklahoma State University's

Soil Water Forage Analytical Laboratory,

your outputs gonna present in terms

of nitrogen, calcium, magnesium as pounds-per-acre.

For phosphorous and potassium, you're gonna get two values.

One will be Soil Test Index, and the other will be PPM.

If you're to send your sample elsewhere,

to like Ward Lab or Servi-Tech,

you're going to get all results in PPM.

They're really, if you use the same analytical procedures,

such as Mehlich 3, they're the same answer,

we just have to look at the conversions.

So we're gonna go through quickly

how to convert PPM to Soil Test Index, or vise versa.

One thing that first takes that understanding

is that we look at a sample of soil, especially at OSU,

the recommended sampling depth of zero to six inches.

So zero to six, also referred to as the acre furrow slice,

has approximately two million pounds of soil.

So in six inches there's two million pounds of soil.

When a lab runs a soil test,

and they're running an extraction,

looking at how much phosphorous,

how much nitrogen or potassium is in the soil unit,

all these labs actually get results in terms of PPM,

or parts per million.

So, the easy conversion, when you have

a zero to six inch sample, if you have 10 parts per million,

you have two million pounds of soil.

So, in a zero to six inch sample,

you'll have 20 pounds per acre.

And so you'll look at your OSU soil test report

and see that you have soil test phosphorous

of five PPM, that means you have an STP,

soil test phosphorous index, of 10.

Or if it was nitrate, you'd have 10 PPM,

you'd have 20 pounds.

Now, this is where we have to start being very careful

when we start looking at the reports.

So, if you get nitrate from another lab,

say Ward Lab, and it presents you to have 10 PPM NO3,

soil sampling depth becomes very important.

Multiple consultants may use a different depth.

So, depth in the this case, really does matter.

I'll look at some quick conversions.

So, in a zero to six inch sample,

you multiply by two.

That means three, nine and 12,

you have multiplication factors of one, three and four.

So, if your consultant has pulled

a zero to nine inch sample, and you have 10 PPM nitrate,

that means you have 30 pounds of residual nitrate.

If it's zero to six, that means you have 20 pounds

of residual nitrate.

Just being off a little bit, can really impact you.

So, this 10 PPM, from a zero to eight,

if you interpret it as a zero to six inch sample,

it would tell you had 20 pounds.

But in actuality, a zero to eight inch sample,

you would have 26.7 pounds.

If it was a zero to four inch sample,

you would actually have 13.3 pounds of nitrate.

This goes back to the importance

of understanding your sampling depth,

and why that matters when it comes

to making nitrogen and sulfur recommendations,

and understanding soil test phosphorous

and soil test potassium index when OSU presents

both the index and PPM.

It's actually just a factor, trying to take into account

for how much soil there is, and giving you an idea

of how many pounds, available pounds,

of phosphorous and potassium there is in the soil.

For more information on this, check out the SUNUP website

at sunup.okstate.edu.

(upbeat music)

 

Mesonet Weather

>>> Hi!

Wesley with your weekly, Mesonet weather report.

This past week brought us another round

of heavy rains and some of the most active, severe storms

we have seen in quite a while.

Eventually, the weather will be clearing off

and it will be time to begin our summer weed spray programs.

Most herbicide labels include a range of weather parameters

that dictate when the product should be applied,

with wind being one of the most important factors

to consider when trying to control herbicide drift.

It is not uncommon to have winds in the state

that are unsuitable for an application.

This map, from May 1st, shows Southern Oklahoma,

and the Panhandle, with wind speeds too high.

While at the same time, maybe too low,

in the North Central Region to apply.

Mesonet has a tool called the Spray Drift Risk Advisor,

that helps producers find the best time

to apply products.

Here for Pauls Valley, I have entered variables

for temperature, humidity, and wind speeds.

You can also select wind directions to avoid.

Clicking the get data tab gives you an hourly forecast

for up to 84 hours.

The red and green colors tell you if you're within

your entered weather variable ranges.

This is only a forecast tool.

And you should always check your local, current conditions

before spraying.

Gary is up now, giving us a summary of April,

along with a May forecast.

>>> Thanks Wes, and good morning everyone.

Well, what a difference a day makes.

We went from kind of dry across parts of the state,

to too much rain, all after the last day of April.

As you can see from the Mesonet Rainfall Map for April,

we went from about 9.9 inches of rain in Hobart,

in Southwest Oklahoma.

Remember, that was an area we were worried about,

going into drought.

No worries there anymore.

And then to less of a quarter inch

out in the Western Panhandle.

So, that's the area that still needs rainfall.

But most of the state, a good three to six inches

of rainfall, and of course, in some areas,

seven, eight, nine inches of rainfall, and localized areas.

We can see, that in the departure from normal map

for April from the Mesonet, again,

that bullseye down on Hobart, in Southwest Oklahoma,

seven point three inches above normal.

But most of the state was at least,

about an inch to three inches above normal.

And again, the Panhandle, a little bit

of North Central Oklahoma, from a half inch,

to more than an inch below normal.

Again, those are areas that still need

a little bit of rainfall.

But the 22nd wettest April on record

for the state of Oklahoma, since records began in 1895,

sure did the trick on worrying about drought for awhile.

Now, let's take a look at the outlooks

from the Climate Prediction Center for May.

We see for temperature, increased odds

of below normal temperatures across the western half

of the state.

And for rainfall for May, the Climate Prediction Center

sees greatly increased odds of above normal rainfall

down across Southeast Oklahoma, and then increased odds

for above normal precipitation across the rest of the state.

Okay, another month in the books.

Another month we don't worry about drought.

Certainly a great thing.

We're now into the meat of the rainy season,

May into the first half of June.

So, I think we're gonna be okay.

We just need to get our normal rainfall amounts,

and a little bit of help out in the Panhandle.

That' it for this time.

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

 

>>> That'll do it for us this week.

Remember, you can find us anytime at our website,

sunup.okstate.edu.

And also follow us on YouTube and social media.

I'm Lyndall Stout.

Have a great week everyone!

And remember, Oklahoma agriculture starts at SUNUP.

(upbeat country music)