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Transcript for July 11, 2020
This show includes the following segments:
- Cotton Update
- Mesonet Weather
- Covid-19 Pulse Survey
- Livestock Marketing
- Cow-Calf Corner
- Market Monitor
- Horse & Blister Beetles
(upbeat music)
>>> Hello everyone and welcome to SUNUP.
I'm Lyndall Stout.
Some Oklahoma horse owners have spotted blister beetles
in their barns and around their pastures.
We'll have more for you coming up
a little bit later in the show.
But first, we're talking about Oklahoma's cotton crop.
Here's Sunup's Dave Deken and our Extension
Cotton Specialist, Dr. Seth Byrd.
Cotton Update
>>> Here we are in July and cotton is growing
across the state, Seth, it's kinda popping up
in nontraditional cotton areas across the state
and we've seen that happen over the past couple a years.
How does the crop look?
>>> Overall, it looks pretty good.
You know, we usually have this planting window
through the entire month of May
and this year you really saw it kind of abbreviated.
You saw a lot of cotton go in in early May.
I think a lot of our Panhandle region,
are you talking about the, sort of,
nontraditional or newer areas?
Most of the Panhandle region probably went in
in that early May time period.
Some of the southwest and even the west central portion,
sort of our more traditional areas had started in early May
and then we got that pretty solid rain
in the middle of the month and that pushed some folks off,
and came back to planting in late May.
So, we kinda have these two real big windows
of planting that we had this year.
UECA put us at 640,000 acres,
I think we're a little under that.
But we're still probably around the 600,000 mark
and that puts us easily third
in the nation in planted acres.
And I think the majority of those in our state
look fairly good now, if not better.
So overall, it's pretty good
but we have certainly lost some acres.
>>> Are we seeing any pressure with the insects,
with any pests at all?
>>> We had some thrips pressure early on
and that's something that we expect in certain areas.
Between seed treatments and folks scouting
and getting some over sprays out we can usually,
if we're timely, we can usually be pretty good
about controlling thrips and minimizing their damage.
And I think, for the most part, we've done that this year.
Now as we're moving into flowering,
most of the state's, probably,
gonna be flowering this week or by the end of next,
we're gonna start getting into our stinkbug pest
and our worm complex, or caterpillars.
So, stinkbugs, obviously, need to scout for those.
Tobacco budworm is usually something that we have had
successfully controlled with our Bt traits.
Corn earworm, or a lot of folks will refer to it
as the bollworm, that's been something
that's been a little more touch and go.
We've seen a lot of weakness with our 2-gene Bt traits.
Most of Oklahoma's got a 3-gene trait planted.
But, even still, we have seen some other areas
of the Cotton Belt who've had issues with controlling,
or getting total control of that species
with even 3-gene Bt traits.
So, as we move into this part of the season,
continuing to scout is gonna be just as important
as it was early to make sure we can control those pests.
Especially, with a lot of our acres
being in a situation where yield potential is pretty good.
>>> Moving forward, we're getting into the need for moisture,
for heat units, just kinda paint a broad picture
of that timeline for when the cotton plant
needs the heat units 'cause in the past years
we've needed 'em, clouds have rolled in,
we've got rain, whatever we needed that boost in that.
>>> Yeah, so from here on out, most of our state
is gonna be able to put on effective flowers
and I mean a flower that will become a healthful
mature boll, between this week and mid-August.
In some areas it may be a little earlier,
in a lot of areas it's gonna be a little later.
So, we really need another six to seven weeks
of favorable conditions, at least.
Really we could use it throughout the mid-September.
I've seen, probably, some of the best dryland cotton
this year that I've ever seen in Oklahoma or otherwise.
It's just we've had some really good looking dryland cotton.
We do a lot of on-farm dryland variety trials
with our producers and to be a dryland cotton grower
you gotta have a different, sort of, way about it anyway.
So, we work with some really good growers and these folks
have got tremendous stands of cotton this year.
So, I really hope we can keep catching some of these rains
'cause the potential in those fields, right now,
is great and if we could just meet 90%, 80% of it
we're gonna have a pretty good crop.
>>> Well thanks very much Dr. Seth Byrd, Extension
Cotton Specialist, here at Oklahoma State University.
(upbeat music)
Mesonet Weather
>>> Welcome to the weekly Mesonet weather report, I'm Wes Lee.
If you think it's been hot lately just wait,
as the old saying goes, you ain't seen nothing yet.
Forecast heat for Saturday afternoon has us seeing
some of the hottest temperatures encountered in a long time.
Triple digit heat is likely for a vast majority
of the state.
One of our most heat tolerant crops in the state is cotton.
In areas where moisture is adequate,
mainly irrigated fields, the cotton crop
is looking pretty good.
One way to measure the heat, as it relates
to a specific crop is with degree days.
The degree days for cotton, at three locations,
are shown in this chart.
The blue bars are degree days for Altus, Hinton and Hooker.
The orange bars are the five-year average
for those locations, this assumes a planting date
of May 15 and run through, July 7.
It shows this year's accumulation
is very similar to the five year average
in the south at Altus,
and at the middle of the state at Hinton.
And Hooker in the Panhandle
it is running a little ahead of average.
Expect degree days to climb rapidly
over the next few weeks.
The forecast is showing a much higher than normal chance
of extreme temperatures as seen in red
on this map for next week.
Gary is up next talking about
the ever expanding drought picture in Oklahoma.
>>> Thanks, Wes.
And good morning everyone.
Well, we've had some pretty decent rains
at least over parts of the state
over the last couple of weeks.
How has it impacted the drought?
Let's take a look at the new map
and see what we have.
Well, as is often the case in Oklahoma
with the drought impacts that we're seeing,
it's often one step forward and two steps back.
And that's what we're looking at on the new map.
We do still have severe drought
across much of the Western Panhandle.
And then we have a new area
a larger area of moderate drought
that covers much of the northeastern quarter of the state.
So, again,
when we talk about improvements
I'm afraid it was one step forward,
and then two steps back.
So looking at those rains
over the last couple of weeks
we do see that lots of generous rains
scattered here and there.
Unfortunately, they are very scattered.
So it really looks like mother nature
just sort of threw up on this map.
So some good rains in some places.
The Panhandle got some decent rains
which is why we had some improvements there.
And eastern Oklahoma got some decent rains
over the last couple of weeks.
The picture becomes a little bit more clear
if we go out to the 90 day timeframe.
With this Mesonet rainfall map we see
much of the northwestern half of the state basically
six inches or less.
When we get into certain parts of that area
like in Blaine, Kingfisher County,
we get down to around five inches
less than four inches in Dewey County.
Then out in the Panhandle Of course,
it's less than four inches.
And it looks like that pattern might stick with this.
And then we see
the outlook for next week
from the Climate Prediction Center.
Once again greatly increased odds
of below normal precipitation
over that six day period.
So certainly not good news there.
As I've said before,
having a drought going into the summer months
is not a good situation
especially into July and August.
But hopefully we can get some rain back in here
and start to tamp that drought down a little bit.
That's it for this time.
We'll see you next time on the Mesonet weather report.
Covid-19 Pulse Survey
>>> Switching gears now from the weather
to the economic forecast amid the pandemic.
Dr. Courtney Bir and team surveyed Oklahoman's
to see how they feel about the recovery efforts.
>>>So the poll survey was developed
by a team of Ag Econ professors and extension specialists.
And we really just wanted to get a feeling
of what Oklahoman's believed.
How Oklahoman's believe the economy was doing
in respect to COVID-19.
We had 796 respondents,
and those people came from 71 of our 77 counties.
So the top counties were Payne, Grady,
Oklahoma, Muskogee and Tulsa counties.
So we had pretty good representation across the state.
So we asked questions about the economy
and then also questions regarding
comfort level in group settings.
So we're hoping to use this information to plan
what we're gonna do next in response to COVID-19.
We also found out that 45% of respondents
believe that we would be dealing with this COVID situation
and the worst of it wouldn't be over for another 10 months.
So most people in Oklahoma believe that
we'll be dealing with this COVID situation in the long run,
and so that will help us develop some programming.
And we actually found that 66% of respondents in rural areas
were comfortable with having an in person meeting
of 10 or less people following social distancing rules.
But when you look at the entire state of Oklahoma
that number drops down to 56%.
So we're gonna continue likely to follow CDC rules,
and to offer multiple ways
to communicate with our people in Oklahoma
including online options for meetings and webinars.
We have a publication with this information
that's currently live online
at the COVID website for OSU Extension.
So go to OSU Extension,
click on the COVID link and it's there.
It's also available as a current report.
And again, we wanna thank everyone for their participation.
We're considering doing this sort of survey
again in the future as things progress.
And your participation will really be helpful
in helping us make decisions to better serve you.
(upbeat music)
Cow-Calf Corner
>>> On the Cow-Calf Corner
we have talked about
the importance of protein, energy, minerals for cattle,
but arguably perhaps the most important ingredient
that cattle need is water,
especially with the hot summer times
that we have here in Oklahoma.
A lot of different factors
go into the water requirement of beef cattle.
But for planning purposes
we have to boil this down
to some pretty simple rules of thumb,
so that we can plan to make sure
that there's enough water
that's going to be available in water ORS, or in tanks
that we might put out
for a large number of cattle out in the pasture.
The University of Georgia extension specialists
have done an excellent job of boiling this all down
in one of their facts sheets,
and give us some rules of thumb to remember
for the water requirements
for beef cattle in the summertime.
And they basically said
this is what they're going to need on the average
if the temperature is going to be 90 degrees or above
during the daytime.
Which of course means most of summer here in Oklahoma.
For dry cows
let's say those cows that are gonna calve this fall,
they need one gallon per hundred pounds of body weight.
In that situation,
that 90 degree day in the summertime.
If the cow is a spring-calving cow,
one that has a calf at-side, then you need
to double that to two gallons per hundred pounds
of body weight.
So let's use the example of 1,200 pound cows.
That means if it's a dry cow then she's going to need
about 12 gallons of water per day;
if it's a lactating cow, about 24 gallons of water per day
here, in the summertime.
Bulls, of course, would be about the same
as that dry cow, so if you have that 1-ton bull out there,
you wanna remember he needs about 20 gallons
of water per head, per day.
Younger stock, it's a little bit different situation.
It depends so much upon what their diet is.
If it's a real dry diet, say dry hay and grain,
then they need about that two gallons per hundred pounds
of body weight.
So if you've got, say 600 pound stockers out there
in a pen that's consuming a dry feed,
they're gonna need about 12 gallons of water per day.
On the other side of the coin, let's say you have
those same size stockers out on wheat pasture
in the springtime, when it's cool
and that wheat pasture's lush, has very high moisture
and their water requirements are about half that,
or only about six gallons per head, per day.
But I think if you'll remember
that one gallon per 100 pounds of body weight
for dry cows, two gallons of water per hundred pounds
for that lactating cow,
that'll go a long ways towards helping you
plan your water needs during the summertime.
And if you'd like to learn a little more
about water requirements and water quality,
I'm gonna make a link in the Show Links
for SUNUP to that Georgia Extension Fact Sheet.
I think it's a really well-written fact sheet
that gives you a lot of really understandable details
about water requirements for beef cattle.
So go to the SUNUP Website.
That's SUNUP.OKState.edu, look under Show Links
and we'll have the link for that fact sheet, there.
Hey, we look forward to visiting with you
again next week, on SUNUP's Cow Calf Corner.
Livestock Marketing
>>> We've made it to the halfway point of 2020
which was kind of a feat in itself, but Derrell
what do you see for markets in the second half?
>>> Well, obviously the first half of this year
was unlike anything we've ever seen or could have imagined.
We've been through a lot.
The second half of the year we'll have some features,
unfortunately, that will continue, some of the same themes.
Certainly, some things will be different and you know,
I think there's some reasons to be a little more optimistic
in the second half.
But obviously, we're not done with this thing, yet.
There's a number of things still going on,
the public health issues continue,
we may be through the worst of it, hopefully,
but we really don't know, at this point.
There's a lot of economic challenges ahead of us
in the US economy, the global economy, and so on.
So there's some reasons to sort of think about
a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel,
but we clearly have some issues ahead of us, yet.
>>> We saw prices kinda climb up during the peak
of the crisis on the protein side.
Prices have kinda gone down a little bit.
Is that gonna be a trend more towards the normal
cost of proteins?
>>> I think so, you know, from a consumer standpoint,
the protein sector should look a lot more normal,
a bit, in terms of the supply and the overall price levels,
and so on, in the second half of the year.
Now, we could still have problems, again.
That would be some sort of resurgence of challenges
but I really don't think that'll happen.
We've got some major macro-economic
challenges in the US.
We've covered a lot of that with stimulus type money
and unemployment benefits, and so on,
but as we work through those, if those run out,
depending on whether we decide to continue 'em,
all of those things will factor in to sort of how beef
demand plays relative to actually, fairly abundant supplies
of beef and other meats in the second half of the year.
>>> March, February, April,
cattle producers were kinda caught off-guard
whenever all of this happened.
Do you see any bumps in the road, moving forward
for cattle producers?
>>> Well, it depends on kinda which market we look at.
So, the fed cattle markets still has a lot of issues.
We created a lot of backlog in the first half of the year.
It's gonna take much of the second half of the year,
at least through the third quarter, to work through that.
And that will, in turn,
have some limitations kind of a dark cloud
hanging over feeder cattle markets as well,
until we really get these feed lots flowing again
in a more typical kind of sense.
You know, there's one scenario where you could be
pretty optimistic about calf prices by this fall.
On the other hand, there's a lot of uncertainty
and I think producers have to stay pretty cautious
and just kinda see how the thing evolves
over the next several weeks.
>>> Earlier in your answer, you said a dark cloud.
Are there any bright spots throughout the past six months?
>>> (chuckles) Well, you know,
(chuckling)
there's one thing I guess is that there's opportunity
when there's volatility.
And so for cattle producers going forward,
we've been through a lot, we're trying to recover from that.
Most of that's kinda defensive in nature, you know,
we're back on our heels a little bit,
but as we go forward, there will be
some opportunities in this,
and so, and those will be different opportunities
at different levels as time goes on.
Again, more than likely, with good, strong beef demand,
perhaps after some rocky times ahead.
And internationally, that may be one of our brighter spots
as we look towards the end of the year and into next year.
>>> Okay, thank you very much.
Dr. Derrell Peel, Livestock Marketing Specialist
here, at Oklahoma State University.
(upbeat music)
Market Monitor
>>> The scuttlebutt with the farmers throughout the state
is that they're concerned with the basis.
So Kim, is there anything to be concerned with, there?
>>> Yeah, I think there's some concern on the basis.
Is the basis being used to hurt the farmers?
No.
Is there collusion on the basis?
No, I don't think so, but if you'll
look at the Kansas City protein basis,
you know, we talk a lot about that,
this time last year, for 11.2% protein wheat
which is about what we're gonna have this year.
... it was $1.20.
For 12.4 wheat,
is $1 55.
That's a 35-cent premium for 12.4,
over 11.2 wheat.
This year,
that 11.2 is 87 cents,
33 cents lower than it was last year.
12.4 protein was $1.25:
38 cents.
So the spread between 11.2 and 12.4 is about the same
for this year and last year.
But this year's Kansas City-basis.
This year's export basis is 33 cents less
than it was last year.
That means their cash price,
relative to the futures price,
is 33 cents less than last year.
Yeah, that leaves some room for some concern,
but it doesn't mean someone's taking advantage of you.
>>> So how do we ease that concern and get that basis higher?
>>> Well, the one is,
understand what's going on.
I think if you'll look at that 35-cent premium
for 12.4 protein,
the market's telling you they want protein.
Also,
this time last year we had averaged about 11.4,
a little bit higher.
But we had protein in the bin that we could blend that up
to get it up to the milling specifications.
I think we've used all that protein wheat.
So they don't want that.
Also,
the market has taken carry out of it.
That means this time last year,
the market was paying the elevators 22 cents
to store wheat from September to December.
This year they're only paying them 11 cents.
So you've got some reason there for a lower cash price.
But you balance that futures from basis out.
The cash price right now is within about seven cents
of what it was last year.
What producers can do is...
Yes,
be concerned about that low price,
but ask the question:
How can I get a higher price for my wheat?
>>> Well, the 2020 wheat crop is in the bin.
And previously,
you've been talking about doing a third,
and a third, and a third,
but maybe altering those months.
What should they do with their wheat now?
Has anything changed?
>>> Well, I don't think much has changed
unless you go back maybe five or six years,
when...
Really,
you gotta go back about 10 years
for sell a third and harvest a third September,
October, and the final third.
I think now you wanna sell your...
Our markets are wheat in June,
July, and August.
So I think they need to start staggering it in.
They may also start looking at pricing some 21 wheat.
Right now you can forward-contract that wheat
for only $4.50.
I don't think you should take that.
But I think you've got to look out in the long-term.
Go ahead and move that wheat out this year.
There's gonna be some rallies.
Sell on those rallies.
Don't sell it all at once
and stagger it into the market.
>>> You mentioned 2021.
So, projecting out,
getting out of this crazy year of 2020,
what can we expect for prices in 2021?
>>> Well, right now the market's telling us
that it's going to be about the same
as it is this year.
I think in 2021,
how to get a higher price,
is maintain that test weight.
We had really good test weight.
Get some protein to sell next year.
Right there's your 35 cents,
you could probably pick up on it.
And they're gonna look at,
well,
maybe I should be planting something besides wheat.
But corn,
a long term outlook for corn,
3.20 for corn,
8.20 for beans,
60 cents for cotton.
All prices are low.
So looking out to 2021,
you've got to look at cost.
How can I keep my costs low?
How can I produce a quality product,
test weight,
and protein?
Then,
how can I merchandise that wheat on the market?
>>> Alrighty, Kim.
Dr. Kim Anderson,
green marketing specialist here
at Oklahoma State University.
(pleasant music)
Horses & Blister Beetles
>>> We're talking now about blister beetles
and how they impact horses with Dr. Chris Hiney,
our extension equine specialist.
Chris,
what are you hearing from horse owners around the state?
>>> Well,
we actually had a few calls recently
from some unique circumstances
where they were finding blister beetle swarms actually
in their barn.
>>> That's pretty alarming.
They must be worse this year,
maybe,
than in previous years?
>>> Yeah, year to year,
depending on environmental conditions,
you can have a bigger presence of the beetles.
So probably some of the hotter weather
that was happening drove the beetles inside,
whereas normally,
we'd actually find them out in the fields.
>>> Now obviously,
this is cause for concern
because it can really hurt the horses
and,
obviously,
be painful for people, too.
>>>Yeah,
blister beetles are extremely toxic for horses.
And interestingly,
depending on the species,
it may vary by the amount of beetle that they eat.
So even just a little bit of ingestion
of a beetle can end up being lethal for a horse.
For people,
if you accidentally hit it on your shoulder or anything,
it actually can blister or burn you as well.
>>> So tell us a little bit more about what happens
to the horses,
and what are some signs to keep in mind.
>>> The active ingredient
in a beetle is cantharidin,
and essentially,
it's a blistering agent.
So it will irritate all of the mucous membranes,
essentially,
through the horse's GI tract and urinary tract.
So you may see a horse that is acting colic-y,
like normal horse behavior,
or normal colic-y horse behavior,
lethargic,
they don't want to eat.
You may see a horse actually playing in the water.
So they're thirsty,
but their mouth hurts.
So it looks like they're dunking their head
in the water more than they're actually drinking it.
Uhm because some of the irritation to the mucus membranes
you may see them looking like they straining the
So really look for abnormal behavior signs in your horse
and try to thing about what may actually be causing that.
>>> And they would've ingested the blister beetle
from their hay or grazing in the pasture?
>>> Ya so normally we always warn people about Alfalfa
because of the purple flowers essential in Alfalfa
that's what attracts the beetles.
However any flowering plant or weed can be attractive
for the beetles. In the case of the swarming beetles
if they had gotten into the feed troughs or in their
water buckets the horses might have just accidentally
ingested them.
So we do really need to be careful if we actually see
an outbreak of these guys.
>>> So in terms of control options what kind of guidance
do you have for horse owners?
>>> So the biggest one is actually trying to eliminate weeds,
so certainly not having a lot of flowering broad leaf weeds
in the pasture so weed control that way.
Mechanical control which essentially is mowing
and weeding-eating can help eliminate a lot
of those weeds that uh attract the beetles to your property.
So those are probably the biggest suggestions.
if you do actually find that they're coming into
the barn, then you have to use a premise spray
and make sure that you are using products correctly
and certainly if you ever have questions about any of that
contacting your County educator is a great first step.
>>> How do I know that its time to call the veterinarian
what, you know what is that window of,
of time there to protect the animal?
>>> So uh essentially its a lot of supportive care
for these horses after they've ingested beetles
but the quicker that you start treatment the better.
Uh again this can be a refill condition for horses,
so really getting to know your horses
identifying abnormal behavior and don't hesitate
to call the veterinarian, uh if you see any of those
abnormal behaviors.
>>> For people who wanna learn more there's
an extension fact sheet available.
>>> Yeah its actually it's actually titled
Blister Beetles in Alfalfa.
which is where we normally think
about the beetles occurring,
but it really covers everything
that you need to know concerning these beetles.
>>> Okay, great, thanks a lot.
And for a link to that factsheet
go to sunup.okstate.edu
( lively music)
That'll do it for us this week,
a reminder you can find us anytime at sunup.okstate.edu
And also follow us on YouTube and social media.
I'm Tyndall Stout, have a great week everyone
and remember Oklahoma agriculture starts at SUNUP.
(guitar music)