Secretary of Agriculture's Rural Tour of America
Hey, there, welcome to the show. I'm glad you chose to start your day with us here on SUNUP. I'm Clinton Griffiths, and we have a packed show for you today, including a visit from agriculture's number one boss in Washington DC, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

It was an oddly silent entrance to the auditorium at Redlands Community College in El Reno, but the conversation was lively.

I was in Louisiana. They only have five dairy farmers in Louisiana, but one of them was there, so I spoke to 20 percent of the dairy farmers in Louisiana.

The stop at Redlands is part of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack's Rural Tour of America.

This is the 19th stop in the Rural Tour that the President instructed me to take. We started this process and have gone everywhere from New Hampshire to Alaska and everywhere in between.

Like the previous listening sessions the setting was in the round and billed as a community forum for local farmers, ranchers and concerned citizens to ask questions and pose solutions.

What would you think of nature-based after-school clubs for youth?

We would rather deal with the USDA than the EPA, and I'd like to know what advantages you see to the USDA handling this rather than EPA.

First and foremost, we have more expertise in agriculture than any other department in government.

The questions ranged from stimulus spending, of which Vilsack says Oklahoma has already received $278 million from the USDA, to cap and trade legislation.

The extent of offset opportunities as the bill is currently crafted is somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 to $20 billion dollars, so I think there is real opportunities. I understand there is concern about this. I think those who expressed some angst are not recognizing the current world isn't just going to remain static. There is constant innovation, constant change.

To stimulating rural economies, immigration and working to help the mid-sized producer.

We lost about 80,000 operations in that category, between $10,000 in sales and $500,000 in sales and the question is how do you stem that? Well, one way you stem it is by providing alternative income opportunities, which is what energy is. Depending what your operation is, what offsets could be or what conservation programs could be and part of it is creating new markets.

The questions were direct. All sides were cordial. Secretary Vilsack left the crowd with four main points he hopes to focus on: climate change, energy and biofuels, a program called know your farmer, know your food, and getting broadband beyond the city streets to America's rural roads, where he'll be spending much more time as the Rural Tour continues over the next few months.

Be sure to tune in next week and we'll have a little more expert analysis of the secretary's comments right here on SUNUP.

Soil Acidity
Truckloads of lyme such as this one are one way to deal with the acidic soils found in all parts of Oklahoma and our soil nutrient specialist Brian Arnall is here to tell us we need to pay special attention to this acidity as we look at new crops. You've been doing a lot of research lately on soil acidity. Tell us about your research and what you've been working on.

Some of the most recent research we have is dealing with sorghum and sunflowers in acid soils. A lot of Oklahoma has acid soils and the last soil survey, all the soil samples collected, there was over five percent that had a ph less than five. Now that's a very small percentage of our actual soils in Oklahoma, so my guess is we have a lot more than that. As we try to get into crop rotations, we are bringing in new crops, sorghum and sunflowers in ground that is not normally farmed that way, normally continuous winter wheat. We've been really lucky with winter wheat in that our breeders have bred some low-acid, tolerant plants. So we can get pretty good yeilds in acid soil and we don't have to lyme. Sorghum, sunflower, corn, soybean, they don't have the tolerance and we want to see how much yield we're losing. In wheat, we can easily lose 30 to 40 percent of our yield if we go to a ph of 4.5. Corn is the same situation. We can lose 40 percent of our yeild if we are into the mid fours. Sorghum and sunflower, we really don't know what's going to happen. So far in the results we've seen that at Lahoma when we dropped our ph down to 4 we can lose up to 40 bushels of sorghum in a ph of 4.2. We go from a high end of harvesting 77 to 80 bushel, down to 30 or less. Our plant stand is dramatically decreased. We get some plant stands in those low ph's that are only 25 percent of what we want.

But that's a pretty easy fix though. You just need to lyme the soils, but the cost though, that's a concern.

Its a very easy fix. We can apply ag lyme, which costs $25 to $30 per ton applied. The problem is that's an up front cost. When you're on a short lease that makes it more challenging, but if you really look at the economics, if you have a very low ph soil, it still might pay. You have to remember lyme is not on one-shot deal. If you put it on this year, it can last three years, four or five or even six years out you can still be reaping the benefits of that bill you flipped up this year and put that money forward. It's a long-term investment that can really pay out in the end.

It's all about keeping the view on the long-term and keeping the crop year after year.

Trying to keep the crop year after year in a business. And even if you think about 40-bushel wheat, we can recover 15 to 20 bushels in a bad situation just by lyming.

All right. Brian, we appreciate it. Good information today.

Sheep Genetics Research to Improve Reproduction
One of the keys to any animal production operation is production. Making sure those animals are bred, give birth and breed back. In sheep that process has traditionally been locked into place, breed in the fall and lamb in the spring. Researchers at Oklahoma State University beleive they have found a genetic marker that may one day unlock this production cycle. While the lambs may be little, the number of sheep in Oklahoma is not. Currently there are about 160,000 sheep and lambs spread throughout the state. The numbers have varied over the years, but the production cycle hasn't. Breed in the fall, lamb in the spring. The end result is a very small window of quality meat for consumers.

A lot people do like fresh young lamb, and you'd like to have that year round. Well, the sheep, they are seasonal breeders. They breed in the fall; they lamb in the spring. So you have that fresh young lamb available for only a few months in the spring.

Raluca Mateescu and her team at Oklahoma State University have been looking for ways to change that. What they've found is a genetic marker for ewes more likely to breed out of season.

It is a gene which is related to, first of all, the ability to breed out of season, but probably and more importantly, the ability of the ewe to lamb more frequently. So not only to breed in the spring to lamb in the fall but also being able to breed throughout the year more than one time.

That gene is the melitonin receptor. Using this in conjunction other programs would allow a ewe to lamb five times in three years. But researchers warn this one breakthrough isn't the only thing producers should consider.

There are a lot of opportunities there and we're still exploring, but we also have to be careful and realize when we do look for genes like this there are many other factors. We're looking at the melatonin gene, but there are several other genes involved, there are also environmental factors such as nutrition and health of the animals and just herd management. So many opportunities that we're still exploring in all of these areas, but we still have to stay practical as well and see how they're applicable.

So far researchers are recommending using the information and marker as a way to make informed decisions.

One thing that you can do is to screen all of your sheep for this marker, identify the ones that are carrying the beneficial alleal of the melatonin receptor and those would be the ones that you try to breed in the spring, in an a-seasonal period. And hopefully more of them will be more successful in breeding and lambing a-seasonally.

While the genetic test isn't commercially available yet, the team believes one day finding out which ewes are capable of breeding out of season will be easy.

We still have to do some work, but eventually it would be as simple as taking a blood sample from your ewes, sending them off, and we'll send you the genotype back.

Giving producers more options in the pasture and consumers more options at the market.

Cow-Calf Corner
We've entered the bull sale season for the fall. That brings up a question that producers often ask, and that is: what's the proper cow to bull ratio that they should expect in the breeding season that's coming up this November, December? One of the really, really tough questions that we have, because there are so much variability in bulls in their ability to get a number of females pregnant. We use a real conservative rule of thumb, especially with young bulls. Bulls that are just a year of age or just a little bit older, my rule of thumb is to match them up with the same number of females that their age is in months. For instance, if he's a 12 to 14-month-old bull when you're first going to turn him out, that's the number of females I would put him with. As that bull gets to be two years of age or about 24 months of age, we can expect him to do the job with 24, 25 females. Certainly if we know something about a mature bull, we've seen him do the job in the past, he's passed a breeding soundness exam, we might be able to expand that number just a little bit more, up to 30 females, but I think we want to be fairly conservative with the cow to bull ratios so we don't end up with a situation where one bull did not do the job in our whole herd and cause a real reduction in our calf crop percentage for next year. Keep this bull to cow ratio in mind as you're buying your bulls this fall. Hey, we'll visit with you again next week on SUNUP's Cow-Calf Corner.

Market Monitor
Wheat, corn and soybean prices get a bump this week and the index fund trading controversy hits the press again. Here to talk about these issues is Kim Anderson. Good to see you. Let's start with prices right off the bat. We saw an increase this week.

We got a good rally on Tuesday. We saw some models that analysts used said there was going to be a pretty hard freeze in the corn, soybean areas on September 25 and 26. The model took away the freeze information on Wednesday and prices came back down. Corn and beans both lost -- beans helped pretty good. Corn lost most of what it gained and wheat lost essentially all it had gained.

Any chance of wheat going higher?

With the massive stocks in the U.S. and world and with Australia reporting they're getting timely rains, their harvest may be higher than we expected earlier, I don't think the odds are very high we'll get substantially higher wheat prices.

There is talk again this week about the need to restrict fund trading in the commodity markets. Did the trading lend to this current down trend in prices?

You know, that comes up from time to time. I think the data shows and research shows that the index funds are not responsible for the current low prices. You go back to, say, March of 2008 where we had prices above $12 in Oklahoma, you had the projected ending stocks around 240, 242 million bushels, and by the time we got into harvest in June the ending stocks were up to 306 and prices down to $8.50. We finished the '08 - '09 marketing year with ending stocks around 650 million bushels. You'll remember the June prices around $5.50, $5.80 depending on where you were. And now we're predicting ending stocks to be around 740 million bushels. As we've seen, about 150, 160 percent increase in wheat supply, we've seen about a 53 percent decline in wheat prices last June and in overall price. That's the same thing that happened in the world, higher stocks, lower prices, it's exactly what economic theory and economists would tell you would happen if this happened.

Were commodity exchange rules changes needed?

Yes, and we had exchange rules put into place. I think it will make the market system more efficient and get a more fair price to the producer and consumer.

All right, Kim. Thanks for being here. Hopefully next week it will be a little brighter.

Yeah.

Shop Stop
Hi. Welcome to Shop Stop. Today we're going to talk about welding rod identification and a little bit on storage of those, too.

I think the thing you need to realize is choose a rod for what you're going to be doing, and the welding rod has numbers on it, whether it's a 6011, 6010, a lot of us know what the numbers mean, but sometimes some of us just buy a box of welding rods and use that one box for everything.

We're going to have a chart here that we'll show you exactly what those numbers mean, what the 60 means. That means the tensile strength in pounds per square inch. The last two digits identifies position and the polarity of what you're going to weld. There is AC positive, and DC reverse and DC positive. We'll throw a chart up to see those.

The thing you want to look at, looking at what you're going to weld, the thickness of the materials and strength of the welding rod and the cleanliness of what you're welding. A lot of the stuff we fix on the farm and in the shop may be rusted and challenging to get it as clean as we want. So, we need to think about the rod we are going to use for that.

If you're going to have a piece of equipment that you're going to weld on that has some rust on it, you don't want to start out with a 7018. You want to start with a 6010 or 6011 and that will give it good penetration and clean some of that dirty material out of there and you can put a cover pass of the 7018.

So the next thing I think we want to think about is how we store those. We certainly, as we go through a lot of shops, you see them tossed under the workbench somewhere or maybe on top of the workbench, probably in the box they were in.

And then you'll see some that are actually put in some old refrigerators with the light bulb, which is fine for everything where up to the last digits are 13. When you've got a 7018 rod and you want to keep it dry, you've got to have it in an oven that is 250 degrees to 400 degrees, and your regular refrigerator type unit won't do that. The other stuff it's fine for, but for a 7018, it needs to have an actual rod oven.

Think a little bit about what you're using your welding rod for, what you need for your shop and projects, and then store it and purchase it, use it accordingly.

That does it this time on Shop Stop. We'll see you next week.

AGWEATHER
Hi. I'm Al Sutherland with your Mesonet AGWEATHER report. Rain is the topic on the street, and our first map shows just how many Mesonet sites recorded over 2 inches of rainfall between September 10 and the 16. And note those places over 6 inches. Berneyville, Durant and Stigler. Our map of two inch soil moisture shows that much of the state is colored dark green, which is excellent soil moisture. The few exceptions are Blackwell, Seiling and the Guymon area. Wheat farmers have good soil moisture and mild soil temperatures as shown in this map of three-day averages at the two-inch level for September 14 through the 16. Temperatures across the state pretty clost to 70 degrees. Now, here's Cindy Morgan with a look at the Oklahoma State Fair weather.

Hi. The Oklahoma State Fair kicked off this week, and this time of year normally marks our transition to cooler, more variable weather. Looking at the long-term average for Oklahoma City, rainfalls about 15 percent of the time for any given day during the State Fair. Temperatures can vary quite a bit during the fair. On average we expect afternoon highs in the low 80s and overnight lows around 60. However, past years have seen temperatures as hot as 100 and as cold as 35. For this year's fair, temperatures are expected to be below normal for the entire state. The panhandle has a chance of below-normal precipitation while the eastern third of the state has a chance of above-normal precipitation. Well, that's all we have for this week's Mesonet AGWEATHER report. We look forward to seeing you again next week.

A Tribute to Norman Borlaug
The agricultural community has lost a great leader, a man who dedicated his life to agricultural innovations that would eventually impact the world, and lead to a Nobel Peace Prize. SUNUP's Kathy Shelton has more on the life of Dr. Norman Borlaug, who died on September 12 at the age of 95.

It's hard to recap the life of someone who has done so many great things for so many people. Dr. Norman Borlaug is best known for his development of high-yielding, disease-resistant wheat that virtually ended starvation for millions of people in Mexico, India and Pakistan. That accomplishment led him to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. But there was more to his work than just science. He had to persuade leaders in those countries to listen.

I used to convince the government of India when they were starving, I said, okay, you have 200 kilos of good seed of these Mexican varieties, your people are already starving, it will take you eight years to multiply this seed to a level where you can have much impact on production. You're going to have to import or starve, in the short term.

His concepts eventually caught on, and because of his efforts other parts of the world began to prevent famine as well. His research was inspirational, and young scientists began to follow in his footsteps. Those who were close to him and worked with him side by side say they will never forget the impact he made on their lives.

I think his legacy was this gift of giving. He placed that gift in all of us, in our hearts that nobody else could have done.

I spent my first two years in Mexico, and that was a time before the Nobel Peace Prize. In fact, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to him while I was there, and I remember Norm liked to get up at 5:30 in the morning, especially during the busy season in northwestern Mexico, and many of the people would say, oh, that's too early to go to work, but it was a very precious time for me, because if you got up and went with him at 5:30, he would go and he would fix breakfast at the station, and it was a time you got to talk to Morm, a time you got to know Norm.

Dr. Borlaug had a great passion for life, not only his teachings, but his messages will continue to live on, one in particular that impacted and will continue to impact lives around the globe.

I've never accepted mediocrity. There is nothing I despise more than wasted talent. Those who say, look, it's hopeless. It's in your own discipline that you finally decide, you're comfortable in, whatever life science, whether its food and agriculture, or something related, it could be medicine or nutrition, but don't be satisfied with doing a good job. Do the best possible job you can do.

4-H Projects for Oklahoma State Fair
Well, Oklahomans are hoping to do their best at the many fairs going on around the state. Today SUNUP's Dave Deken has a look at what it takes to coordinate, display and judge the thousands of entries at the Oklahoma State Fair.

It's State Fair time and the 3500 entries for 4-H have to find a place to go and be judged. And that's the job of Kevin Hackett.

It's really pretty calm. I guess the cool, cloudy weather calms things down. Can I help you find something?

No.

No problem.

It sounds like Kevin may have spoke too soon.

What? To the right. I've been telling people 3500 is what we anticipated, but as I checked with our -- they enter everything online or most everything online, and they were telling me we had 4700 online entries for this building already. So that's better than what I've been telling people.

With 45 counties entering the fair, that averages over 100 entries per county, keeping Kevin busy onset-up and judging day. He makes sure each county is where it's supposed to be and all the entries get judged.

Have 50 some judges coming later on in the day.

Kevin also said that -- Kevin? Kevin? Has anybody seen Kevin? Oh, he's briefing the judges. Well, he's kind of busy, and we don't want to bother him anymore, but know that there is a lot of planning that goes into setting up the 4-H section of the State Fair of Oklahoma, and behind all of this organized chaos, there is a guy named Kevin Hackett that made sure what you saw was where it was supposed to be.

National Meeting for Research Station Directors
And that's our show. We leave you today with shots of this year's National Meeting for Research Station Directors. Participants from across the country met in Oklahoma City. As hosts, Oklahoma was able to showcase its scientists and research to the entire group. Every year the station directors get together to find ways for gaining federal support and prioritizing the research projects to be done each year. The end result means big benefits for producers all over the U.S.

They serve the agricultural needs of our producers. They do much of the applied research that goes on to help translate the basic research that is done into something that's usable by the producers, and this very much takes coordinated effort. Projects have become so large and integrated that it's difficult for one institution to be able to do it all anymore, and we have to work together, and this gives us a forum for doing that.