News Update
October 9, 2014
North Texas Cattleman’s Conference
Set for Oct. 24
The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service in Denton County and the Denton County Extension Agriculture Committee, in conjunction with Cooke, Grayson, Collin and Fannin counties, is hosting the North Texas Cattleman’s Conference.
The conference will be from 8:30 a.m.-4:15 p.m. at the church located at 8690 Liberty Road, said Brandon Boughen, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agent for Denton County.
Preregistration is required by Oct. 20 to receive lunch. Registration will be $35 per person if preregistered or $40 at the door, he said. Registration forms can be found on the website for AgriLife Extension for Denton County at http://denton.agrilife.org/agriculture-natural-resources. Participants will receive two pesticide applicator continuing education units and two Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) credits.
“This year we have chosen the topic of ‘Managing Risk to Increase Economic Sustainability in Your Cattle Operation,’ ” he said. “Anyone who raises cattle for profit understands that sustainability equals staying in business, and there are more and more factors today than ever before.”
The keynote speaker will be Jude Capper, a self-employed sustainability consultant and an adjunct professor in the department of animal sciences at Washington State University in Pullman, Wash., he said. “She specializes in communicating the importance of livestock industry sustainability and the factors affecting sustainability.”
Boughen said six other speakers will round out the day’s program, speaking on topics ranging from “replacement heifers to adding value to your product and marketing.”
Agricultural equipment dealers and representatives from several feed, pharmaceutical and other agricultural sector companies will be on hand to answer questions.
For more information, please view the Angus Journal Virtual Library calendar of upcoming events here.
Private Land Stewardship Field Day Set for Nov. 5
in Coryell County
Two state agencies and one federal agency will conduct a multi-county Private Land Stewardship Field Day Nov. 5 at two sites in Coryell County. The collaborating agencies are the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
“The field day will target area landowners interested in managing their ranches for multiple uses, particularly for wildlife and cattle,” said Mike Marshall AgriLife Extension associate for the Texas A&M Institute of Renewable Natural Resources at Gatesville.
Marshall said the first part of the field day will be from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Harmon School, which is about 10 miles northwest of Copperas Cove off Harmon Road. The afternoon portion is set for 1:30-4 p.m. at the Hanna Ranch, a few miles north of Pidcoke off Farm-to-Market Road 116.
Topics of discussion include basic land stewardship principles, wildlife population management, rangeland management. Aldo Leopold’s five land management tools — the axe, cow, plow, fire and gun — will be a particular focus.
Individual registration is $15 and includes lunch and two Texas Department of Agriculture continuing education units — one general and one integrated pest management.
For more information, please view the Angus Journal Virtual Library calendar of upcoming events here.
Annual Cattle Trails Cow-Calf Conference Set
for Dec. 2 in Lawton
Getting back to the basics of fundamentally sound ranch management will be the focus of the Cattle Trails Cow-Calf Conference, a joint effort between the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service.
The event will be hosted Dec. 2 in Lawton, Okla. This annual conference, with the slogan of “driving your operation to profits,” provides cow-calf producers the most up-to-date information on topics that influence cattle profits, said Stan Bevers, AgriLife Extension economist in Vernon, Texas.
The conference, which alternates between Texas and Oklahoma each year, will be from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Comanche County Fairgrounds Coliseum in Lawton, Okla. Registration is $25 per person and includes educational materials, a noon meal and refreshments. Additional information can be obtained at http://agrisk.tamu.edu.
“This is probably the strongest agenda we have put together for any of our cattle conferences,” Bevers said. “We are fortunate to have Rich Roth, vice president of the IX Ranch from Big Sandy, Mont., coming down to speak.”
He said Roth is the latest generation of ranch managers for the ranch. The IX Ranch, in its current state, was created in 1955, but the history of the ranch dates back to 1879. The ranch is strictly a cow-calf operation with a current inventory of 3,500 mother cows.
“Rich is a relatively young manager who blends the old with the new,” Bevers said. “He documents most activities on the ranch, from data collection to using his smartphone to capture and post the activities. The ranch’s information system allows the management team to quickly identify and respond to any potential issues, such as low calving rates to rising fertilizer costs.
Also on the agenda will be Bevers and Derrell Peel, Extension livestock economist with Oklahoma Cooperative Extension at Stillwater, Okla., discussing cattle markets and the beef industry.
For more information, please view the Angus Journal Virtual Library calendar of upcoming events here.
Ohio State Experts Offer Tips on Best Management Practices to Keep Phosphorus on the Field, Improve Water Quality
Growers wanting to increase crop yields while helping to improve Ohio’s water quality can do so using a set of best management practices when applying fertilizer to their fields this fall, according to a group of agronomists and ag engineers with Ohio State University’s (OSU’s) College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
The recommendations are designed to offer growers insight into some of the steps they can take now to boost farm profits while also benefiting the state’s water quality, said Greg LaBarge, an OSU Extension field specialist and one of the leaders of the OSU Agronomic Crops Team.
The group also includes experts from the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) and the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS).
In addition to focusing on phosphorous rate, application and timing, the recommendations look at farm and field features that, based on multiple studies, can assist in reducing phosphorous loss at the edge of the field, LaBarge said.
“There are some immediate practices that people can implement this fall as they are making fertilizer applications that can help them continue to maximize yields while helping improve water quality,” he said. “Some of them can be done at no additional cost, while others can be offset through cost share programs offered through USDA’s NRCS and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
“Doing soil testing and following Tri-State recommendations will not add additional costs to farmers, but they result in benefits to water quality. The other recommendations may require investing in practice or equipment changes that may require some capital investment.”
The recommendations for phosphorous rate, application and timing are:
- Avoid overloading soils. Utilize current soil tests that have been performed within three years and follow Tri-State fertilizer recommendations. Where soil test levels are above 40 ppm Bray P1 or 58 ppm Mehlich III-ICP, do not apply additional phosphorus in the corn-soybean rotation. These levels require no additional fertilizer, according to the recommendations. Fertilizing soils above these levels increases the risk of phosphorous in runoff and tile drainage.
- Avoid winter application. Eliminate surface application of manure or fertilizer to frozen or snow-covered fields. Frozen ground is ground that is frozen to a degree that tillage is impossible. Surface-applied manure or fertilizer is subject to runoff events that may occur before the ground thaws and allows nutrients to bind to soil.
For more information please view the full release here.
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