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Scaled quail research hopes to pave way for the bird’s Rolling Plains comeback
By Russell Graves
After a night’s rain, the red dirt Knox County ranch roads in which Becky Ruzicka drives are a bit soft, even muddy in places.
Undaunted, she drives her Kawasaki Mule through the barbed wire gate and past cedars and mesquite trees, all the while watching a GPS unit that tells her the position of each quail surrogator she has stationed on the vast Texas rangelands.
“Through this research we hope to determine the effectiveness of using translocation as a tool to reestablish scaled quail populations within the Rolling Plains,” she explains while gathering up needed equipment before we make a short walk through the brush to the first location where she’ll release a bevy of birds.
“Specifically,” she contends, “this study is designed to help us identify best practices for scaled quail translocation.” As part of Texas A&M University’s Reversing the Decline of Quail in Texas initiative and a continuation of the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch (RPQRR)’s Operation Transfusion project, she hopes to unlock the secrets that, to date, have prohibited scaled quail from inhabiting every niche of their historical range in Texas.
According to Texas Parks & Wildlife Department maps, the historic range of scaled quail is generally on a line that extends a couple of counties east of the 100th meridian (roughly US 83).
To read more pick up a copy of the September 2016 NTFR issue.
One of my professors out at Texas Tech University always told us that we aren’t just raising cattle, we’re raising grass, because without grass there is no cattle business. The same applies to most livestock species and crops we seek to raise- without good land management, no good yield can grow.
To read more, pick up a copy of the November edition of North Texas Farm & Ranch magazine, available digitally and in print. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By Barry Whitworth, DVM, MPH
With the prolonged drought, most pastures in Oklahoma end up in poor condition. With the lack of available forage, animals may go in search of alternative foods.
If oak trees are in the pastures, acorns may be a favorite meal for some livestock in the fall. This may result in oak poisoning.
Oak leaves, twigs, buds, and acorns may be toxic to some animals when consumed.
To read more, pick up a copy of the November edition of North Texas Farm & Ranch magazine, available digitally and in print. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By: Tony Dean
There are a handful of grasses on North Texas grazing lands ranchers need to know, not because they are highly desirable, but rather because they are not of much value. I call them “decom” plants, which is am acronym for “Don’t Ever Count On Me.” Silver bluestem is a “decom” grass.
Silver bluestem is a perennial which grows in all areas of Texas. It can survive in almost all soil types, and in full sun conditions or in semi shade. It grows up to three feet tall and is easily recognized with the presence of the white fuzzy seed head. Also, one of the identifying characteristics of Silver bluestem is a bend in the stems at each node, causing the plants to take on a rounded shape as they mature.
To read more, pick up a copy of the November edition of North Texas Farm & Ranch magazine, available digitally and in print. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
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