Farm & Ranch

[AgriLife Today] Agriculture tells the history of the Rio Grande Valley

Published

10 years ago

January 3, 2017

NTFR

By: Rod Santa Ana
Writer: Rod Santa Ana, 956-878-8317, r-santaana@tamu.edu Contact: Dr. Luis Ribera, 956-373-5086, lribera@tamu.edu

WESLACO — As the 1800s rolled into the 1900s, agriculture in the Lower Rio Grande Valley was in the midst of a major makeover, according to local historians and agricultural experts.

Dr. George H. Godfrey, the first plant pathologist in the Rio Grande Valley is shown in the early 1950s working at the then-Rio Grande Valley Experiment Station, now the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Weslaco. (Photo courtesy of Rod Santa Ana)

It was changing from a livestock economy to one of irrigated farming that would eventually fuel unprecedented growth in South Texas, said Dr. Luís Ribera, a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agricultural economist in College Station.

“The height of the Spanish colonial livestock economy in the Valley lasted roughly from 1770 to 1900,” Ribera said. “It was too dry to grow crops in large quantities, so the economy was based on selling standing cattle and cattle by-products to Mexico.”

Ranches sprouted and flourished in the mid-1700s because of Jose de Escandón, a Spaniard sent to the area by Spanish authorities in Mexico City. He and his followers, the Valley’s pioneers, mapped and settled the fertile region on both sides of the Rio Grande, then known as Seno Mexicano, said Karen Fort, a local historian and co-author of Images of America: Hidalgo County, Texas.

“Escandón succeeded in his task far beyond expectations in this rugged country and renamed it Nuevo Santander after his native Santander Province in Spain,” she said. “Six thousand Spaniards answered the call to settle the land here, and within five years, Escandón had established 24 villages, 15 missions and 20 ranches, complete with almost 90,000 head of cattle.”

That laid the foundation for the settlement of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and the ranching empire that would dominate the land for the next 150 years, Fort said.

“Efforts to irrigate parched corn fields near his settlements ended in failure because Escandón just didn’t have the technology to lift water up and over the high banks of the Rio Grande. Instead, crops were planted when floods subsided or in river bottoms. Away from the river, ranchers dug deep wells that were hand-operated 24 hours a day to water small crops and keep livestock troughs full,” she said.

International law invites outsiders

After the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 formalized the national boundary at the Rio Grande, extranjeros, or foreigners, began moving into the area from Europe, marrying into local families and assimilating into the Mexican culture where little or no English was spoken until the early 1900s, Fort said.

“And by the end of 1910, most of the components were in place to begin the next phase of agriculture — irrigated farming,” she said. “These included the centrifugal pump, the railroad, electricity, improved farming implements and what was then the largest private irrigation system in the world that helped land companies entice farmers from the Midwest to farm here.”

Between 1900 and 1910, 50 steam-engine pump houses had been built along the Rio Grande to irrigate farmland. At their height, they irrigated 1 million acres of farmland as land prices soared from 25 cents per acre in 1906 to $300 per acre in 1910, Fort said.

“Back-breaking farm labor was provided by landless locals as well as hundreds of thousands of Mexicans who were fleeing the violent and bloody Mexican Revolution of 1910 that ended the 34-year dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz,” she said.

On Oct. 6, 1923, a telegram from College Station arrived in what would soon become the city of Weslaco to advise local farmers that they had succeeded in their efforts to establish an experiment station to conduct scientific research on local crops and extend that information to growers, Fort said.

The experiment station was originally known as Substation No. 15 and immediately began research under the direction of the state’s land-grant college, Texas A&M University, then known as Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College, said Dr. Jose Amador, center director emeritus and one-time director of the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Weslaco and the Texas A&M-Kingsville Citrus Center.

“The original emphasis was to find solutions for the many problems that plagued citrus, but by 1925 their research included tests on lettuce, spinach, turnips, carrots, beets, cabbage, cauliflower, corn, grapes, beans, cotton, soybeans, sugarcane and various fruits,” he said.

An annual report from Substation No. 15 in 1927 reported problems with root rot, freezes, hurricanes, salty river irrigation water and marketing.

“Insects and plant diseases seem to thrive in this climate and have taken their toll,” the report noted.

Local producers start making big bucks

Despite cyclical and persistent adversities, including uncooperative weather, poor market prices, rising production costs, insect pests and diseases, growers and the labor force persisted, Amador said.

“Despite those difficulties, agriculture here thrived; many growers made handsome profits that allowed them to pay off their land loans in short order,” he said.

The central turning point in developing the Rio Grande Valley hinged on the expanding irrigation system fed by water from two huge upstream dams and favorable water treaties with Mexico in the 1940s, said Dr. Merritt Taylor, a former economist at the AgriLife center in Weslaco and now a research center director in Lane, Okla.

“Freezes caused many land investors and farmers over the years to abandon their efforts here, which allowed the land to be resold to new investors. The strong pushed out the weak and got stronger,” he said.

Each wave of investors brought with them a new influx of money, people from the north, new equipment and new ideas, Taylor said.

The first carload of grapefruit was shipped from McAllen in 1915 and by the mid-1950s, acreage had grown to 120,000 acres of citrus. But freezes, urbanization and other factors have reduced that number to about 30,000 acres today, Amador said.

“A mild climate allowed for a year-round growing season that allowed for all kinds of crops to be grown here, but the mainstays have been vegetables, citrus, sugarcane, cotton and grains,” he noted.

Weslaco Center boosts state, local vegetable production

The Texas A&M center’s “golden era of vegetable breeding,” a highly specialized technology, is responsible for a large segment of the progress in Texas agriculture, said Dr. Ben Villalón, a retired pepper breeder at the Weslaco center and professor emeritus.

“For over 90 years in the Valley, one of the richest farming areas of Texas, scientists have solved some of the toughest problems with citrus, fruits, over 60 different vegetables and many agronomic crops, including cotton, corn, sorghum and sugarcane in the state’s only subtropical region,” Villalón said.

The search for genetic resistance to insects and diseases in vegetables began in Weslaco in the late 1930s by Dr. S. S. Ivanoff, who eventually released a cantaloupe resistant to melon aphids and downy mildew. He was the first of a long string of highly successful vegetable breeders who developed improved varieties still grown all over the world, Villalón said.

“Dr. George H. Godfrey, the first plant pathologist at the A&M center, developed the first downy and powdery mildew resistant cantaloupes in 1950, followed by the release over the next 35 years by Prof. Rumaldo T. ‘Mayo’ Correa of 15 superior cucurbit genotypes, including cantaloupes, watermelons, cucumbers, honey dews and casabas,” Villalón said.

“Between 1952 and 1985 Prof. Paul W. Leeper gained national acclaim by breeding superior tomato, lettuce and onion releases. His onion breeding work eventually led to several disease-resistant sweet, early onion varieties, including the world-famous 1015 onion.”

Villalón himself was among the center’s prolific vegetable breeders, releasing a host of viral resistant peppers that did not exist before 1970, including the world’s first mild jalapeño pepper. It would revolutionize the salsa picante industry, Amador said.

“Suddenly, mild salsas were made available to the public who consumed them at such a rate that by 1990 salsa outsold ketchup as the favorite condiment in the U.S.,” Villalón said. “Capsicums (peppers) have been around for 8,000 years, but in just 30 years we made tremendous genetic improvements to them that continue today under the direction of Dr. Kevin Crosby at Texas A&M AgriLife in College Station.”

Then-U.S. Congressman and chairman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee Kika de la Garza often referred to Villalón as “the man who tamed the mighty jalapeño,” Amador said.

Cotton becomes king

One of those stronger mainstays, cotton, was probably first produced in the area in the mid-1800s and continues to this day, but not without its problems, said John Norman, a retired AgriLife Extension entomologist in Weslaco and now a private consultant.

“Poor market prices, drought, flood, hurricanes and insects have all taken their toll on cotton here in the last 125 years or so,” he said.

Cotton acreage peaked in 1951 after a January freeze nearly wiped out citrus, similar to what happened in 1983 and again in 1989, Norman said.

“Instead of immediately bulldozing out the dead citrus trees, many farmers planted cotton between the rows of dead trees, adding significantly to what is now considered to be the high period of cotton production in the Rio Grande Valley,” Norman said.

“Officially, the acreage was recorded at 880,700 acres, but some estimates put the number closer to 1 million acres. All the other years, from 1947 to 1963, averaged about 450,000 planted acres.”

Cotton acreage, as well as cotton gins, has declined over the years, Norman said.

“Lately, cotton averages about 100,000 acres,” he said. “And the number of active gins has declined from 107 gins in 1952 to about 10 today.”

On the positive side, Valley cotton producers have broken previous records of per-acre yields three years in a row beginning in 2014.

“We went from 1,032 pounds of lint per acre in 2014 to 1,118 pounds in 2015 and 1,128 pounds per acre in 2016,” Norman said. “The previous highest yield per acre was about 860 pounds back in 1984. And all of this is due to improved cotton varieties and a very successful boll weevil eradication program that has completely prevented crop damage from that insect.”

Poor market prices and the higher cost of cotton production in the U.S. as compared to China and other countries have forced many Rio Grande Valley farmers to change the crops they grow, he said.

“Changes in technology will likely be the driving force behind how much or little cotton continues to be planted,” Norman said. “The same is probably true for every crop now grown in the Valley.”

Sugarcane elbows its way back in

Sugarcane, another storied Valley crop, was first grown in the region in 1858, according to Norman Rozeff, a retired agronomist at the sugar mill in Santa Rosa and a local historian.

“The last turn-of-the-century sugar mill in Donna ceased to operate in 1922,” he said. “It wasn’t until 1972 that the sugarcane industry resumed here in the Valley. Farmers were looking for an alternative to planting low-priced cotton and first considered raising sweet sorghum.”

After exhaustive tests at the AgriLife Research center in Weslaco led by agronomist and long-time center director Raymond Cowley to find a suitable alternative, growers settled on sugarcane, he said.

“Over 100 farmers formed a cooperative and built what was then the world’s most modern processing factory, setting the standard for sugarcane industry modernization in the world. And despite weather-related setbacks from time to time, the sugar cooperative has flourished for over 40 years and been a sizeable economic plus for the Valley,” he said.

“Mr. Cowley, an agronomist by training, insisted that sugarcane was a more suitable crop for the Valley than sugar beets and he was right,” Amador said.

Cowley and Amador, a native of Cuba and the only scientist in Weslaco with any experience growing sugarcane, traveled to cane-growing areas, including Louisiana, Florida and Mexico, in search of suitable sugarcane varieties for the Valley.

Unlike the cotton industry, sugarcane acreage has increased measurably over the decades, thanks to accumulated knowledge of the plant’s husbandry, increased yields and constant mill modernizations, Rozeff said.

“The average cane industry here is presently over 40,000 acres and the average yield has risen to well over 3 tons of sugar per acre,” he said. “Sugarcane has been a good fit for the Valley and with the use of bagasse — the fiber left after the cane is ground — to generate electricity, it now takes its place as a ‘green’ renewable resource. This is certainly a goal the community obviously wants to pursue.”

Valley’s billion dollar ag baby here to stay

While its heyday may be behind it, the Rio Grande Valley’s crops, livestock and ag-related businesses continue to have an annual statewide economic impact of about $1.1 billion, Ribera said.

“Urbanization and the implementation of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) in 1995 had a profound effect on irrigated farming,” he said. “Trade, retail sales and maquiladora manufacturing now overshadow the income of agriculture here.”

While agriculture is worth $584 million in gross sales, retail store sales now account for some $7 billion annually, Ribera said.

Dr. Juan Landivar, director of the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Centers at Weslaco and Corpus Christi, said despite its drop in prominence and the persistence of challenges, agriculture is here to say.

“Our geographical location as a border state, as well as the increase in agricultural commerce across our ports of entry, open the door to invasive weeds, insects and vector-transmitted diseases that can infest our agricultural fields,” he said. “In addition, global warming threatens to increase our already high summer temperatures, increase water use and losses, and add a few generations of pests to our cropping system.”

Landivar said new scientific technologies, including biotechnology, genetic-marker assisted plant breeding and the use of modern scientific molecular tools, would result in the development of new, resilient cultivars adapted to changing weather conditions and resistant to evolving pests and diseases.

“These new cultivars and the advent of remote sensing and the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, are opening the door to a new dimension of precision management of crops better suited to deal with threats,” he said. “These tools, developed by Texas A&M AgriLife and others, will also continue to play a role in the future of agriculture in South Texas.”

Landivar said the spirit of South Texas farmers will prevail.

“As long as we conserve and use judiciously our water supply and protect our soils from erosion and other mismanagement, there will be a place for agriculture here,” he said. “Farmers here are resourceful, resilient and devoted. They will always find a way to produce crops better than anyone else.”

Find more stories, photos, videos and audio at http://today.agrilife.org

Farm & Ranch

Raising Chicks

Published

2 weeks ago

August 12, 2026

NTFR

By Landon Moore

If you keep or are interested in keeping poultry, you will have the desire to raise young birds at some point. If you order chicks, or decide to incubate and hatch eggs, it will be necessary to learn how to brood the resulting hatchlings. While this will vary in specifics between species, the basic rules remain the same. In this article, the word “chicks” will be used, but the general information following also applies to goslings, ducklings, keets, poults, etc.

Brooding poultry is caring for the chicks during the period when they are growing their first feathers. Chicks hatch with a thin coat of down that leaves them susceptible to chilling. The mother keeps them warm by continuing to sit on the young for the first weeks after hatching. If you plan to hatch your own flock’s eggs you may wonder why you should bother to do it artificially, especially if you have broody birds. The answer is that modern incubators are much more likely to result in live chicks, can incubate far more eggs and keep the extremely vulnerable hatchlings safe as they emerge, especially from ants. Of course if you are purchasing chicks, brooding is your only option.

Before your eggs hatch or the chicks arrive, you will want to have the brooder set up, and ready to go. The first issue to decide is location. You will want a covered and secured place to set up the brooder. Be sure it has plenty of air flow; as anyone who has spent any time with birds can attest, fowl of any age produce an unpleasant smell without adequate ventilation. A barn or other outbuilding could work, but be sure it is well secured. A cat, raccoon or other predator could easily kill your chicks if they get the opportunity. A garage is a great option, offering protection and close access to water and electricity. If it lacks windows you will need to open the garage door a few times per day for ventilation. Inside the house is another option (such as in a disused bathroom) especially for very small poultry. This may seem ideal, offering complete protection, easy temperature regulation, water and electrify, but there are drawbacks. Aside from smell, chicks are unbelievably messy and will require extensive and daily cleaning if the room is to remain in even slightly good condition.

The next choice is what the brooder box will be. You can purchase large metal brooders built for hundreds of chicks or expensive tiered systems on rollers. However the best option is usually a plain, heavy-duty plastic storage box. Cheap, easy to move, simple to clean and sanitize, these are the most versatile and efficient option.

The chicks will require (in addition to shelter) heat, bedding, feed and water. The heat will come in the form of a small heat lamp or even a very strong and hot light bulb suspended above one end of the brooder box. Be sure it is securely prevented from falling into bedding or you could end up with a fire. You can make a metal screen to place over the box which protects them from predators in addition to falling lamps. Place a thermometer at the surface of the bedding before adding the chicks and adjust the heat lamp until the thermometer measures 95 degrees. You will reduce this by 5 degrees each week until their feathers have grown out. Even if the weather reaches or exceeds this temperature a lamp will be needed at night.

You may be intimidated by charts showing the exact temperature requirements of various poultry species and wonder how you can possibly keep the heat exactly right during daily temperature shifts. You do not need to be overly worried about this. Why? Because the chicks will tell you if they are comfortable through their behavior. After placing them in the brooder simply watch them for a few minutes. Do they crowd underneath the heat, piling on each other to conserve heat? Lower the bulb a bit. Are they straining against the opposite wall and cheeping in stress? Move it further away. Are they fairly evenly spread out, some exploring their new environment and some sleeping under the heat? Perfect. This is why the heat should be placed over one end of the brooder. If it is over the entire box you will have no way of knowing if your chicks are over-warmed.

The next issue is bedding. When the chicks are first placed in the brooder the bedding should be a layer of paper towels or (non-slick) newspaper. This even surface provides good traction for the birds preventing splayed legs and also prevents them from getting stuck somewhere and dying or else ingesting bedding before they learn what feed is and dying. It is always good to keep in mind that chicks of all kinds are morbid little things that will jump at the first opportunity for death in their initial couple weeks of life. It is up to you to deny them the opportunity until their self-preservation instinct kicks in. Chicks mature shockingly fast and in just a couple of days the bedding may be exchanged for pine shavings. You may still want a layer of paper at the bottom to make cleaning easier. You do not want to disturb the chicks without necessity, so you can add a fresh layer of shavings a couple of times as needed before you completely clean the box.

Commercial chick feed is available that is meant to be suitable for all species. For game birds, guineas and turkeys it’s often better to just use an adult gamebird crumble feed as their protein requirements are extremely high. For waterfowl, be sure the feed has enough niacin if it isn’t specifically formulated for them. If it does not have enough, you can sprinkle some brewer’s yeast over the top. Medicated feed is usually formulated for chicks specifically and may not be safe for other species (especially for waterfowl), so be sure to check before feeding. Chicks aren’t especially bright and may not be able to figure out how to operate the feeder at first. You can help them by placing a small pile of their feed on a paper plate (or paper towel for quail) where they can see it more easily.

For waterers, their basically two main types; open waterers and bottles. The bottles can be complicated with multiple pieces and nipples to drink from or simply a two piece plastic quart jar and base that screw together. The open waterers will usually be a miniature trough with a hinged or sliding lid that allows the chicks to stick their heads in without falling into the waterer and drowning. Generally the bottle type waterers will stay cleaner and hold more, but for waterfowl open waterers are preferred so they may submerge their bills for cleaning. Quail should be given bottles with special quail bases which are very small to prevent drowning. It can be extremely beneficial to dissolve a couple tablespoons of sugar (or commercially-made chick electrolytes) into the water for the first few days, especially if the chicks came by mail. Provide chicks with warm water the first few days (use your inner wrist to determine a suitable temperature, as you would milk for a bottle) to prevent chilling them. Be sure to carefully dunk each chick’s beak into the water when they are placed in the brooder so they learn what it is.

Chicks are most fragile for the first three days and should be handled as little as possible. When shipped, they will arrive stressed and possible chilled and care during this period is the most crucial. For the first three days after hatching, chicks are still absorbing their egg yolk and will not require outside nutrition and therefore may eat sparingly. It is best practice to sanitize the feeders and waterers regularly, but be aware that all birds will leave manure in their water. Don’t let the water remain filthy, but don’t expect it to remain sterile, either. Likewise, a stinking bog will not yield thriving poultry, but it is unnecessary to fanatically clean the brooder constantly. When the chicks are fully feathered will vary by species (three weeks for quail, six weeks for chickens), but once this happens it will be time for your young feathered friends to graduate to their new pens.

Farm & Ranch

Mastering Cattle Injection Techniques

Published

2 weeks ago

August 8, 2026

NTFR

By Martha Crump

Whether you have a few head of cattle or quite a few, you’ve no doubt had to give them injections at some point. If you are managing your herd correctly, that means you’ve established a good working relationship with your local veterinarian, as that is now the protocol for obtaining any medications or vaccines for your herd.

But has anybody ever talked to you about the “What, When, Where, Why and How” of injections? I suspect many of us have watched family, and when we graduated into the designated role of “Shot Boss,” we were given some quick directions, and after that we were on our own. After all, just how difficult could it really be?

Surprisingly, there are quite a few “whys” to consider when we are responsible for the injection side of vaccinating or doctoring our sick cattle. It is no surprise that over the last 20 or so years, as with many practices in the beef industry, progress has been made in standardizing beef cattle injection techniques and methods. These injection techniques are recommended to help with animal safety and the production of safe, quality beef for the consumer.

I’m only mentioning the “What” of this equation briefly, as most all know that the purpose of vaccines is to protect against disease, prevent pregnancy loss and promote passive immunity. Each of these points could rightfully be an article on its own. If you are running a program like your livestock deserve, then the “When” and “Why” is a customized protocol for your herd and will vary across ranches and regions. Producers should work closely with their veterinarian to customize this plan.

This now leaves us with the “Where” and the “How” of giving injections.

The first safety measure is to make sure your cattle are safely restrained and that you have easy access to the neck. A moving animal creates the potential for a missed shot, a misplaced shot or, worse yet, an injury to the “shot boss.” Animals that are not properly restrained are more likely to suffer from tissue trauma, incorrect injection technique and location, and are at a higher risk for needle breaks.

An old saying around cattle pens is, “Slow is faster, because it’s smoother.” Everyone should know what they’re doing, where they are standing to do their specific job and have a clear setup to get it done.

Understanding the route of administration (ROA) for the vaccines or medicine being given is critical for the efficacy of the product being used. Most vaccines are either given subcutaneously (SQ), just under the skin, or intramuscularly (IM) in the neck. Some vaccines are now given intranasally with a specialized blunt plastic attachment.

Starting with the Sub Q injection, it is given at a 45-degree angle, while injections that are given intramuscularly (IM) are positioned at a 90-degree angle and inserted more deeply. When label recommendations are followed, an animal’s ability to absorb, distribute, break down and excrete a drug are predictable. The problem arises when directions are not followed. There are distinct differences in the rate of absorption of drugs depending on how they are delivered, and when given incorrectly, there is no guarantee of drug effectiveness.

Most injections are given SQ, or just under the skin, as they are generally less irritating and therefore the preferred ROA. It is advisable to avoid the temptation to use the hand not holding the needle to pull the skin up or “tent” it as you are injecting. This practice quite often leads to injecting yourself instead of the cow. We won’t talk about how I know this fact!

It is a common tendency for a person who has never given shots, as it makes it easy to feel the syringe path. Instead of this technique, keep the 45-degree angle and try for slight back-and-forth movement of the syringe tip once inserted. If it is mobile, then you are under the skin, but not into the muscle.

For the intranasal vaccines, we have tried a couple of different tips by different manufacturers, and the one we prefer has a large circular guard that prevents the tip from being inserted too deeply into the nasal passage. One brand had a smaller guard, and it was difficult to control depth as the circular guard passed right into the nostril. With a moving target, this had the potential to cause trauma, so we made sure to avoid that brand with future treatments. No matter how well you have them secured, there will be head movement.

We also try to have the head elevated for a few moments after spraying the mist into the nose so it will not immediately run right back out. Our grandson was administering the nasal vaccine for the first time a few weeks ago, and this was the correction he needed. Keep that head up for just a minute to eliminate it dripping right back out. That turns into an expensive puddle! It’s easy to miss the little points when you are learning new things.

This diagram shows exactly where the recommended injection safe zones are located. Injections outside of the indicated safe zone have the potential to cause injury and even death to the animal. The nuchal ligament runs along the top of the neck and is responsible for supporting the head. Injections placed too high have the potential to cause damage that can cause the animal to suffer severe and even permanent paralysis. The same results can occur if the spinal cord is inadvertently hit with the syringe.

Also to be avoided as an injection site is the jugular furrow along the bottom of the neck. This area contains the jugular vein and carotid artery. If medications or vaccines are injected too low along the neck, they can enter directly into the bloodstream and have the unintended effect of possible severe drug reactions.

Another consideration is to keep a hand-width of space between medication injection sites when having to administer multiple ones on an animal. This helps ensure that the tissue can adequately recover from the injections, and it will also prevent the medications from combining under the skin. If medications mix within the animal because they are given in the same spot, they can interact and cause drug reactions, or they can potentially inactivate each other, rendering them useless.

As for the actual equipment, the needle size should be based on the size of the animal. You will see some slight variations in recommended sizes, but generally, for calves less than 500 pounds, a 20- to 18-gauge needle that is 1/2 to 5/8 inch is used for SQ injections. For cattle greater than 500 pounds, an 18- to 16-gauge needle that is 1/2 to 3/4 inch is used. The needle should be slightly longer for IM injections, but the consideration is the same as SQ for weight. Always choose the smallest gauge needle that can still effectively deliver the type of medication needed. Disposable needles with an aluminum hub are preferred.

Now, about those needles. A box of 100 averages out to about 25 cents per unit. Walk into most cattle working pens and what will you find? Needles recapped and lying around, you know, just in case. In today’s economy, it does pay to be frugal, but ranchers have been hoarding and reusing needles for as long as they’ve been in use. Folks, they are one of the least expensive pieces of equipment that we use. You and your animals are better served if the needle being used is replaced when needed.

So, exactly when is it necessary? If a needle is burred, bent or dull, it will increase the likelihood of tissue damage and abscessing. It is even recommended that the needle be replaced every 10 to 15 injections and every time it is necessary to enter a multidose vial. If a needle is bent, you should never attempt to straighten it. You should replace it with a new one.

I’m pretty sure this train of thought will cause a collective gasp. Seriously, they’re not expensive, and they’re not meant to be used for the duration of your lifetime. Replace those suckers!

As for the syringe, proper cleaning is essential for maintaining hygiene and preventing cross-contamination. Whenever possible, you should designate specific syringes for each product and use only with that product.

And this next point is very important. Syringes should NOT be cleaned with soaps or antibacterial agents, as they may affect the efficacy of vaccines because of residue left behind after cleaning. Instead, you should perform a quick pre-rinse with only warm water immediately after use. If disassembly is possible, separate the barrel, plunger and needle, then wash using hot water and a brush. Once cleaned, the syringe may be hung upside down to air dry or placed on a clean towel to dry. Do not reassemble and/or store until fully dry.

When you are utilizing best management practices, your herd stays healthier and more profitable for you. Even if you are throwing away more needles!

Farm & Ranch

Tumble Windmillgrass

Published

3 weeks ago

July 31, 2026

NTFR

By Tony Dean

Tumble windmillgrass is a short, compact perennial bunch grass that is adapted to almost every corner of Texas. It can grow on almost any soil, but prefers coarse textured soils.

The most obvious characteristic about Tumble windmill is its large seed head sporting 10 to 16 laterally spreading branches, each approximately two to six inches long, arranged in one to three whorls.

When mature, the seed head will break off and be caught up in the wind, making Tumble windmill one of the great wanderers of the plains. It can tumble great distances, spreading itself in the process. This wanderer seems to like parking in your garage on windy days, as well as dancing around windy corners of buildings and any other place the wind decides to carry it.

Tumble windmill can also spread by short stolons. The upper leaves are very short, while the lower leaves are often much longer. The leaves are light green with a purplish seed head that fades to pale reddish at maturity.

Tumble windmillgrass provides poor forage for livestock and wildlife, although most grazers will use the forage in early spring when tender.

Since Tumble windmill can grow in poor soil conditions, it is useful as a component for a prairie grass mix used on disturbed areas. This grass does not usually dominate a pasture but can often be found in smaller amounts. Proper grazing use along with rotational grazing can cause the plant to be replaced with higher successional plants.