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

Grazing North Texas: Who’s Your Neighbor?

Published

4 days ago

October 22, 2026

NTFR

By Tony Dean, tonydean.tx1@gmail.com

Who qualifies as your neighbor? Webster says it is someone who lives nearby, but it isn’t always that simple. Is my neighbor the person next door, or someone in the next county? It could be both.

Our neighbors are an important part of life on the ranch and the grazing lands we share. Many of us find comfort in knowing another human being is somewhere in our neck of the woods, and that someone nearby cares what happens to us.

Being a good neighbor is part of being a productive and responsible rancher, so let’s look at some of the qualities that make a good one.

Protect your neighbor

Watch out for him.

The cattle business is dangerous. Almost everything we work with is bigger and faster than we are. A mad cow can turn an otherwise wonderful day into a disaster. Sooner or later, all of us will need some help.

The average age of today’s rancher keeps climbing. Be aware of your neighbors’ ages, limitations or disabilities, and keep an eye out for anything outside their normal routine.

More women own and operate ranches today, too. Some may suddenly find themselves responsible for parts of the operation that a spouse or family member used to handle. As neighbors, we can be a valuable backup system, helping one another learn, adjust and keep the operation moving.

And then there is wildfire. It can be on us in minutes. You may need to help move a family down the road to safety or move livestock out of harm’s way. Have a plan in mind before the emergency happens.

Be a friend

Some of us who live in the country drive to town for work or make regular trips for other reasons. Others are stay-at-home ranchers, and life can get a little lonely. A friendly smile, a phone call or an invitation to lunch can mean more than we realize.

Things aren’t always wine and roses at the ranch. Few occupations ask people to juggle such a mix of complex markets, weather, natural resource management, livestock management and countless other issues.

Spirits can get low. If we are listening, we can hear and feel the stress in someone’s life. On those days, you have a chance to be a special kind of friend.

Help your neighbor

Have you ever tried to load a trailer by yourself and needed someone to stand in the gate for a couple of minutes? All of us will need help at some point, and our neighbors should be among the people we can call.

Do your best to be there when needed, and your neighbors will likely be there when it is your turn to ask. Sometimes it will be a small job. Other times, it will be a big one. It doesn’t matter. We help our neighbors.

It’s also smart to make sure someone nearby knows your ranching program and understands the land you use. At some point, one of you may need to take care of business for the other for several days.

Be cooperative

There is no end to the situations that can involve more than one family. Fencing, road maintenance and livestock getting where they don’t belong are common ones.

If you don’t handle these things with a friendly, cooperative attitude, they can create problems between neighbors that last for years.

Good fences are something to be proud of. Nothing is gained by years of bickering. Reaching an agreement may be hard at times, but neighbors should be able to work things out. Clear your head, use common sense and come up with an answer everyone can live with.

If your cattle get mixed up with your neighbor’s, make it a priority to separate them as soon as possible. It is rude to let your cattle stay in your neighbor’s pasture eating his grass while you do nothing about it.

One good way to handle strays is for the rancher whose pasture they are in to pen his own cattle along with the strays. The other rancher can then load his cattle and take them home. Afterward, both ranchers can work together on any fence repairs.

By the way, a gate between neighbors is almost always a good policy.

Take ownership

The only way to avoid mistakes is to do nothing. But it isn’t in us as ranchers to sit around and watch the world go by. We are men and women of action, so things are going to go sideways from time to time.

When that happens, and it will, own your mistakes. Decisive action can prevent misunderstandings and make a problem go away much faster.

Be honest, and never, ever lie.

Be patient

We all have bad days. When your neighbor is a little grouchy, he or she probably has something weighing on them.

That is a chance to be a good neighbor. Be patient. Be a good listener. Help your neighbor through the turmoil if you can.

Respect property boundaries

Trespassing is wrong, illegal and rude. Never do it except in an emergency.

In the Southwest, where we live, land ownership is considered a sacred right, and it is a right available to anyone. With ownership comes an expectation of privacy and respect. When you trespass, you violate those rights.

And yes, it is trespassing when you cross a fence to fish or hunt without permission. Texas is a private-property state, which makes respecting these boundaries especially important.

That doesn’t mean you can’t have an understanding with your neighbors that lets you onto their land. Many good friends and neighbors work together on one another’s ranches, but both parties should always communicate well.

You have a cell phone. Use it any time you doubt whether you have the right to go through the gate. An invitation onto another person’s ranch is a privilege, so don’t abuse it.

Your word

Your word as a rancher, neighbor, man or woman helps define you in your community and throughout your life. Your neighbors want to trust you. They want to know that all they need from you is a handshake and that they can depend on what you say.

It is a blessing to live in North Texas, where people still respect and honor a life lived with truth and love.

A good life to live

Having good neighbors is a great way to live. It brings comfort and enjoyment to life. Sometimes it takes a little extra effort, but a friendly neighborhood, even one that covers many acres, is enjoyable and can help keep all of us safer.

It is worth the effort.

The Bible

The Bible has many references to being a good neighbor. Being a good neighbor was good judgment 2,000 years ago, and it is good judgment today. Jesus made it clear that love should guide a good neighbor.

Leviticus 19:18 tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves. That is a tall order. In Matthew 5:44, Jesus takes it further, telling us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

Our goal should always be to love one another, lift each other up, and help and protect our neighbors.

All of us face drought, floods, wildfire, tornadoes, low cattle prices, rattlesnakes and feral hogs, so let’s fight the fight together. Stand by your neighbor’s side, and he will stand by yours.

A North Texas minister was recently asked, “What do you do if you have a neighbor who is really hard to love?”

His answer was short and to the point: “Love him anyway.”

Farm & Ranch

Beyond Crude Protein

Published

6 days ago

October 19, 2026

NTFR

By NTFR Staff

A stack of hay may look good from the outside. The bales may be heavy, green and free of obvious weeds or mold. None of that tells a cattle producer what the hay will provide once it reaches the feed bunk.

Two bales from the same field can differ noticeably in nutrition if they were cut at different stages of maturity, weathered differently or stored under different conditions. The differences grow even larger when you compare hay bought from separate farms or produced in different growing seasons.

A forage analysis takes much of the guesswork out by showing what the hay contains and where you may need to supplement.

Crude protein is often the first number producers check, but it is only one part of the report. Energy, fiber, moisture and possible toxicity concerns can matter just as much when deciding whether a lot of hay suits dry cows, lactating cows, replacement heifers or growing calves.

Reading beyond the protein number

Most forage reports show results on both an “as received” and a dry-matter basis. The as-received column includes the water in the hay. The dry-matter column takes moisture out of the calculation so you can compare feeds with different moisture levels fairly.

For ration planning, the dry-matter values are usually the most useful. If you’re comparing dry hay with silage, cubes or another feed, make the comparison on a dry-matter basis rather than on the numbers as fed.

Moisture still deserves attention. Hay baled too wet is more likely to heat, mold or deteriorate in storage. In severe cases, heating can create a fire risk. Moisture also affects how many pounds of actual nutrients you are buying. A heavy bale isn’t necessarily a nutrient-dense bale if much of its weight is water.

Crude protein, usually listed as CP, estimates the protein in the forage based on its nitrogen content. Protein keeps the rumen microbes that help cattle digest forage working. When forage protein drops too low, intake and digestion may decline because those microbes can’t function as well.

The amount of protein a cow needs changes a great deal through the year. A mature, dry cow in mid-pregnancy needs less than a cow in late pregnancy or early lactation. Young, growing cattle and first-calf heifers may also need more protein than mature dry cows. Hay that is adequate for one group may fall short for another.

Always compare a forage report with the needs of the cattle that will eat the hay. Oklahoma State University notes that cattle requirements vary with weight, age, stage of production, desired gain and milk production. A single protein target can’t describe the needs of an entire herd.

Energy is another major piece of the feeding decision. Many forage reports express energy as total digestible nutrients, or TDN, an estimate of the digestible energy in the feed. Protein supports rumen function and tissue growth, while energy fuels maintenance, pregnancy, milk production and weight gain.

Hay can test well for protein and still come up short on energy. That matters most for cows nearing calving or producing milk. Low-energy hay may leave cattle feeling full without giving them enough nutrition to hold body condition. University of Nebraska Extension stresses evaluating both protein and energy when judging the feeding value of forage.

Fiber measurements help explain why cattle eat one hay readily and less of another. Neutral detergent fiber, or NDF, represents much of the plant’s structural material, including cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. As NDF rises, cattle generally eat less because bulky, fibrous forage stays in the digestive tract longer.

Acid detergent fiber, or ADF, includes the least digestible parts of the plant. Higher ADF generally means lower digestibility and less available energy. Put simply, high NDF can limit how much cattle eat, and high ADF can mean they get less energy from what they do eat.

Both numbers tend to climb as forage plants mature. Mature hay usually has more stem and less leaf than hay cut earlier. It may still be acceptable feed for animals with lower needs, but it is less likely to support lactating cows or growing cattle without supplementation.

Some reports also include relative feed value, or RFV. This index uses ADF and NDF to compare forage quality, particularly for alfalfa and other legumes. It can help when you compare similar types of hay, but it doesn’t account for every nutrient cattle need. Don’t let RFV replace a closer look at crude protein, energy and the animal’s stage of production.

Depending on the lab package you choose, the report may include minerals. Labs commonly report calcium and phosphorus, but a forage analysis can’t replace a well-designed mineral program. Water quality, other feeds and interactions among minerals all affect mineral needs and availability. Work with an Extension specialist, veterinarian or livestock nutritionist before making major mineral changes.

Nitrate and prussic acid

A standard forage analysis may not include nitrates, and you often have to request that test separately. Nitrate testing is especially important for drought-stressed forage, heavily fertilized fields and crops such as sorghum, sudangrass, sorghum-sudan hybrids, millet, oats and some weeds.

Nitrate can remain in cured hay and doesn’t reliably disappear in storage. Test any hay you suspect of high nitrate before feeding it. Oklahoma State University recommends a laboratory analysis because field screening tests can show that nitrate is present but can’t measure how much.

Prussic acid is a different concern. Unlike nitrate, prussic acid usually dissipates as properly cured hay sits in storage, though suspect forage still needs careful management and professional guidance. Be sure which test you need, and don’t treat the terms nitrate and prussic acid as interchangeable.

Putting the numbers to work

A hay test pays off when it leads to a feeding plan. Once you have the results, you can match the hay to the right class of cattle. Save better hay for replacement heifers, thin cows, late-gestation cows or cows with calves at side. Feed lower-quality hay to mature dry cows with modest requirements.

Testing can also prevent unnecessary supplementation. Without an analysis, you may buy protein tubs, cubes or other supplements your cattle don’t need. The opposite mistake costs just as much. Assuming hay is better than it is can lead to lost body condition, lower milk production, poor breed-back rates and lighter calves.

Visual inspection still matters. Don’t ignore mold, foreign material, weeds, dust or heat damage because a lab report shows acceptable numbers. At the same time, color and appearance can’t reliably predict nutrient content. University of Nebraska notes that forage nutrient values vary widely, which makes average book values a poor substitute for testing the feed you have on hand.

A forage analysis won’t make poor hay better, but it can show you how to use that hay well. For the cost of a test, you get information that can guide hay purchases, cut supplement waste and put each lot of hay where it will do the most good.

The protein number may get the most attention, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Understanding moisture, TDN, NDF, ADF and potential toxicity gives you a much clearer picture of what is inside the bale.

Farm & Ranch

Don’t Be Caught Off Guard

Published

2 weeks ago

October 14, 2026

NTFR

By Savannah Magoteaux

A September rain can be exactly what a North Texas pasture needs, but that flush of green can bring an unwelcome guest.

Fall armyworms are a familiar late-summer and early-fall pest across Texas, and they can do serious damage to pastures and hay fields when conditions are right. Bermudagrass is a common target, but armyworms also feed on small grains, ryegrass and other forage crops. The key is catching them early, before a manageable infestation turns into a field that seems to disappear overnight.

Despite the name, fall armyworms are caterpillars. The adult moths migrate into Texas and lay masses of eggs on grasses, fence posts, buildings and other surfaces. Once the larvae hatch, they start feeding on plants.

Young armyworms are small and hard to spot unless you are actively scouting. As they grow, their appetite climbs. Larger larvae can strip leaves fast, leaving stems behind and cutting into available forage or hay yield.

Look for an inverted, light-colored “Y” on the caterpillar’s head. Mature larvae can reach about 1½ inches long and often have several dark and light stripes running the length of the body.

Armyworms feed most actively during the cooler parts of the day, so early morning and late afternoon are good times to scout. Walk through several areas of the pasture rather than checking only along the edge. Look closely near the soil surface and beneath grass leaves, especially where you see fresh feeding damage.

Scouting matters most after rain or irrigation. New grass growth draws newly hatched larvae, and populations can build quickly when conditions favor them.

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension generally recommends considering treatment in improved pastures when you find about three or more armyworms per square foot. The decision should also weigh the size of the larvae, how much forage is present, the expected hay value and how severe the damage is.

Timing matters. Small armyworms are easier to control than large ones, and an insecticide does less good once the caterpillars are nearly mature and have already eaten much of the forage. If you treat, follow the product label carefully, including grazing and hay-harvest restrictions.

Don’t assume one treatment or one scouting trip will carry a pasture through the season. Fall armyworm moths can keep moving into an area, laying more eggs and starting another generation of larvae. Keep checking fields even after you have controlled an infestation.

For hay producers, an approaching harvest date can also shape the decision. When the crop is close to harvest, cutting the field may be a better option than spraying. The best choice depends on the number and size of the armyworms, how much forage remains and whether the weather allows you to cut hay.

September rain is usually welcome across North Texas, especially after a long, hot summer. Just remember that fresh green grass deserves a closer look. A few minutes of scouting can make the difference between catching fall armyworms early and finding the damage after they have eaten their fill.