Farm & Ranch
Cover Crop Confessions: Mistakes We Made, Lessons We Learned
By Marilyn Cummins
In the summer of 2021, the first diverse warm-season cover crop Kevin Pierce drilled into what had been a conventionally cropped monoculture of cereal rye on Noble Research Institute’s Red River Ranch was a big success.
“That first year, it was great. It was huge,” he says of the 15-some-seed mix, half grasses and half broadleaves. “When all the seeds came up and they grew, we thought, ‘Well, this is easy.’ It looked great.”
They grew gourds, cowpeas, buckwheat, radishes and more along with a mix of grasses.
He followed that in the fall with a cool-season cover-crop mix that produced a decent stand of wheat, oats, rye, barley with vetch, clover, turnips and other crops mixed in. Then came the drought. Whether it was lack of water or the possibility that whatever fertility was left from the last conventional year’s application was now depleted from the sandy soils – or both – very little of the next warm-season cover crop they seeded came up or grew.
“What little bit of stand we did get, the fields were really ugly,” Pierce says. “They were covered in marestail, and that wasn’t something you were really proud of, to be honest. You couldn’t even find a radish out there.”
To read more, pick up a copy of the July issue of NTFR Magazine. To subscribe 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.
By: Rayford Pullen
Fall is here which means winter is closing in on us and before we officially get into winter, we need to make sure our factories are either producing or will be producing in a few months.
We have been pregnancy testing our cows this fall and if they are not bred or nursing a calf, we are bidding them adios. With annual costs somewhere between $900.00 and $1,000.00 per cow, those cows not producing a live weaned calf are costing us quite a bit.
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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