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 Heather Welper
Husband and wife duo, Heather and Calvin Welper, are the Co-Owners and Operators or Two C Livestock, located in Valley View, Texas.
The pair’s operation has a show cattle focus where they raise and sell purebred heifers of all breeds and club calf Hereford steers.
When it comes to show cattle, the Welpers know a thing or two including how to prepare for the cold winter months and the Texas major show season run.
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 Hannah Claxton, Editor
As the sun rises each day, so do the dozens of mouths that Meghan McGovern is responsible for getting fed. Rather than the sounds of a rooster crowing, McGovern hears the bellows and bleats of a variety of exotic deer, the chortle of kangaroos, the grunts of water buffaloes, and the chirps of a lemur.
Nestled against the banks of the Red River, the Double M Ranch and Rescue, with its high game fences and deer sprinkling the landscape,s its in stark contrast to the surrounding ranches.
“Having deer is kind of like eating potato chips- you can never actually have just one,” said McGovern with a laugh.
McGovern has several herds to take care of- fallow deer, axis deer, water buffalo, goats, and bison. In smaller numbers, there’s also a few kangaroos, a lemur, a potbelly pig, a pair of zebras, a watusi, and a few horses.
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.
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