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 Jared Groce
Demand remains strong for some properties, while the number of buyers for others has dropped. We are seeing a decrease in the demand for lower price point homes, with increased demand for raw land over $1,000,000. There is still a lot of people with 1031 money who are trying to defer capital gains taxes, and they have a limited amount of time to get that money spent.
The higher interest rates are keeping first-time home buyers on the sidelines, as well as folks who need to borrow a lot of the money to buy and build on land.
To read more, pick up a copy of the September issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
Noble Research Institute’s inaugural two-day training event, Essentials of Regenerative Ranching, brought together farmers and ranchers who are eager to improve the health of their land, livestock, and livelihood.
This first delivery of the course, conducted July 11-12, 2023, at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, provided producers with an immersive experience that combined facilitator-led classroom learning with hands-on activities in the field, as well as ample opportunities for ranchers to connect and problem-solve with their peers.
For more, pick up a copy of the September issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By Dani Blackburn, [email protected]
There might be no greater way to impact the world than through the agricultural industry. How we grow our food, what we eat, and our future all depend on those farmers, ranchers, and professionals working tirelessly to ensure the industry is at its best.
The determination of many countless individuals can lead to significant progress within agriculture. One person who has spent decades making a difference via agricultural education while encouraging a balance of integration and practicality is Dr. Ron Gill, Texas A&M professor and Extension livestock specialist and associate department head for Extension.
To read more, pick up a copy of the September issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
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