Outdoor
Grazing North Texas
By Tony Dean, [email protected]
We all take the sun for granted. If we’re building fence on a hot July day, we try to hide from it. If we are pulling a calf on a cold January morning, we welcome a few rays coming our way. Either way, it’s always there. We can’t live without the sun. We depend on it not only for our lives, but also for our livelihood as ranchers. As part of his gift to us, God gave the process of photosynthesis. This is how grasses grow.
Photosynthesis is the process plants use to sustain themselves. Plants gather water and nutrients from the soil and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Using the sun’s energy, the plant produces oxygen along with energy for growth in the form of sugar.
In managing cattle, the more we understand about the mothering instinct, and the herding instinct, the better job we do in livestock management. A big part of managing our grazing lands is understanding how plants respond to sunlight. Some plants want to maximize their exposure to it, and some prefer a more limited amount. Texas bluegrass has a wide range of sunlight adaptation. Texas bluegrass is a highly palatable native cool season perennial that can grow in open pasture or in shaded areas. When subjected to years of heavy grazing pressure, it decreases in open areas but can maintain a presence in shaded brushy areas not subject to heavy grazing. When we can incorporate well-planned rotation grazing into our management, Texas bluegrass can reappear in open pasture.
To read more, pick up a copy of the July issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By Tony Dean, [email protected]
The Old World bluestems (OWBs) are a large family native to Eurasia, Africa, and Australia. Although there is strong evidence that Columbus may have inadvertently brought OWBs to the Americas, they were first officially introduced to the United States in the early 1900s. They have been widely planted in the Central and Southern Great Plains for forage production and erosion control.
The Old World family is made up of at least two species, the Yellow bluestems and Caucasian bluestem. The most common Yellow bluestem cultivars include King Ranch, Plains, Ganada, WW-Spar, and WW-Ironmaster. Caucasian has a single cultivar, WW-B Dahl bluestem. All of these cultivars are very similar and identification can usually only be made after a seedhead has developed.
Undoubtedly other species and varieties exist that have not yet been identified and categorized. For purposes of this writing, we will usually refer to them together as OWBs.
To read more, pick up a copy of the August issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By Norman Winter | Horticulturist, Author, Speaker
After seeing the flowers at the Young’s Plant Farm Annual Garden Tour in Auburn, Ala., I felt a sense of desperation to get my hands on the Luscious Basket Tangeglow lantana.
I don’t always think about lantana being a component plant in mixed-container designs but they had several that were simply dazzling. Luscious Basket Tangeglow is a fairly new lantana and its name gives reference to its compact nature of 12 to 26 inches in height and a spread of 12 to 24 inches. You might wonder about the differences in height and width and that is attributed to the length of the growing season.
Luscious Basket Tangeglow has done great in university trials winning Perfect Score at the University of Minnesota, Iowa State, Oklahoma State and University of Tennessee. Then it took home Directors Select at Penn State and a bunch of Top Performer awards.
To read more, pick up a copy of the August issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By Norman Winter | Horticulturist, Author, Speaker
As a national garden writer, I can tell the trumpet call has gone out for the long summer ahead. This is a call for petunias, summer’s favorite flowers, and they are trumpet shaped, of course. This call is also one of panic as I hear it in the voices of gardeners saying, “I can’t find my bubblegums.”
This means they can’t find their Supertunia Vista Bubblegum petunias. There is little doubt this is the most awarded petunia of all time. You can count them, 296 awards filling 10 pages. Bubblegums and all of the Supertunias, are among the most awarded flowers available to gardeners. By awards I’m referring to rigorous university trials in both the United States and Canada.
You want to get them planted now while the temperatures are mild over much of the country and acclimation is nice and easy. Even in the south it is a great time to plant before triple digit heat indexes are the norm. Planting now will give you the longest time to enjoy a Supertunia Summer Celebration. You want to plant now because everyone is ready for season color and shopping at the local garden center is among the stiffest competition. Hence the panic over Bubblegums.
To read more, pick up a copy of the July issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
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