Farm & Ranch
Recollections from the Last Fort Worth Stockyard Cowboy – Billy Campbell
By Jessica Crabtree
In present day, the Fort Worth Stockyards on North Main and Exchange Street in downtown Fort Worth boasts store after store of specialty items, fine eating establishments and a Longhorn cattle drive right down Exchange Street twice a day.
By night, the Stockyards turn into an atmosphere of lights and people electrified by music and taverns for entertainment. Perhaps the lure to people is the nightlife, entertainment or the historical ambiance the streets portray.
In the late 1800s, Fort Worth became a center for cowboys driving cattle north and south. Fort Worth was a point of rest and relaxation before saddling up and fighting the dust, heat, cold and cattle of the trail. Totaling more than four million cattle, between 1866 and 1890 cowboys pushed cattle through Fort Worth sealing its fate as “Cowtown.” In 1876 the railroad arrived in Fort Worth, securing the city’s prominence as a prosperous and industrialized city.
Becoming a major shipping point in 1887, the city or George and June Polk built the first stockyards naming it Union Stockyards, situating it only miles north of the Tarrant County Courthouse and just east of the railroad track close to Main Street. Following the establishment of the stockyards, a man arrived promoting a packing house.
Local businessmen saw the opportunity for great development within their city rather then sending cattle off to slaughter elsewhere. After three attempts with three different owners, methods and adversities, the packing house industry was a failure until Ogden Armour, the son of the owner of the packing house Armour Packing Company, met with Louville N. Nile from the stockyards and was convinced he could make a packing house work and agreed to expand and improve the established facilities.
To read more pick up a copy of the March 2017 NTFR issue.
The stockyards in its prime. (Courtesy photo)
Billy Campbell made a living for nearly 40 years as a cowboy at the Fort Worth Stockyards. (Courtesy photo)
By Barry Whitworth, DVM
At the writing of this article, High Path Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 has been detected in more than 83 million domestic poultry in the United States. The outbreak includes commercial and backyard flocks.
Most people are aware that poultry may succumb to Avian Influenza but may not know that other animals can be infected with the virus. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a variety of mammals have been infected with Avian Influenza H5N1 in the U.S.
The list of more than 200 mammals includes bears, foxes, skunks, coyotes, etc. Even marine animals such as dolphins and seals have been found with the virus. Current Avian Influenza H5N1 infections in poultry, mammals, and livestock in the U.S. can be found at the Detections of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza website at https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-detections.
Recently, ruminants have been diagnosed with Avian Influenza H5N1 in the U.S. The World Organization for Animal Health reported that neonatal goats displaying neurological clinical signs and death were positive for Avian Influenza.
To read more, pick up a copy of the May issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By Rayford Pullen | [email protected]
When May arrives, we start thinking about weed control. With two years of drought under our belts, grass grazed short and hay stocks depleted, what we do now will influence our forage conditions for the entire year. With 75 percent of our annual warm season forages made by July 15 in North Texas, we need to get the grass growing while the sun shines.
Speaking of the sun shining, the biggest deterrent to growing lots of grass is restricted sunlight, and the biggest sun blockers we have are weeds.
Have you noticed weeds are normally just slightly taller than your grass and are probably blocking 90 percent of the sunlight from reaching the grass itself? So obviously, we need to improve conditions, so sunlight reaches the plants we want to grow.
With grass extremely short, more sunlight is hitting the soil surface now, which in turn results in more weed seed germinating. With the moisture we have received, we expect an abundance of weeds this year.
To read more, pick up a copy of the May issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By Jared Groce
Rural land sales are continuing on a steady pace for early spring, with prices holding very strong with the sell-to-list price ratios remaining very high, even on properties that have been on the market for a longer than usual time period. The total number of transactions are picking up once again as the spring selling season kicks off, and the average acreage continues to decrease.
Larger acreage properties seem to be in higher demand than smaller properties currently, with many buyers simply parking cash in real estate to hedge against inflation. Interest rates seem to have settled down and most experts agree that rates will be reduced by the fed this year. Some lenders have programs in place that allow the buyer to reduce their rates without having to go through a full refinance ordeal.
To read more, pick up a copy of the May issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
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