Texas A&M AgriLife Ranch to Retail

Dr. Jenna Funk is an instructor in with VERO at the Texas A&M Vet School located at WTAMU and instructs 4th year vet students.  She is a Beef Cattle Vet and certified Beef Cattle Specialist.  She recently visited with AgriLife Extension Agents Andy Hart (Hale) and Mark Carroll (Floyd) on their radio interview "The Graze".   Dr. Funk discussed calf losses to pneumonia and went into detail regarding the differences in AIP and BRD pneumonia.  She discussed the causes of death, symptoms of the problems, diagnosis, and prevention.  This is a very good discussion and I hope you will enjoy.

Incredible information presented by Dr. Jourdan Bell and Dr. Kevin Heflin related to Corn and Sorghum Hybrids.  The emphasis was on the impact of production decisions on yield and selection hybrids based on these influences.  Hybrid differences, history, inputs, ear flex, and other agronomic influences were talked about in detail.  Emphasis was also placed on weed control, transpiration of the plant, water needs, soil holding capacity, optimizing your water, and irrigation strategies.  Sorghum stress benefits vs. corn, limited irrigation, diseases, maturity, growth and development, planting dates, etc.   This was an excellent conversation and presentation from our December on-line meeting.

Learn from Dr. Morgan Treadwell some of the management tools and resources available to help with control of problem weeds and brush.  Dr. Treadwell starts with management of your grasses and provides a great run down of all the tools available to you.  This an excellent presentation that we capture at our recent AgriLife North Region on-line program in December.  Enjoy!

Management of weeds in the High Plains is challenging and much of the success with control is because of the tools available.  Dr. Dotray discusses these options and some of the issues you might face that can contribute to the challenges and some of the management decisions that can help deal with these challenges.

Ionophores have been around and research has indicated they are an effective tool for economical and efficient growth in growing cattle.  Dr. Jason Smith covers some of those results but also dives into the impact ionophores can have on cattle on forage.  Interesting information on how these products can be used to decrease intake and maintain body condition.  Think of the possiblities for some to extend forage (grass or hay) or to increase stocking rates.  Great information and discussion regarding these findings.  He also got into the background and how ionophores work along with economics of the products.  We talked about the positive impact of these on weaned cattle, heifers, and in conjuction with the use of implants.   Some of the best information we have delivered via this podcast and I hope you enjoy it.  Just a hint it pays in almost every situation.

Discussion with County Extension Agents Marcus Preuninger (Gray County) and Andy Holloway (Hemphill County) about the upcoming program focused on preparing and response to potential wildfires in the region.  Information on preparation through grazing management, utilization of prescribed burns, and controlling brush.  We will here from Extension specialist and local ranchers on these topics.  We also talked about the involvement of a panel of producers, firemen, local officials, and Texas A&M Forest Service who will share experiences and preparation for the next fire event in our area.   I'm excited about the meeting to be held on November 9 in Pampa (in-person) and satellite sites in Post, Lubbock, Crosbyton, Amarillo, and Spearman.  Get all the details in this podcast.

Caitlin Frederick (County Extension Agent for Ag/NR) and Malory Lindsey (Crosby and Garza County Game Warden) discuss everything you need to know for the upcoming hunting season.  These ladies have a great time discussing preparation for hunting season, licensing , requirments for mandatory testing in CWD zones, CWD in general, youth license requirements, digital licensing, available apps, Wast of Game regulations, and much more. This was a fun podcast loaded with outstanding information.

Excellent conversation with Katie Rivers and Rock River Labs.  Mark Carroll, CEA-Ag in Floyd County and Andy Hart in Hale County interviewed Katie and discussed the labs services, current testing results, and additional information regarding nitrates, prussic acid, and feed samples.  Great information and thanks to Andy and Mark for this interview.

Dr. Thomas Hairgrove and Mark Carroll discuss everything about parasite control in cattle and decisions impacting this topic.  They get into resistance to products, specific worm issues, life cycle of these parasites, wormer classes and options, nutritional impact on parasite load, grazing management impact, and proper care of products. Good and timely information provided by Mark Carroll, CEA-Ag in Floyd County.

The third in a series of wheat focused podcasts features Dr. Jourdan Bell, Agronomist with AgriLife Extension in the Amarillo area.  Dr. Bell discusses a wide range of topics and issues related to wheat and small grains as an option for forage along with issues related to growing this crop.  We also get into some conversation regarding sorghum and corn silage harvest and even a little cotton in the area.  Great job by Dr. Bell, Dr. Trostle, Dr. Rudd, and Steelee Fischbacher for contributing to this series about wheat.

This is the 2nd in a series of 3 discussion related to wheat and small grains.  We talk with Steelee Fischbacher who is the Policy Director with Texas Wheat Producers Board and Association.  She talks about the role of these organizations, the history and role of these, the wheat checkoff, and the work they are doing in policy, marketing, and research.   Speaking of research, Dr. Jackie Rudd is one of the best and his group has been developing the famous TAM varieties that are planted throughout our area and beyond.  His gets into the history of TAM varieties, breeding decisions along the way that eventually end up as a marketable variety, changes due to producer and industry priorities that influence direction of the development of certain traits such as yield, insects, disease, viruses, drought, quality, etc.,  Great discussion. Sorry we went a tad over an hour but it was too interesting to stop.  Enjoy the conversation.

We will be uploading a 3 part series on Small Grain/Wheat production starting with a discussion with Dr. Calvin Trostle.  Dr. Trostle is an agronomist with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension and works in a variety of cropping systems including small grains.  He talks about variety testing, the "pick list" and how it is determined, fertility needs and timing, seed treatment, certified seed, and much more.   We will be following this discussion up with more from Dr. Jourdan Bell, Dr. Jackie Rudd, and Steelee Fischbacher.  You will want to here all of these in the coming days.

Mark Carroll, AgriLife Extension Agent in Floyd County and Dr. Juan Pineiro', AgriLife Extension Dairy Specialist discuss the pro's and con's of growing and feeding sorghum silage as an option for dairies.  Silage demand has increased tremendously in the South Plains and Panhandle regions of Texas due to increased dairy cows and dairies.  Due to drought and limiting irrigation to meet this demand, research has been looking at sorghum as an alternative.  Dr. Pineiro' gets into the specifics of how corn and sorghum differ and what is important to know if you are growing these crops for silage.

Outstanding conversation with Range Management Specialist Dr. Tim Steffens, North Region AgriLife Extension Agents, and a few producers.  Dr. Steffens is with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension and West Texas A&M and brings a variety of experiences and knowledge with drought, grasses, livestock, and management.  He gets into all aspects of manageing rangelands and decisions related to grazing and livestock during this conversation and answers questions from the participants during the presentation.  I think you will enjoy the conversation and thought provoking discussion.

This podcast covers the conversation regarding corn, sorghum, and small grain diseases and viruses.  Dr. Tom Isakeit, Dr. Ken Obasa, and Dr. Terry Wheeler focus on management, recognition, and control of these issues.  Dr. Isakeit starts us off with Corn and Sorghum, Dr. Ken Obasa with Small Grains, and Dr. Wheeler discusses cotton and also Nematodes.   There is some excellent information that will help with pre-plant decisions and in-season management.  There are slides referenced in the discussion at times but the conversation is very good.  If you have questions about the information please contact your county Extension agent or these individuals directly.

This podcast episode focuses on everything risk and decisions related to insects.  Dr. David Kerns and Dr. Pat Porter discuss the background and effectiveness of Bt technologies in control, how economic thresholds are developed and utilized, the efficacy of insecticide use in crops, importance of scouting, seed treatments and layby treatments in your insect management strategies, and more.  This topic was part of our Crop Production and Plant Protection Clinic held on December 20.  It is the 2nd podcast presentation from that meeting.  Dr. Dotray's resistant weed management presentation is already loaded if you missed it.  There will be future podcasts from that meeting related to plant pathology (disease, viruses, and nematodes), knowing your varieties, and knowing the TDA laws and regulations for pesticide application.

The Hansford County AgriLife Extension Committee and County Extension Agent Kristy Slough identified the need for education related to Natural Gas prices and considerations for locking in prices or developing risk strategies to control input costs related to irrigation on the High Plains.  Kristy and committee member and Hansford County farmer, Quentin Shieldknight, led this podcast.  Joining them were members of the StoneX marketing team to discuss gather information about the possible opportunities available to producers.  Representing StoneX were Jim Schall, Dan Conrath and Rick Wordekemper.  I think you will enjoy the conversation with these individuals and there are certainly some important discussions that could be very valuable to producers dealing with volatile input costs and erratic natural gas prices.  Great Podcast.  Hope you enjoy.  Danny

This episode will feature Dr. Peter Dotray, Weed Specialist with Texas A&M Extension and Research and Texas Tech University discussing some very important points about resistance.  Dr. Dotray has done some interesting research related to resistance and gets into the best management decisions to contain these weeds.  This is a very timely issue and there is nobody better to discuss this than Dr. Peter Dotray. This presentation was part of our December 20 Crop Production and Plant Protection Conference held in 35 AgriLife counties in the Panhandle and South Plains.  Future discussions will include variety selection in cotton, small grains, and feed grains; disease/virus issues in cotton, feed grain, and small grain.  Be looking for those in the coming weeks.

Dr. Jason Smith, Extension Beef Cattle Specialist and Mason Carter, County Extension Agent in Oldham County discuss bull development, management, and purchasing.  Great discussion by these Extension professionals.

You don't want to miss the discussion between Dr. Jason Smith, Dr. Justin Benavidez, and Mason Carter about this topic.  When the rain returns and your grass is gets back to health, decisions to buy or keep heifers or buy replacements will be impacted by a number of variables.  These include grass availability, cost of replacements, value of heifers, input costs for management and nutrition, etc. are only a few.  Each of these scenarios were discussed and evaluated by these three gentlemen.  Its actually a great time to start thinking about what to do when it starts to rain and we get back to normalcy.  There could be real opportunities to impact the future of your business.