Pipeline Easement Workshop - Feb 6

More pipelines will be crossing South Texas properties associated with the development of the Eagle Ford Shale. The Texas AgriLife Extension Service of Live Oak County and the Extension Leadership Advisory Board of Live Oak County are hosting an educational program to help those landowners that are still in the negotiating phase become educated on important items to look out for when negotiating their gas or oil pipeline lease.

A Pipeline Easement Workshop is scheduled for Monday February 6, 2012 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Live Oak County Courthouse 301 East Houston Street George West Texas District Courtroom on the 2nd floor of the Court House. The guest speaker for the evening will be Mr. Judon Fambrough from the Texas Real Estate Center. Mr. Fambrough is an attorney specializing in property rights, including oil and gas, wind power, hunting leases and landowner liability. Those planning to attend should RSVP to the Live Oak County Extension office at 361-449-1703 by Friday February 3, 2012. There will be a $10.00 registration fee for this educational program and 2 CEU’s will be offered for private, commercial and non-commercial applicators. For more details contact the Live Oak County Extension Office at 361-449-1703.

Individuals with disabilities, who require an auxiliary aid, service or accommodation in order to participate in any of the mentioned activities, are encouraged to contact the County Extension Office eight days before all programs for assistance. Educational programs of the Texas AgriLife Extension Service are open to all citizens without regard to race, color, sex, disability, religion, age or national origin.

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Sorghum Clump Planted Produces No Yield Increase in 2010 and 2011

There has been some recent farm press indicating there might be an advantage to planting grain sorghum in clumps vs. the traditional seed drop method, so the question was how this system work locally. David Ocker agreed to evaluate this planting alternative, so for the last two years a study was implemented on his farm in Nueces County. The goal was to evaluate planting of grain sorghum in clumps vs. conventional seed drop method, while at the same time keeping the same plant population per acre.

Traditional sorghum seeding plates were altered by closing holes so that seed would be dropped in clumps rather than traditional even spacing. Grain sorghum was planted in clumps (5 to 6 plants per clump, with clumps spaced about 23 inches apart) within rows and conventionally in a randomized complete block design. Seeding rates in both cases was 61,256 seed per acre. Row space was 30-inches.

Results from this study suggest that there was not a real difference between treatments (i.e. clump planting vs. conventional planting) as the clump planting average yield was 3,683 pounds per acre, while the yield for the conventional planting was 3,545 pounds per acre. Rainfall during the growing season was below normal as only 2.22 inches were recorded. Results obtained in 2010 were very similar with no significant yield differences with above normal rainfall.

ONLINE VIDEOS OFFER TIPS TO CATTLEMEN

RanchTV.org is a video library developed and maintained by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service for the purpose of extension information to cattle producers. The primary speakers in these videos are from the Extension Beef Cattle Unit.
Some videos that would be of interest now during this drought, include a channel on Drought Cattle Management. Individual videos on this channel address water issues, prussic acid and nitrate toxicity in forages, supplementation, and culling, just to name a few. Another channel that is provides excellent information related to nutrient requirements of cattle is the Nutrition Feeds and Feeding Channel. Individual videos address evaluating forage conditions, hay considerations, feeding for intended use, which feed to purchase, reading a feed label, mineral supplementation, non-protein nitrogen, protein limiting factors, use of co-products, protein cubes/cakes, pelleted feeds, using tubs, supplements in tubs, supplements in blocks, loose minerals, mineral blocks, cottonseed hulls, soybean/cottonseed meal, corn gluten/distillers grains/ rice hulls, and wheat mids/soy hulls/alfalfa leaf meal. Videos on many other aspects are also available on RanchTV. These videos can be accessed on the Internet at www.ranchtv.org
Another option available at this web site is Cowsense U. If you are interested in taking online courses that teach best beef cattle management practices then visit Cowsense U. At this site you will find multiple online courses, many of which are free. Upon the successful completion of each course you will receive a certificate that says that you completed and passed the online course from the Texas AgriLife Extension Service. Topics include Beef Quality Assurance, Low Stress Cattle Handling, and Market Cow Management. Other courses will come online in the near future.

CROP INSURANCE - AN IMPORTANT RISK MANAGEMENT TOOL

As we begin 2012, the persistent drought is on the minds of most Texans.
Those that depend on rainfall for their livelihood (namely farmers and ranchers) are quite concerned as cattle herds have been reduced significantly due to lack of standing forage and very short hay supplies, while farmers debate when and if to apply fertilizer to their fields, wondering what crop they will be able to plant, depending when and if the rains do finally come.
Rainfall recorded in 2011 only amounted to about 11 inches of precipitation in the Coastal Bend, meaning that we are roughly 20 inches below normal. Most of our deep soil moisture is gone, used up by last years crop. With projections for continued below normal rainfall, the crop potential for 2012 looks rather poor.
With these poor soil moisture conditions, farmers should take advantage of an important risk management tool, that being Crop Insurance. If you have not already established a relationship with a Crop Insurance Agent, now is the time to make that a high priority. The sales closing dates for South Texas Crop Insurance for corn, cotton, grain sorghum, sunflower, and sesame is January 31, 2012.
There are many crop insurance options now available to help producers manage their risk associated with their particular crop. Lets take cotton as an example. 2011 saw some important changes to the crop and revenue insurance programs. A range of products like multi-peril crop insurance (i.e., the old APH yield policy), and the revenue insurance products that applied to cotton (e.g., Crop Revenue Coverage, Revenue Assurance, and Income Protection) were basically repackaged by USDA-RMA, with a common mechanism for price discovery and rating. In short, the price that will be used to value insured cotton will be based on the average of futures prices at defined periods of the year. This approach is new for yield insurance, but similar to how CRC coverage was priced in years past, according to Dr. John Robinson, Extension Economist - Cotton Marketing.
Speaking of insurance options, there is the repackaged program known as the COMBO program. Instead of separate insurance products to insure cotton yield, or cotton gross revenue, cotton growers have a wide range of choices within one package. The first set of choices involve whether the grower wants to insure only yield (similar to the old multi-peril, APH yield policy, and is now simply called Yield Protection), or gross revenue (known as Revenue Protection, or RP, and similar to the old CRC product using the higher of planting or harvest time futures prices to value the coverage) or gross revenue without the harvest time price valuation (known as Revenue Protection Harvest Price Exclusion, or RPHPE, and similar to the old RA or IP products. The three new product choices vary in cost as they provide differing levels of protection.
Beyond the choice of a product, growers have to decide the level of coverage, i.e., 60% or 65% or whatever. All things being equal, the cost of your insurance premium will be higher at higher levels of coverage. Cotton growers have additional choices to make. The most notable one is the cottonseed endorsement, which provides additional coverage for the value of lost cottonseed in the event of an insurable loss in lint yield.
Like I mentioned earlier, there are many options to consider, so you might need to consult with your Crop Insurance Agent soon to determine which crop insurance option is most appropriate and applicable for your farming operation. Additional information regarding crop insurance can be found through the USDA-RMA website at http://www.rma.usda.gov/

ASSESSING DROUGHT IMPACT ON TREE HEALTH

The recent rainfall has certainly been welcomed, and we can only hope that when Santa comes to visit in a few days, more rainfall will be packaged up and brought to the great state of Texas! With that hope and wish, here is some reality as it relates to those plants we call trees, which we value greatly in the hot summer months, as they provide shade and relief from that hot Texas sunshine.
One of the worst droughts in state history and it’s creating disastrous effects on trees and forests across the state, according to staff of the Texas Forest Service. After one of the driest years on record, many shade trees went into dormancy as early as August, dropping their leaves and branches in a desperate act of self-preservation. Meanwhile, pine trees with normally thick, green crowns ended up cloaked in red, dead needles while foliage on cedar trees turned completely brown.
The sight has created a dramatic effect on the Texas landscape and left many landowners wondering whether or not their tree is dead — or if it might recover and produce new leaves next spring.
Assessing trees damaged or killed by drought can be tricky, according to Dr. Ronald Billings, Texas Forest Service Forest Health Manager. He suggests grouping the trees into three different categories — definitely dead, likely to live and questionable — to help with the task.

Definitely Dead
It is easier to make this call for pines, Ashe junipers (cedars) and other needle-bearing, conifer trees. The determination can be more difficult for hardwoods, which are more commonly thought of as shade trees. In most cases, a red pine is a dead pine, Billings said, explaining that the same can be said for cedars with red needles. Once all or most of the foliage of a pine or cedar tree turns red or brown, the tree is incapable of recovering.
Pine trees in this stage probably are already infested with tree-killing bark beetles and will eventually harbor wood-boring insects, termites and other critters. Such trees should be cut down and removed, particularly if they are likely to fall on homes, buildings or power lines.
Shade trees — like water oaks, for example — that have lost all their foliage and are beginning to drop limbs or lose large patches of bark are most likely already dead and should be removed. Hypoxylon canker, a fungus that appears as gray or brown patches on the trunk of the tree, is another sign of a dead shade tree.

Likely to Live
This category includes shade trees with at least some green or yellow leaves still attached to the limbs. In fact, even those that have dropped all their leaves may still be alive. Some native shade trees, such as post oaks and live oaks, are more drought resistant than others like water oaks or elms.
You can use a scratch test to determine if the tree is dead or just dormant. If you scrape the bark off a small branch or limb and find green, moist tissue underneath, the tree is still hanging on, waiting for the next rain. That means you may need to wait until spring to see if the tree makes a recovery — unless the tree starts to drop large branches and patches of bark, which is a sign of death. If there is no green, moist tissue, the tree is likely dead.
An exception is the baldcypress, which also is known as a cypress tree. The tree is a conifer, but unlike pines and cedars, its foliage generally turns red and drops from the tree in the fall or during periods of drought stress. Cypress trees usually will re-sprout in the spring. If in doubt, apply the scratch test or wait until spring to be sure.
Pines with a few yellow or red needles scattered throughout an otherwise green canopy have a good chance at survival. Pine trees typically shed a large portion of their older needles every year as winter approaches, and then put on new needles in the spring.
Though it’s not as feasible to water your forest, any yard trees that show signs of life (green inner tissues or green foliage) should be watered deeply to reduce lingering drought stress.

Questionable
Questionable trees are those that appear to fit somewhere between the Definitely Dead and Likely to Live categories. A pine that is topped with brown or red needles but still has green foliage in its lower branches is alive, but likely will eventually die. That’s because bark beetles likely will invade the lower trunk at some point, killing the tree in stages.
When inspecting a questionable pine tree, look for popcorn-sized masses of resin (pitch tubes) or brown dust in the bark fissures. These are early signs of attacks by pine bark beetles. The foliage of the infested pine may still be green, but the tree is doomed. This is particularly true if you find bark beetle galleries or trails beneath the bark. Pines with these signs of bark beetle attack should be removed as soon as possible.
In the case of shade trees, those that have many dead or dying limbs or mostly bare branches may or may not survive. A few green, yellow or red leaves may remain for awhile as the tree slowly dies, or it may recover when rains return. It’s important to note that not all trees may be stressed from the drought alone. Some trees may also be suffering from insect infestations, disease or other forest health problems. If you’re unsure or have any questions, visit the Texas Forest Service web site or check with a certified arborist, forester or tree care professional.
Deciding whether to remove a questionable tree can be a tough decision for both property owners and professional tree care experts. Removal should be considered if a severely drought-stressed or fire-damaged tree is close to a house or other structure on which it might fall. If it is away from such areas, it may be more feasible to wait and see if the tree makes a comeback. For more information regarding trees visit this web site; http://texasforestservice.tamu.edu

CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS OLD PROBLEMS WITH NEW SOLUTIONS

    Recently I participated in the Texas Plant Protection Conference held in College Station, Texas.  For the past 21 years, the non-profit professional Texas Plant Protection Association (TPPA) has sponsored educational conferences for those involved in production agriculture.  This year some of the issues we have been dealing with for years received more attention including aflatoxin and cotton root rot.
    Aflatoxin is toxin produced by a fungus that grows in some grain and oilseed crops. It is a cross-cutting issue affecting both humans and animals, said Dr. Tim Herrman, director of the Office of the State Chemist headquartered in College Station.  Sampling for the fungus has been an issue for many years.  Previously, without a standardized test, multiple results led to confusion among sample testing, Herrman said.  “In fact, multiple tests conducted by multiple agencies have multiple outcomes. To help bring together these multiple activities into a single activity, with encouragement of the Texas Corn Producers Board, Office of the State Chemist advisory committee and Texas Farm Bureau, we have launched the one sample strategy.”
    “The one-sample program is science-based adoption to risk management,” Herrman said.
Contamination is both a food safety and public health issue, because at high doses the toxin can lead to serious illness, including acute liver cirrhosis and death in both humans and animals, Herrman said.  “At sub-lethal doses, aflatoxin exposure could increase risk of liver cancer,” Herrman said.
    The one-sample strategy is a voluntary program administered by the Office of the Texas State Chemist, a regulatory agency headquartered in College Station and part of AgriLife Research. The program incorporates U.S. Department of Agriculture sampling methods outlined in the USDA Risk Management Agency Loss Adjustment Manual Program, Herrman said.
Participants must use Federal Grain Inspection Service-approved test kits validated by the state chemist office for measuring aflatoxin up to 1,000 parts per billion.
    Herrman said state chemist office field investigators conduct on-site training of grain industry personnel on how to perform sampling for aflatoxin testing using official procedures. He said the field investigators “serve as the competent authority to ensure that official procedures are followed during harvest.”     Since the one sample test began, Herrman said tests have gone from a 60 percent deviation to 23 percent current deviation on test results.   For more information about the one sample program, visit http://otscweb.tamu.edu/Risk/OneSample/Default.aspx
    Another issue addressed was the control of cotton root rot, caused by Phymatotrichopsis omnivora.  Dr. Tom Isakeit, Professor and Extension Plant Pathologist reported that despite the drought of 2011, he was successful in obtaining data confirming a reduction in root rot and an increase in cotton yields with Topguard applied to the soil at planting, confirming experiments done in 2010.  Dr. Isakeit also suggested they found that fungicide is not needed in very dry years as there is little root rot disease development in drought years.
    Cheminova, Inc. has been working with researchers at Texas A&M University to develop Topguard fungicide for control of cotton root rot.  This project has been ongoing for the last four years refining the rate of application, timing, and placement for effective and safe control of the disease.  Cheminova  Inc is supporting the Texas Department of Agriculture’s submission for a Section 18 exemption to allow use of Topguard applied at 1-2pt/ac as a T-band for control of cotton root rot for the 2012 season.

SUNFLOWER PRODUCTION SEMINAR SLATED

    A South Texas Sunflower Production Seminar will be held on Thursday, December 15, 2011 at the Jim Wells County Fairgrounds (3001 South Johnson) in Alice.  Rising prices along with increased demand for sunflowers have stimulated renewed interest in this native American crop.
    The seminar will begin with registration at 8 am followed by speaker presentations at 8:45 am.  Topics will include overview of local Sunflower Production, Sunflower Production Tips, Insect Pest Management, Weed Management, Local Hybrid Test Results, Sunflower Marketing, Crop Insurance Options, and Updates from Sunflower Industry Representatives. Speakers will include experts from the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Sunflower Industry representatives and local industry representatives.  Following a catered lunch, there will be a tour of the Alice Grain Sunflower Cleaning Facilities.
    To ensure adequate meal and facility arrangements all planning to attend should pre-register by December 14 by calling the Jim Wells County Extension Office at 361-668-5705.
Participants will be awarded 2 CEU’s for seminar participation.  This workshop is being sponsored by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service and the Jim Wells County Field Crops Committee.

Individuals with disabilities, who require an auxiliary aid, service or accommodation in order to participate in any of the mentioned activities, are encouraged to contact the County Extension Office at 361-668-5705 at least eight days before all programs for assistance. Educational programs of the Texas AgriLife Extension Service are open to all citizens without regard to race, color, sex, disability, religion, age or national origin.