Forage Seminar will be held on January 24, 2023, in Cross Plains. This annual event has become one of the premier educational programs concerning forage production and hay in our region. The seminar will take place at the First Baptist Church 301 N Main in Cross Plains. Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m., and the program will start at 9:00 a.m. 5 CEU will be offered by the Texas Department of Agriculture to licensed pesticide applicators. Topics will include:
- Controlling Weeds in Forages: Dr. Reagan Noland, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agronomist; Coming out of drought and overgrazing of pastures, what we need to be ready to do in the spring for weed control.
- Integrated Pest Management on Forages: Gregory Wilson, IPM Agent in Tom Green; Ways to control pests and the threshold of these pests in forage crops.
- Drift Minimization: Brad Easterling, IPM Agent in Glasscock, Reagan, and Upton Counties; Using the correct nozzles for spraying and having the correct weather conditions for spraying pesticides.
- Use of Alternative Forages; Dr. Calvin Trostle, Professor & Extension Agronomist; Use of various forage crop to improve drought resistance, improve pest resistance, and reduce pesticide use.
- Fertilizer Outlook and Management Strategies: Jason Johnson, Associate Professor and Extension Economist- Management; What is the cost and decision that producers will have to make on putting out fertilizer.
- Laws and Regs: Kyle Thompson, TDA Inspector: TDA Laws and Regs Update
Pre-register by calling the AgriLife Extension office in Callahan County at 325-854-5835, Brown County 325-646-0386, and Coleman County 325-625-4519. Fees are due upon arrival and include a catered noon meal. Cost for the program is $40 if preregistered by January 18, 2023, $50 after 18th.
Developing new tools to identify COVID in wild, domestic animals
According to Texas Farm Bureau
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists are developing new tests and tools to identify and track the COVID virus and its variants in wild and domestic animals.
USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is currently implementing a $300 million provision in the American Rescue Plan Act to monitor susceptible animals for the COVID virus. Through this initiative, APHIS is partnering with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) on five research projects to improve understanding of the virus and to help USDA accomplish its goal of building an early warning system to potentially prevent or limit the next zoonotic disease outbreak or global pandemic.
Two of the projects call for developing easy-to-use field tests to quickly identify COVID infection in wildlife and domestic animals.
In two other projects, field and laboratory studies will determine how long the virus persists in deer and whether deer or elk can serve as an intermediate animal host in which COVID virus can survive in the wild and potentially mutate into new variants.
The fifth project is developing a cell line model that will let researchers better predict which animal species may act as hosts or reservoirs for COVID virus.
Through these and other efforts, USDA is working to implement a risk-based, comprehensive, integrated disease monitoring and surveillance system domestically, and enhance collaborations with national, regional and global One Health partners to build additional capacity for zoonotic disease surveillance and prevention.