To help producers do the best possible job of developing and utilizing winter pastures, Banta and his colleague, Vanessa Corriher, AgriLife Extension forage specialist, Overton, will be conducting a short course, “Winter Pastures for Central and East Texas,” Aug. 17 at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Overton.


Registration for the program is $60 and includes lunch and program materials, and will be limited to the first 50 people to register.

The program will offer two continuing education units to Texas Department of Agriculture private pesticide applicator license holders – one in the integrated pest management category and one in general.

Click here to register online.

The program will answer a lot of the questions people commonly have about establishing winter pastures, Banta said.

Some issues addressed will include which species are best suited to a particular type of operation, how much money on feed cost they can expect to save, and how to interpret seed-tag information and create a custom soil and production map for a farm from satellite data.

Program topics will be:

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  • Species and variety selection (Corriher)
  • Monthly and seasonal forage production potential (Banta)
  • Establishment and fertilization (Corriher)
  • Estimated costs, grazing and utilization strategies (Banta)
  • Insect control and transitioning from winter to spring forages (Corriher)
  • Insects in legumes (Corriher)
  • Bloat and grass tetany prevention and management (Banta)
  • Appropriate mineral supplementation (Banta)

A question and answer session will follow the presentations.

For more information call Michelle Sensing at (903) 834-6191.  FG

—From Texas A&M University news release

PHOTO
Jason Banta, Texas AgriLife Extension Service beef cattle specialist, tells how to use USDA soil map data and Google Earth satellite images to develop a custom soil and production map. Photo by Robert Burns, courtesy of Texas AgriLife Extension Service.