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AND ANCH F I ULLETIN Vol. 15, No. 12 December 15, 1960 C O S T S O F R O O T P L O W IN G A N D S E E D IN G R A N G E L A N D S — TEXAS R IO G R A N D E P LA IN The invasion by woody plant species of more than 15 million acres of rangelands in the Rio Grande Plain of Texas has decreased forage production to such an extent that many ranch men have bought additional rangeland or in vested in range improvement in order to main tain or increase family incomes. According to Calvin C. Boykin, Jr., for merly with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, rootplowing and seeding, in the same opera tion, with blue panic and buffel grasses have resulted, in many in sta n ce s, in excellent brush kill (espe cially mesquite) and in suc cessful grass stands. The cost of this method of range improvement was determined on the basis of personal interviews with 29 ranchmen in Frio, LaSalle, McMullen, and Medina Counties, together with in formation obtained from other sources. These counties are representative of most of the range areas in the Rio Grande Plain. The size of the ranches in the Texas A. & M. College study ranged from 163 acres to more than 18,000 acres and averaged 2,010 acres. The total area rootplowed and seeded per ranch ranged from 10 acres to almost 1,200 acres, with an average of 241 acres. As much as 40 percent of the total acreage on some of the F E D E R A L R E S E R V E DALLAS , smaller ranches was treated, while only 3 to 5 percent of the total acreage was treated on some of the larger ranches. Nearly all of the ranches were owner-operated and had a cow-calf sys tem of livestock management. A common sequence of the range improve ment operation was to (1) chain the brush, (2) rootplow and seed, and (3) defer grazing on the treatment area. Although the chaining operation was often elimi nated, over h alf of the ranchers interviewed indi cated their ranges had been chained before rootplowing and seeding. Chaining involves the dragging of a large anchor chain over the area between two large crawler-type trac tors. The chain uproots or breaks the large brush. A rootplow is a horizontal V-shaped blade, with at tached fins, mounted on or pulled by a large crawler-type tractor. The blade cuts a 12-foot swath 10 to 20 inches below the surface of the soil. Seeder boxes are mounted on the rootplow, and the seed are broadcast by the tractor exhaust. In most cases, these operations were con tracted by local equipment operators. The most frequent contract prices quoted were $3 per acre for chaining and $10 per acre for rootplowing and seeding. The time required and B A N K TEXAS OF D A L L A S resulting costs varied according to the range site C o rn -a n d -C o b M e a l fo r Lean Pork treated, density and types of brush, acreage in Pigs fed experimentally on corn-and-cob the treatment area, and the distance the ma meal made from whole ears of corn produced chinery had to be moved for use. Treatment higher percentages of lean cuts of pork at lower dates ranged from early spring to late summer, feed costs per pound of animal gain than did but March-May is the period generally recom pigs fed a normal corn ration, according to mended for obtaining the best results from United States D epartm ent of A griculture reseeding. scientists. Deferment of grazing on the treated area for In the experiments, 42 weanling pigs were at least 1 year has long been advocated by range technicians and others to increase the chances fed a high-energy diet until they reached a of obtaining adequate grass stands. This period weight of about 125 pounds. They were then of nonuse represents an immediate cost to the given high-fiber, low-energy rations as a pos ranchman since he foregoes the opportunity to sible means of producing lean pork more add to his income from grazing the range dur economically. ing this time. Thus, a cost approximating the Five groups of pigs were fed different highlease value of the land for the period must be fiber, low-energy rations: corn-and-cob meal, included. The assigned cost for nonuse of the barley, oats, wheat bran, or alfalfa. For com land for 1 year in the Texas A. & M. College parison purposes, a sixth group remained on the study was $1 per acre. high-energy diet. All fiber-containing rations In cases of failure to obtain adequate grass were essentially equal in protein, total digestible stands, re-treatment by use of a rootrake and nutrients, and fiber content. The pigs were attached grass seeder is becoming widespread. slaughtered when they reached weights of ap The rootrake pulls out much of the remaining proximately 210 pounds. brush and prepares the land for the reseeding The pigs on corn-and-cob meal gained an operation. A common contract price for this operation was $6 per acre, plus an assigned average of 1.29 pounds daily and consumed an cost of $1 per acre for an additional year’s average of 4.3 pounds of feed per pound of gain — a feed cost of $10.15 per 100 pounds of gain. deferment. Their carcasses yielded more than 54 percent Of the 490 contract operations observed dur of lean cuts of pork. ing 1953-58 in the Texas Rio Grande Plain area, 166 grass stands resulted, or a 33.9 per Animals fed barley also made very satisfac cent success. Using the 66.1 percent failure as tory gains but yielded only 52.5 percent of lean a risk factor, the average cost of chaining, root- cuts. The fastest gaining pigs were the animals plowing and seeding, and range deferment on the high-energy diet; however, their feed would be approximately $18.63 per acre. This cost averaged $10.52 per 100 pounds of gain, figure does not include any additional costs of and their yield of lean cuts averaged only 51 fencing, water facilities, grubbing, and weed percent. control. Many of the ranchmen interviewed Studies indicate that corn-and-cob m eal received cost-sharing assistance, through the promises to be an economical and useful source agricultural conservation program, of up to 50 of fiber for hog feed, but further research is percent of the cost of the treatment. needed to determine its long-term effectiveness. Most of the ranchmen reported gains in the livestock carrying capacity on acreages that "N ectaryless" C o tto n Discourages were treated successfully. Among other benefits Insects were increases in calf weights, fewer insects, Better control of several cotton insects may and reduced handling costs. On many acreages where the reseeded species of blue panic and result from the development of cotton varieties buffel grasses failed to make adequate stands, with reduced ability to produce nectar, reports the United States Department of Agriculture. a better cover of native grasses resulted. Experiments with several selections of cotton bred especially to reduce the number of nectar glands in the plants indicate that such plants support much smaller populations of pink bollworms, cotton leaf worms, and cabbage loopers than do present commercial cotton varieties. In one insect-feeding test, there were 7 to 10 times as many leaf worms and loopers on Empire cotton — a popular commercial variety — as on one of the new selections. In another test, there were twice as many pink bollworms on Empire cotton as on the research-developed selection. Several acres of the new “nectaryless” cottons are being grown at Brownsville, Texas, to test their effectiveness against free-moving insect populations under ordinary growing conditions. Poultry C a n c e r C ontagious Recent research by United States Depart ment of Agriculture scientists provides a new insight into the behavior of poultry cancer that may aid in the battle against other types of animal and human cancer. Rous sarcoma, a virus-caused poultry cancer previously thought to be noncontagious, has been proved transmis sible by direct contact between chickens. report. Meat consumption has increased since the 1930’s concurrently with the rising con sumption of dairy products, eggs, poultry, and processed fruits and vegetables. During the past quarter century, meat sup plies in the United States increased faster than the population. Greater purchasing power re sulted in increased meat buying. The meat packing industry is one of the major food manufacturing industries in this country, rank ing second only to bakeries in the number of employees and third in the value added by manufacture. A copy of Meat Consumption Trends and Patterns, Agriculture Handbook 187, may be obtained from the Office of Information, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington 25, D. C. C row n Rust-Resistant O ats? Superior disease re sistance in a type of wild oat and a “lucky break” in genetics have brightened the prospect for develop ment of oat varieties resistant to crown rust, reports the United States Department of Agri culture. Crown rust is the most serious disease of oats, and breeding of new varieties resistant to different rust races has been the only practi cal means of preventing disastrous losses to growers. The USDA poultry studies establish more firmly the belief of many scientists that viruses cause some forms of animal and human can cers. By showing the contagious nature of one of these viruses, the studies suggest that similar virus-caused cancers also may prove conta gious. Indications are that the contagiousness of The source of the crown rust resistance is a virus-caused disease may depend largely upon Saia, a wild oat variety that resists the attack of the virulence of the virus and the susceptibility the new rust races from the seedling stage of the host. through maturity. Saia also resists stem rust and smut — other fungus diseases of oats. Trends in M e a t Consum ption One-fourth of the money spent by United States households for food used at home is for meat, and almost one-third of the total cash receipts from farming is derived from the sale of meat animals, points out the United States Department of Agriculture in a bulletin entitled Meat Consumption Trends and Patterns. Per capita meat consumption today is about the same as it was 50 years ago but is much higher than in the mid-1930’s, according to the Experiments by Drs. K. Sadanaga and Marr D. Simons of the USDA’s Agricultural Re search Service, in cooperation with the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station, have resulted in the difficult transfer of a desirable character istic of the wild oat Saia to a cultivated species. Aberdeen 101, the genetic lucky break, re sulted from a cross between Saia and an oat containing a different number of chromosomes. The original cross was made only to test the possibility of crossing oats with different chro mosome counts. In the third generation of this cross, a trick of nature occurred, when one fully fertile plant was found which contained Saia’s resistance to crown rust. The chance of obtain ing this resistance, in addition to full fertility, in the third generation was so remote that it was thought virtually impossible, according to plant scientists. Im proved Pastures fo r Year-round G razing words “Tree Farm” mean that the owner is rec ognized for performing a good job of woodland management. At the time of establishment, the improved pasture received 2 tons of lime per acre and 150 pounds of a complete fertilizer per acre. Each year thereafter, the cool-season grass-legume pasture received 400 to 500 pounds of a com plete fertilizer per acre. The Bermuda grasslegume pasture received 100 to 200 pounds of a complete fertilizer per acre annually. Improved pastures in southeastern Oklahoma offer important advantages over native grass for management and feeding of beef cattle, accord ing to the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station. One of the major advantages of im proved pastures is their ability to carry animals through the winter with a minimum of supple Texas Third in Tree Farm Num bers mental feed. In 3-year trials at Coalgate, Okla With 1,339 certified Tree Farms, Texas homa, improved pastures produced twice as ranks third in the Nation in the number of much beef per acre annually as did unimproved these farms, points out William A. Smith, Ex native grass. tension Forestry Specialist with the Texas Each pasture in the study was 150 acres in Agricultural Extension Service. Mississippi is size. The improved pasture contained 65 acres the leading Tree Farm state, and Alabama is of Bermuda grass-legume mixture and 40 acres second. of fescue, brome grass, alfalfa, and white and A Tree Farm is a privately owned, tax- ladino clover. Thirty steers were grazed on the paying woodland dedicated to continuing the native grass pasture, while 64 were placed on growth of forest crops for man’s use. The the improved pasture. Texas ranks sixth in terms of Tree Farm area, with over 3.7 million acres devoted to the production of timber and other forest crops. There are still over 60,000 timberland owners, with approximately 8.8 million acres, in the piney woods of east Texas who could improve their woodlands and become tree farmers, according to Mr. Smith. Most of these lands are growing less than one-third of the timber they are capable of producing. Beef gains from the improved pasture aver aged 112 pounds per acre annually, while those from native grass pasture averaged only 50 pounds an acre per year. A further benefit from the improved pasture was an average of 107 tons of hay harvested annually. No hay was har In order to receive certification of their vested from the native grass pasture. During the Tree Farms, timberland owners must perform winter months, steers grazing native grass pas certain practices to maintain high rates of ture consumed an average of 228 pounds of timber growth and quality, as well as to pro cottonseed cake and about 1 ton of prairie hay tect the land. These practices include protect per head. The steers on improved pasture con ing the woodlands from wildfire, insects, dis sumed no cake and less than three-fourths of a ease, and destructive grazing; harvesting trees ton of hay per head annually. The hay fed this when they are mature or ready for thinning; group was cut from the improved pasture that and planting tree seedlings on idle acres. the steers grazed. Piney woods landowners may obtain infor Farmers who plant second-generation hybrid mation on how they can become members of the Texas Tree Farm Program from county seed corn from their cribs may lose from 20 per agricultural agents, Texas Forest Service dis cent to 30 percent in corn yields, points out trict foresters, or foresters employed by the A. G. Killgore, Agronomy Specialist with the Louisiana Agricultural Extension Service. wood-using industry in east Texas.
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