In-the-field research displayed at Stiles Farm

By JULIET BRISKIN | Central Texas Edition

Dr. Garry Adams of TAMU addressed participants of the Stiles Farm Field Day about bioterrorism preparation. -Staff photo by Briskin

June 27, 2002 -- For those in the agricultural industry the Stiles Farm Foundation is synonymous with research and education. On June 18 the Farm, located near Thrall, Texas hosted its 39th field day and featured topics such as agricultural bioterrorism, conservation tillage and forage establishment.

Dr. Garry Adams, professor and associate dean of research and graduate studies at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M University spoke about agricultural bioterrorism and how prepared Texas is for such an event.

Adams stated that Texas and the U.S. are vulnerable to intentional bioterrorism attacks and much needs to be done to prepare. "We must be prepared to prevent, to detect and recover from any incident whether it is intentional or accidental," he said. "My goal is for you to leave here today being aware how much of an issue this is and what you can do on your own operation."

He emphasized the need for producers to be aware of what the lesions of approximately 20 foreign animal diseases look like. The quicker something like this is identified the faster it can be addressed, he stated.

In addition he stressed the need for producers to know who is on their property, why and where they were before they arrived. While he stated that that this might seem excessive, producers in England learned the hard way about how easily foreign animal diseases can be spread.

Adams has spent a great deal of time in England and believes that Texas and the U.S. has a lot to learn from the outbreak of foot and mouth disease there. "One of the things I learned over there is when you are planning for such an event it will always be on a larger scale than you think," he said. "It will take the entire capacity of everyone involved from the farm to law enforcement to be able to deal with this issue. That is why it is so important to have an organized effort."

It is vital to properly diagnose these diseases if an outbreak occurs, stated Adams. "Projected costs for one single outbreak of a foreign animal disease are 50 to 60 billion dollars to control, contain, eradicate and recover," he said. "Within 24 hours of an outbreak at least 60 percent of the herd or crop must be destroyed. That also means all movement, not just the animals, but humans as well, must be controlled. This will not be easy in this state."

Adams discussed a mock-outbreak that was held at Texas A&M recently and some of the results. "The program showed where we had major problems in our state," he explained. "One of those was the legal authority to actually implement a quarantine without the consent of a landowner if he or she does not agree to depopulate the animals on their property."

Another issue that came to the forefront during this exercise was the number of people it will take to go to each farm and inspect, quarantine and diagnose a disease. "If we miss one farm where the disease was transmitted it will start all over again," stated Adams. "We must have enough trained individuals to cover each and every farm."

According to Adams it will take anywhere from 300 to 600 people per incident. In the mock outbreak, explained Adams, there were three incidents in just 24 hours. "You get an idea right away about the challenges these outbreaks could present."

After lunch participants set out on foot to a tillage equipment demonstration. Charles Stichler, Extension agronomist, hosted the program which covered various pieces of equipment and featured demonstrations.

According to Stichler zone tillage can help loosen the Blackland soil when it gets too firm. "When the black soils get real dry they tend to get real hard," he stated. "If we can get down to just an inch or two into the soil we won't have as many problems when we go to put seed down."

Dr. Twain Butler, Extension agronomist, was another of the featured speakers during the field day. The focus of his discussion was the variety of ways to establish bermudagrass. "There are different ways to establish bermudagrass," said Butler. "We can get a sprigger, manure spreader or a plugger. The advantage of the plugger is that the sprig is sticking up out of the ground."

He explained that one of the problems with the sprigger when planting Tifton-85 is that it (the sprig) either ends up too deep or too shallow. The plugger helps to remedy this problem.

Butler stated that the plugger is basically a vegetable transplanter that has been modified to plant plugs. "When the plugs get greater than three inches tall they are ready to be transplanted," he said. "It is generally recommend that the plugs are planted about six feet apart and about 1,000 plugs will cover one acre. The cost for the plugs is $.10 a per plug so you are looking at about $100 per acre."

Compared to a sprigger the plugger is a bit more expensive. Sprigging averages about $70 per acre stated Butler, but for $30 more per acre "you can get a quicker faster stand using a plugger."

Kenneth Lindig, a producer from Stonewall, was on hand to demonstrate his modified plugger. According to him about 10 acres per day can be covered with the plugger, but it is very labor intensive.

Lindig explained that his machine costs upwards of $2,500, but he will rent it out on a daily basis. He suggested using a roller-packer on the plot before using the machine.