Dry weather impacts herbicide breakdown
Monday, 09 January 2012 17:51
By MINDY RIFFLE, Country World Staff Writer
Jan. 5, 2012 - The direct effects of the 2011 drought have been clear for months, but some experts warn that growers are about to encounter indirect issues as a result of last year's abnormally dry weather. Dry soils may still be holding residue from last year's herbicide applications, creating problems for those switching crops this year.
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Texas Trails: The Life and Times of William Goyens
Monday, 09 January 2012 17:50
By CLAY COPPEDGE, Country World Staff Writer
Jan. 5, 2012 - Born in North Carolina to a mulatto father and a white mother, William Goyens came to Texas in 1820, perhaps in the company of the pirate Jean Laffite, and settled in Nacogdoches. He would live the rest of his life in that city, though his business dealings spread far and wide. Officially declared a "free man of color," Goyens married Mary Pate Sibley, a white woman, in 1832. They had no children, though she had a son by a previous marriage.
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Waiting for Water: Rice industry threatened
Monday, 09 January 2012 17:48
By CLAY COPPEDGE, Country World Staff Writer
Dec. 29, 2011 - Rice likes hot weather and 2011 was one of the hottest years in the state's history, but also one of the driest, and when rice needs water, it needs a lot of it. After a good production year in spite of the drought, or partly because of it, the water that rice farmers have historically used to flood their paddies might not be available next year. As is the case with all of Texas agriculture, the immediate future of the Texas rice industry depends on how much rain falls and when.
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New tool for hog control in development
Monday, 09 January 2012 17:48
By MINDY RIFFLE, Country World Staff Writer
Dec. 29, 2011 - According to a sample of those with hog-related property damage from 2006 through 2009, taken by the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center, 75 percent of respondents reported the biggest losses in pastureland. Damage was reported in areas including crops, livestock, fences, equipment, land and lease value and even personal injury.
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Cattle market sees push and shove
Monday, 09 January 2012 17:45
By MINDY RIFFLE, Country World Staff Writer
Dec. 29, 2011 - The calf and replacement cow markets are up and are expected to go higher, as cattle raisers consider buying back previously sold herds.
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Tomato grafting aims to give growers options
Monday, 09 January 2012 17:45
By CLAY COPPEDGE, Country World Staff Writer
Dec. 29. 2011 - As the manager of three farmers markets in Central Texas, Greg Coley has noticed a few things about customer preferences. One of the first things he noticed is that there are a certain number of customers who don't show up before the farmers' tomatoes are ripe, and they don't return once the tomatoes are gone.
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Texas Trails: Providence Rice
Monday, 09 January 2012 17:44
By CLAY COPPEDGE, Country World Staff Writer
Dec. 29, 2011 - The first farmers to plant rice in Texas did so in the same way that people planted nearly all crops in the early and mid 1800s: they plowed up a small plot of land, planted the seed by hand and prayed for rain. If it rained, they harvested the crop with scythes. If it didn't rain, they did without. This was called "providence farming" and the crop in this case was called "providence rice." As Texas rice farmers go into 2012, depending almost solely on how much rain falls between now and March 1 (see related story page 1A), it would seem that, at least for one year, Texas farmers will be farming the really old-fashioned way.
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Legume providing producers options
Monday, 09 January 2012 17:38
By CLAY COPPEDGE, Country World Staff Writer
Dec. 22, 2011 - We don't hear a lot of farmers wondering how their guar crop is going to do. Guar doesn't show up on the exchange ticker and it's not eligible for crop insurance. It's also very much in demand and has put one West Texas farmer in a unique position.
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