Landowners are advised to learn from old mistakes when caring for their soils

By MANDY JOHN | Central Texas Edition

November 14, 2002 -- Farmers and ranchers were given an educational update on how to manage their land at the Forage Management Seminar, held Nov. 4 in Hearne. Dr. Barron Rector, associate professor and Extension range specialist for Texas A&M University, was available to discuss brush and weed identification for selecting control methods.

"Times have changed when it comes to taking care of the land," explained Rector. "I would guess that at least five to ten different landowners had your land before you. When you received the land, you inherited all the previous mistakes that were made on it.

"Soil farming and ranching is not the same as it was in the past. We have lost approximately four to twenty-four inches of topsoil since the 1760s with our land management techniques.

"You must remember that man is in control. There is no property in Texas that I know of that is immune to brush and weed. We have changed the landscape of Texas by our decision to cover up the soil with concrete and asphalt. Man does not replicate what is the natural landscape, so the landscape has changed with it."

He said that if Texas got as much rain as Texans prayed for, it would look like a swamp outside.

"Man wants to fix what is wrong with the land with the newest products available to him. What we should do is change how we work on it. When we make the decision to drive on the land and graze on the pasture, we are causing it to change.

"We have to know lots of things such as plant identification and plant management. When we think of the word weed, we think of certain types of plants. Yet, no plant in the state of Texas has the word weed in their name. The term brush is used because we don't know what the plant is. Until you know what the plants is, though, you can't know how to care for it."

Rector stated that much of the knowledge of caring for the land is lost. He said that whatever is grown on the land today is best for it and that much of the land doesn't look like it use to.

"In the environment today, we live in a carbon-enriched atmosphere. Remember that plants will continue to grow as long as there is water in the soil. We also need to have organic material in the soil in order for the plants to grow. Most plants now are UV-light enhanced.

"There are six species of Bluebonnets, which is the state flower of Texas. Yet, all of the species are considered annuals, which are part of the weed group.

"Weeds in an ecological sense are invaders, but they are here to help save the land. Having weeds is better than nothing, but weeds are considered bad in agriculture. We must understand all aspects of the land in order to be good managers.

"Being good managers also means having knowledge of what worked and what didn't work; both are important in taking care of the land. Keep in mind that what you do could very well destroy it. You have to use common sense when dealing with the land.

"Man is much smarter today than he was in the 1970's. Mother Nature is not going to automatically help you, so you must be flexible in management."

He explained when using resources for ranch management, the best resource is not money, but the rancher's own ability to manage the land properly.

"The best weed management is knowing how to manage the grass. Follow up for management is important as well. I want to remind you that everything goes somewhere, so if your land can't hold water, it will become run-off and will go somewhere else.

"The things we are doing are creating the problems we have on our land today. We must look at what we are doing. Our main goal always should be as efficient as we can in what we do to it."