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4-H youth learn more about Texas rangeland |
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By MANDY JOHN | Central Texas Edition |
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January 23, 2003 -- The Milam County 4-H grass team hosted a plant identification training on Jan. 15 in Cameron. Dr. Baron Rector, associate professor and Extension range specialist for Texas A&M University, was the presenter and helped the youth learn more about grasses and weeds in the state of Texas, benefiting them when they take the 4-H grass identification contest. "When you start studying plants you will realize there are many different kinds on the land," explained Rector. "Before farming and urbanization, 9.7 percent of Texas was classified as forest land. That means that 90.3 percent was considered rangeland, which includes the desert, tundra, and prairie land. Today, 60 percent of the land remains rangeland. "When you are looking at the land, it's important to see what animals are capable of living on the land." He said the classification of wildlife is a big term and is usually misunderstood. "When you think of wildlife, you think of whatever man hunts. People don't usually include the wolf, scorpions, grasshoppers, or spiders, but these are wildlife too. " He stated that rangeland is also a big term and is misunderstood. "Rangeland is a type of land that is all over Texas, except on East Texas soil. On the rangeland, you grow sorghum and watermelon. But there are many native plants on the rangeland that are associated with the soil. Milam County has predominately clay soil with big post oak trees." Rector explained that grass is the number one plant that cattle eat. "There is value in the project when you identify the grass type. Part of the project is like learning a foreign language because you are learning the names of the different plant types. There are 240 to 280 growing days out of 365 days in Milam County." He had the group identify a flower picked from a bush by looking at the flower's traits. The group concluded that the flower was a Slim Aster, part of the forbs classification. "There are 850 different types of sunflowers in the state of Texas. They look very different and their colors can be all the different colors of the rainbow. Other types of sunflowers, beside the one we just looked at, include the Maxamillion Sunflower, the Engleman Daisy, and the Common Broomweed. Sunflowers are the largest family of plants in the state of Texas. "Grasses are the second largest family of plants. There are 537 native grasses and 767 total grasses. They call this section of the contest range and pasture because certain grasses help in grazing." Rector stated in management of land man has weed and brush control with a variety of tools for grazing, discing, and bulldozing. He said today the land looks the way it does because of what people have done before this. "It's important to learn and discover what we can in 4-H. What we find out about a plant tells us the future value of the land. We must also look at the plants because they are what the animals in our area are feeding on. "Native plants come up everywhere because that is what they are supposed to do. Mother Nature bombards us with what use to be here. Plants do change over time. The value of any plant is in the eye of the beholder. "Everything around us has value. We must go out and find it's worth. If we can't name a plant, we can't find out it's value." |
