April 26, 2012 - The technology behind Advanced Microbial Solutions has been around for more than half a century, but the science behind those products is just now being put to the test. The original formula was created by Texas farmer and tinkerer Bob Pedigo, in the late 1950s, and sold under the brand name Superbio. A group of local investors bought the technology in 1998, and opened Advanced Microbial Solution (AMS) in Pilot Point not long afterwards.

April 26, 2012 - In the fall of 1900, two sons of J.H. Burkett were hunting along Battle Fish Creek in Callahan County, when they found some pecans in a squirrel's nest and took them home to their father. The elder Burkett instructed the boys to find the parent tree for him. They did, and Burkett was impressed enough to buy the property where the tree grew.

April 19, 2012 - Texas is the number one cotton-producing state in the US. According to the Texas A&M University cotton program, cotton is the state's leading cash crop, ranking only behind the beef and nursery industries in total cash receipts. Texas annually produces about 25 percent of the entire US crop and plants over 6 million acres.

April 19, 2012 - Grow a better garlic and the world will beat a path to your doorstep. In the case of Bob Anderson of Coleman County, who is known far and wide as the "Garlicmeister," the world ended up beating a path to his website. "I set up on the information super highway instead of the local highway," he explained. "That changed everything."

April 19, 2012 - Much like the cattle markets, sheep and goat markets have been doing well, with producers being able to get record high prices for their stock in most situations. But, there are some areas where the market isn't doing quite as well ,due to higher food prices and other factors.

April 19, 2012 - As founder of the Gleaning Network of Texas, Susie Marshall, of Dallas, made a connection to agriculture and to the people who need its products -- food -- the most. It was a connection she found rewarding and one that she is pursuing further as the newly-elected president of the Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (TOFGA).

April 12, 2012 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture's cow herd inventory was released in January and confirmed what livestock officials, producers and economists already knew: beef cattle numbers are the lowest they have been in half a century. What producers are learning now, if they didn't already know it, is that cow herds come and cow herds go but it takes a while for them to come back when they go.

April 12, 2012 - According to Dr. Todd Bilby, associate professor and Texas AgriLife Extension Service dairy specialist at Stephenville, annually the dairy industry, across the US, loses about $1 billion due to the effects of heat stress, mainly on the loss of milk production and reproduction.

April 12, 2012 - When University of Texas faculty member John Doggett spoke at the Governor's Ag Conference in Nebraska recently, he stirred up echoes of an issue that has been largely dormant in America for the past few years, but one that he said will soon return.

April 12, 2012 - Of all the livestock that might be shown at a youth fair or livestock show, the rabbit is the most democratic. Rabbits are not big, smelly, loud or too ill-tempered to handle.