Family and Consumer Sciences

• Teasing and Bullying in Schools

Do you remember the school bully who went around teasing and threatening you or your classmates? Remember how you felt? Remember how you wished he would just go away? Ever wondered what happened to someone who was teased or bullied or what became of the bully himself? Click the following link to read the full article on helping your children with teasing and bullying. (teasing-and-bullying)

• Never Leave your Child Alone in a Car

As we approach summer in Texas, the danger of children dying from being left unattended in vehicles increases, warns Jennifer Page, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agent, Llano County. Safe Kids USA has launched a campaign titled, ACT. ACT stands for: Avoid heatstroke-related injury, Create reminders, and Take action. The campaign is designed to link together these simple heatstroke prevention steps. (Never Leave Your Child Alone in a Car)

• Summer Time and BBQ’s

Summer time and bbq’s seem to fall perfectly hand in hand but that doesn’t mean you can’t consume a balanced diet. Picnics, tailgates and barbecues are the perfect occasions to take advantage of the wonderful fruits and vegetables that are available from May through September. Summer Time and BBQ

• Harvesting, Handling and Storing Your Vegetables

To help ensure that the vegetables you grow and prepare are of high quality, you need to harvest them at peak maturity, handle them properly, and store them under optimum conditions.

Vegetables continue their life processes even after they are picked. If the vegetables are mature at harvest, their life processes need to be slowed by chilling. If they are immature produce such as green tomatoes, store them at room temperature to enhance the ripening process.  Harvesting, Handling & Storing Vegetables

Agriculture & Natural Resources

• Watering your Vegetables

A critical part of growing vegetables is determining the right amount of water to give them. If you irrigate properly, you can minimize water runoff, decrease the amount of labor needed, and produce a more bountiful, high-quality crop. Reducing runoff will also help cut down on soil erosion and fertilizer needs.  The following link will provide you educational resources on easy gardening. eht_024_watering_your_vegetables

• Aquaculture, Fisheries and Pond Management

Objective: Provide variety of resources and information on fish and pond management. The following link will provide you with resources through print and video. Aquaculture Fisheries and Pond Management

• The Key to Surviving Drought

Drought management is often just a survival strategy. However, even survival requires that you have a plan flexible enough to deal with the individual circumstances of each drought as it comes. Planning-The-Key-to-Surviving-Drought

• Livestock Management

Droughts are common in Texas, and in West Texas there’s a good chance that a given drought will last for consecutive years. Because droughts are inevitable, livestock managers need to plan for them. When forming a drought-survival strategy, you will need to determine how much forage you have and how long it will last. Then establish a livestock management plan and develop culling strategies. Consider using stocker animals to assist this process. The plans must be flexible because it is difficult to predict when, or how long, a drought will last. Livestock-Management

• Supplemental Feeding

When forage quality and/or quantity are affected by drought, livestock producers are usually faced with decisions about supplemental feeding. First, they must determine whether they can afford to supplement, and if so, then decide what to supplement and how to manage feeding. If the drought continues or worsens, they will also need to decide when to stop supplementing and start selling livestock. Supplemental-Feeding

• Stocking Rate and Grazing Management

When dealing with drought, some of a livestock producer’s most important decisions concern stocking rates and grazing management. The effects of these decisions go far beyond survival of the current drought and can greatly influence recovery afterward. Stocking-Rate-and-Grazing-Management

• Toxic Range Plants

Toxic plants can pose a major threat to livestock during a drought. Animals consume more of these plants during drought because fewer alternative range plants are available. During drought, many of the more palatable range plants mature and dry up early. In contrast, many toxic plants can remain green during these periods. As a result, toxic plants increase in relative palatability and use. These problems may be accentuated by livestock deficiencies of phosphorus or vitamin A, which can greatly alter grazing behavior. To minimize losses to toxic plants, producers should learn how to identify the toxic plants, use good grazing and livestock management practices, and take measures to control the plants when necessary. Toxic-Range-Plants

• Livestock for Small Acreage Land Owners

Rural areas in Texas are being rapidly developed and urbanized, especially in the central and southwest parts of the state. Many urban dwellers want to escape to the country to live a quiet, peaceful life or enjoy recreational opportunities on their own land. As a result, large tracts in rural areas are being divided into properties of 5 to 100 acres; many are fewer than 20 acres. Livestock-for-Small-Acreage-Landowners

• Native Grassland Monitoring and Management

Widespread loss of native grasslands has led to major wildlife population declines, particularly for northern bobwhite and other grassland bird species. Much of the tallgrass prairies in the Trinity River basin have been converted to introduced grasses for livestock production, such as bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon) and bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum), or removed for row crop production. Restoring these areas to native grasslands will provide critical habitat for northern bobwhite and other grassland bird species, as well as white-tailed deer. Increasing fuel and fertilizer prices may lead livestock producers to restore native grasses as an alternative forage choice for livestock because of their reduced input costs. In the publication NativeGrassland Restoration in the Middle Trinity RiverBasin (SP-469), steps were outlined for restoring native grasslands from introduced grass-dominated systems. Once restored, native grasslands require continuous monitoring and management to prevent undesirable grass and woody species from establishing, and to promote greater diversity and health of the grassland. NativeGrasslandMonitoringandManagement

• Cattle Traceability Rule

What you need to know. What-you-need-to-know-about-the-New-Cattle-Traceability-Rule

• Beef Cattle Handling Points

Safe and effective cattle handling has always been important. In the last few years there has been a move toward what has been called low-stress handling or as we prefer to call it a return to sound effective stockmanship. The animal industries cannot afford to allow any form of abusive behavior or handling of livestock. The culture of handling on any operation originates from upper management and is expressed by the workers on the ground. What-you-need-to-know-about-the-New-Cattle-Traceability-Rule

• Buying vs. Raising Replacement Heifers

Should beef cattle producers raise replacement heifers, or buy them? Many pieces of paper have been scribbled on by producers trying to find the right answer. The problem is that no one answer is right for all producers. Each producer operates under conditions unique to that situation. Buying-vs.-Raising-Replacement-Heifers

• Stocking Rate Decisions

On any ranch, decisions must be made as to the management of each ranch resource (land, animals, personnel, facilities and finances). When those decisions are made with specific short- and long-term goals in mind, and when all the sociological, political and environmental aspects of management are taken into consideration, the result will be successful ranch management. Stocking-Rate-Decisions

• Forage Quality and Quantity – Managing Nutrition in Range Beef Cattle

Cattle nutritional management is a major challenge for range beef producers. Objectives of this management are to maintain animal productivity, minimize feed costs and preserve the forage resource. To accomplish these objectives, producers must match forage quality and supply with animal needs while still leaving enough forage residue to ensure healthy plants and rangelands. Nutritional management is complicated by changing forage quality and quantity. Forage-Quality-and-Quantity-Managing-Nutrition-in-Range-Beef-Cattle

• Forages for Beef Cattle

Pasture forages for beef cattle can be roughly divided into five categories—warm-season perennials, warm-season annuals, cool-season perennials, cool-season annuals and legumes for pastures. Each of these forage types can meet the nutritional requirements of beef cattle when they are at their peak production (Figure 1). However, none are able to satisfy the nutritional needs of a cow with calf or a growing animal, which are at their low point in production. Forages-for-Beef-Cattle

• Doe & Ewe Production Calendar

Goat and sheep owners are strongly encouraged to develop a valid, working vet/client/patient relationship with an animal health professional. In the context of this valid relationship, the veterinarian must be familiar with the owners, animals and their management program. Such a relationship does not require the veterinarian to perform all health-related management practices. Doe_Ewe-Production-Calendar

• Marketing Goats and Lambs

Most goat and lamb is sold bone-in. Packers generally sell young goats as whole carcasses, which then may be quartered for retail presentation. Fabrication specifications for retail products can vary significantly, depending on consumer group preferences. Older goats are usually processed and sold as bone-in cubes. Small lambs may be presented for retail sale similar to kid goats. Heavier lambs (>50 lb carcass) are generally fabricated in to the four retail cuts (leg, loin, rack and shoulder), each of which may be further fabricated before sale. Marketing-Goats-and-Lambs

• Management Tips for Internal Parasite Control in Sheep and Goats

The primary control strategy for internal parasite in sheep and goats has been the use of anthelmintic. One result of the apparent overuse of anthelmintic has been the development of resistant strains of gastrointestinal nematodes.  The following management tips can be used by producers to help control internal parasites and prevent resistance from occurring. Management-Tips-for-Internal-Parasite-Control-in-Sheep-and-Goats

• Learn about Whitetails

Exploration and settlement of the American frontier would have been extremely difficult without the white-tailed deer. Early colonists and explorers utilized the meat and skins of these animals extensively, and deer hides later served as a medium of exchange between trappers, frontier scouts, Indians and traders. Learn-About-Whitetails

• Fall Army Worms

The Fall Army Worm – Pest of Pasture, Hayfield & Small Grains – Fall Armyworms – Pest of Pasture; or  Fall armyworms  both publications will keep you in the know about Fall Arm Worms.

 

4-H and Youth Development