Loose Ends

The Texas Cattle Feeders Association notes that a state judge recent uphold Texas’ "right of capture" rule pertaining to water rights under private property. In a case involving a farming family at Hondo, the judge found that the Edwards Aquifer Authority failed to prepare a "takings impact statement" as required by the Texas Private Real Estate Property Rights Act before denying the family the right to use water from its own wells. The ruling declared the Authority’s well permitting regulations invalid.

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The West Texas/Southeastern New Mexico Equine Conference set for October 31 in the Ector County Coliseum targets the serious horseman who makes part or all of his or her living with a horse.

Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. and the program at 9 a.m. The conference is being sponsored by the Extension offices in Andrews, Ector and Midland counties.

Topics to be discussed include horse theft, preparation of the mare for breeding season, equine dentistry, and the economic impact of the equine industry, as well as a freeze branding demonstration and a body condition scoring demonstration. The final two segments of the day focus on the Stock Horse of Texas Program, or SHOT.

Registration before October 25 is $5 per person. More information is available from local county Extension offices.

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Applications for the Texas Department of Agriculture’s 1998 Family Land Heritage Program are due Oct. 15. The program recognizes farms and ranches that have been in continuous production by the same family for at least 100 years. More than 3000 farms and ranches have qualified since the recognition program began in 1974.

Program applications are available through county judges as well as from TDA’s website at http://www.agr.state.tx.us.

They may also be obtained by writing to Debbie Ellis, Texas Department of Agriculture, PO Box 12847, Austin, Texas, 78711 or by calling (512)463-7653.

Those farms and ranches that qualify will be honored during a January 1999 ceremony in Austin.

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The Kansas Livestock Association News and Market Report notes that a food microbiologist at Kansas State University has found a number of common kitchen spices kill E. coli 0157:H7. Research conducted by Daniel Fung showed garlic, clove, cinnamon, oregano and sage each killed the bacteria in varying amounts.

Garlic had the best results in the laboratory study, completely killing the 0157:H7 strain. Clove was the second most effective when added directly to ground beef.

(We’ll take the garlic first, please; somehow, cinnamon and clove don’t sound too appetizing on a burger. — Ed.)

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The New Mexico State University Department of Animal and Range Sciences has scheduled a field day at the Clayton Livestock Research Center for October 2. Topics during the daylong event will focus on health and performance of feedlot cattle and the locoweed problem, which is said to be worse this year in northeastern New Mexico than in the past.

More information may be obtained by calling (505)374-2566.

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A South Texas cattle symposium focusing on packer concentration, lack of competition and price discovery and the impact of imports into the U.S. is scheduled for Saturday, September 26 at the Victoria College Auditorium. The program begins at 6 p.m.

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Rockin’ R Ranch, Giddings, Texas, will host a one-day deer farming seminar Saturday, October 10. The seminar will cover the basics of farming exotic species of deer, including nutrition, herd management, farm and facilities layout, purchasing breeding stock and marketing offspring.

Registration for the seminar is $50 per person and includes a Heart-Bar Deer Farms, Inc., informational starter package. Heart-Bar organized the event.

Registration and more information is available from Heart-Bar at (800)-460-6229; fax (210)-225-1763 or email at HBDeer@aol.com.

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Extension’s Master Marketing Training Program hosted this year in Amarillo will target wheat, feed grains and cattle marketing. The Master Marketer Program provides producers with information necessary to take a major step to improve their marketing practices. The goal is to enable farmers and ranchers to develop a marketing plan, evaluate all their selling alternatives and gain the skills necessary to execute their objectives for profit.

The training will be offered in a series of four two-day, one-night sessions. The first session will be Jan. 6-7, the other three every two weeks. Training will be conducted at the Texas A&M Research and Extension Center in Amarillo.

Registration will be limited to 60 individuals for a fee of $250 per person to help offset a small portion of the total cost. The program is underwritten by the Texas Wheat Producers Board, Texas Corn Producers Board, Texas Farm Bureau and the Extension Service.

Application information is available through county Extension agents or Dr. Steve Amosson or James Sartwelle III at (806)359-5401.

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A risk management marketing workshop is set for Oct. 1 at the Taylor County Extension office in Abilene. A $40 registration fee will cover workshop materials and lunch. More information is available from Gary Bomar at (915)672-6048.

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