West Texas Rangelands
West Texas RangelandsWe hope to provide a variety of information from current news stories, prescribed burning, wildfires, brush control, and cow-calf management!

Cheatgrass in Texas Lower Rolling Plains

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What is Cheatgrass? Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), is an invasive annual species. This species poses a significant ecological threat to the Southern Great Plains of Texas, particularly in the Rolling Plains Region. Cheatgrass will displace native grasses such as sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula), blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis) and little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium). These dominant, perennial, native grasses are key to maintaining soil stability, biodiversity, and forage quality (D’Antonio & Vitousek, 1992; Chambers et al., 2014).

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Impact of Goats on Cattle Diet Composition

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Did you know that having goats in your pasture could potentially complement the existing cattle operation while boosting livestock productivity and plant community diversity? Goats normally prefer and preferentially consume various types of woody and forb species more so than cattle do, and that their presence in a pasture does not alter what the cattle preferentially select to eat.

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2023 Rural Land Value Trends Report

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Check out the 2023 Rural Land Value Trends Report from Texas Agriculture Law Blog by Tiffany Lashmet! https://agrilife.org/texasaglaw/2024/05/06/2023-rural-land-value-trends-report-is-here/

West Texas:

Strong demand for quality tracts continues to hold up prices in the region. At $2,410 per acre, prices rose 8.02 percent YOY. Tract size has also decreased from highs in 2021 and 2022, coming in at 385 acres this quarter, 10.65 percent below one year ago. Annualized sales volume declined 50.97 percent to 431 sales. Total dollar volume at $155.54 million decreased by 72.39 percent. At 64,540 acres, though a slight increase from last quarter, total acreage declined 74.44 percent YOY. Fourth quarter only sales volume fell 26.09 percent below that of fourth quarter 2022, a much less drastic drop compared to YOY.

Region 3 Take Homes:

Counties included: Archer, Baylor, Childress, Clay, Coke, Collingsworth, Concho, Cottle, Crockett, Dickens, Donley, Edwards, Fisher, Foard, Glasscock, Hall, Hardeman, Haskell, Irion, Jack, Jones, Kent, King, Kinney, Knox, Mitchell, Motley, Nolan, Reagan, Runnels, Schleicher, Scurry, Shackelford, Stephens, Sterling, Stonewall, Sutton, Taylor, Throckmorton, Tom Green, Upton, Val Verde, Wheeler, Wichita, Wilbarger, and Young.

  • In discussions with an attorney in San Angelo, he stated that he had worked on 10 to 15 wind and solar leases in 2023, with 8 to 10 of those signed. Several of the companies decided they were no longer interested before the lease was signed.
  • According to the attorney, this was due to a number of factors including poor due diligence on the part of the company or ERCOT West not having enough transmission lines. These wind leases come in blocks where the attorney may represent one to a dozen landowners at a time.
  • As mentioned in the 2022 discussion, a solar farm in San Angelo area was expanding. This expansion has been completed from one to two sections.  There has not been any construction in the immediate San Angelo area since 2022 of any new solar farms.  This could be a result of the increased cost due to higher interest rates, cost of materials and construction costs.
  • Purchases by developers dropped significantly in 2023. This is due primarily to the increased interest rates and the fact the end users for these properties are no longer in the market due to the higher interest rates.
  • There continues to be an increase in residential development in the immediate area of the larger trade areas, specifically Wichita Falls, Abilene and San Angelo. It appears that residential buyers continue to move to areas with smaller schools, which are considered to be above average for educational opportunities.

 

For the 2023 and previous years report, be sure to download it here – https://www.txasfmra.com/rural-land-trends

Rural Land Trends – Texas Chapter ASFMRA. (2024, March 29). Texas Chapter ASFMRA. https://www.txasfmra.com/rural-land-trends

SRM Multidisciplinary Rangeland Ecosystem Services Report

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The Society for Rangeland Management recently released their Rangeland Ecosystem Services Report: Connecting Nature and People. The report includes five key rangeland service topic areas including; food and fiber, water as an ecosystem driver in rangelands, carbon sequestration and security, plant and insect biodiversity, and wildlife habitat provision. 

 

Photo: Rangeland Ecosystem Services Report

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USDA funds Texas A&M AgriLife Extension West Texas Rangeland Conservation Projects

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Four separate projects have been funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative with West Texas Rangelands Involvement! These projects will combine the expertise of Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service to provide livestock producer support and increase the use of conservation principles on grazing lands.

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Statewide Texas Landowner Survey Results

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Did you know that Texas Landowner demographics are surveyed by the Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute (NRI)? This type of information is incredibly valuable and insightful to the changing demographic occurring across Texas working landscapes. 

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Women in Ranching – Texas CattleWomen – April 15, 2023

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Written by Casey Matzke

Texas CattleWomen is a State Organization made of 21 chapters across the state of Texas. Our mission is the promotion of Beef in a healthy diet. Our local chapters are the boots on the ground of this organization. From Ag in the Classroom, to the promotion of Beef, to scholarships, to hands-on demonstrations and Ranch Tour, our CattleWomen do it all.

Our local chapters are spread out through different counties in the State. For more information on CattleWomen and what local chapter you may belong to, be sure to check out our website. It is our goal to have every county in Texas covered in the future. If your county currently does not have a local chapter, we are always looking to start new local chapters. We have two new chapters currently being started in the Bastrop County and Scurry County areas.

Our annual Women In Ranching event is coming up on April 15th. This program was started several years ago and participants across the State have really enjoyed it. We wanted a place where women could come for hands-on learning and not be afraid to ask questions. This year our event is taking place in Stephenville, Texas at Tarleton State University.

The morning will kick off with Cattle Handling Demonstrations with Dr. Ron Gill and a BQA certification. Already BQA certified? No worries, this certification needs to be renewed every three years and this would be a great time to refresh that certificate.

We will break for lunch and then start the afternoon session. This will be three sessions of hands-on activity. We will have chute-side manners and a fencing demonstration. The third session will be from our very own Dr. Morgan Treadwell with Plant and Forage Identification.

In the evening, a Grilling 101 demonstration will be given, where all participants will get to grill their own steaks! We will wrap up the event with our producer panel. Not only is this event very informational but you will meet fellow women who are passionate about the industry. Interested in this event, be sure to register here.

For any additional questions about CattleWomen, be sure to reach out to Casey Matzke at caslmatzke@gmail.com or 713-578-0863.