Soil health field day set for Nov. 22 in Devine
‘Soil Health Through Drought and Flood Field Day’ will help landowners build pasture resilience
Local cattle producers and landowners are invited to attend the “Soil Health Through Drought and Flood Field Day” on Nov. 22 at the Morales Home, 902 Zig Zag Ave., Devine.
The event, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., will feature hands-on learning focused on improving soil health, pasture resilience and profitability in livestock operations.
Registration is $50 and includes locally sourced breakfast and lunch.
To register, visit tx.ag/Nov22FieldDay or call 979-314-8092. Scholarships are available by contacting Mary Michael Zahed, Texas Water Resources Institute, TWRI, program specialist, at [email protected].
Support and collaboration for landowners
Whether managing 10 acres or 5,000 acres, this field day will offer practical insights and tools to build healthier pastures from the ground up.
“This field day is intended to be collaborative,” Zahed said. “When we get together and share our personal experiences, physically look at alternative ways to battle drought and floods in Central Texas, and figure out new pathways forward, we can capture more water on our landscapes.”
Hosted by the Morales family and at their property, the event will offer participants the opportunity to rotate through five interactive stations led by ranchers and regional experts.
“We have been doing things the same way for so long,” said Fred Morales, founder and CEO of Morales Feed and Supply. “In the last few years, I have been trying something new, and I can already see it beginning to work. As dry as it’s been, the soil is alive beneath our feet.”
Day will cover pasture management, cover crops, soil health
Topics will include rotational grazing and electric fencing demonstrations, native and introduced grass management, cover crop planting using a no-till drill, drone and other broadcast methods, soil pit exploration, and a rainfall simulator comparing runoff and infiltration across different pasture systems.
“Focusing on our soil health, above all else, has done more for the production and profitability of our farm than any other process, equipment purchase or market price of our goods,” said Lee Allbee, rancher and owner of Southwest Farms. “When we got our soil right, everything else just fell into place.”
This event is made possible through the support of Morales Feed and Supply, TWRI, Southwest Farms, Wildlife Habitat Federation, Range Ward, U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, Green Cover Seed, Texas Grazing Lands Coalition, Powerflex Fencing, Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, K-line Irrigation, Sky Senderos, Grassroots Carbon, Soil Regen, Holganix and Ranchbot.
This program is being delivered to implement the recently completed Medina River below Diversion Dam Watershed Protection Plan, WPP, by promoting pasture management practices that retain and store more rainfall on the landscape and reduce pollutant transport to downstream water bodies.
Funding to implement this WPP is provided by the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board through a Clean Water Act Section 319(h) Grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
TWRI is a unit of Texas A&M AgriLife Research that brings together expertise from across The Texas A&M University System.
Read more about the watershed at medina.twri.tamu.edu.
