# Close to Temple Texas?



## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

Susan Baggett (USDA-NRCS Statewide Resource Conservationist) will be speaking at this month's Brown Bag Seminar. She will be discussing the Conversion of Improved Pastures to Native Grasses.

There will be plenty of room, so be sure to invite all who might be interested in hearing Susan speak.

The seminar is this Friday, March 26th at 11:30 in the BREC TEDC room.

I really encourage growers within easy distance of Temple Texas to attend.
This is a grand opportunity to hear from another sector of the Ag Industry. A perspective that is seldom seen or heard by the general agriculture community. 
The meeting starts at 11:30 and usually last for an hour. 
As the name suggest it is Bring Your Own Lunch. 
It will be at the Blackland Research Center on Blackland Road in the Extension building. The one just inside the gate.


----------



## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

If you could have attended an didn't you missed something.

Susan Baggett (USDA-NRCS Statewide Resource Conservationist) Is some kind of top dog in the NRCS chain here in Texas, and native forages is her passion. 
As long as she stayed on native forages she was on firm ground. Her efforts to disparage introduced grasses was slightly over stated. Yes fertilizer does cost more now than it did 10 years ago. This does change the dynamics of treating a forage like we would treat any program crop. 
As one fellow attendee said her presentation was about a pie in the sky deal. Nothing was mentioned to the lower stocking rate that comes with climax prairie vegetation that was found here. It is my contention that the cost of land has gone up as much as the cost of land and up to a point fertilizer is still less costly than land. 
No mention was made of the reason, besides cultivation and cotton, for the decline and loss of the climax forages, namely over stocking. 
It was interesting hearing some question why they have to use roundup (Chemicals!) and another minority did not want to use cultivation. 
Personally I would not use the Equip Government program because it is appropriate for a different soil type that is mostly inappropriate to the Texas Blacklands that is found in this county. The Blackland soil in this county is different from the Blackland found 20 or so miles from here. The NRCS Universal Truth does not apply universally.


----------

