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VOLUME XV, NO. 3 |
TEXAS DAIRY REVIEW |
March 2006 |
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TDR publisher takes “vacation”
Four educational seminars offered at Comanche Farm, Ranch
and Dairy Day |
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TDR publisher takes “vacation” |
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Six weeks ago, TDR publisher, Sherry Webb, suddenly and unexpectedly found herself as a prime patient at Harris Methodist Hospital, Ft. Worth. A six week stay away from the Texas Dairy Review would have been a lot more fun at Cozumel. But, much to her dismay, an upper femoral (leg) bypass that “done went wrong” caused a big problem and lengthy hospital stay before doctors finally released her from their clutches. She has now resumed her much appreciated commitment to the Texas Dairy Review and is just grateful to be writing about cows and not having to deal with doctors, hospitals, or their ridiculous and insane policies. A sincere apology goes out to our many readers and advertisers for any delay in the March edition. TDR is resuming its normal schedule for April. |
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Mulch being shipped illegally? |
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If wood mulch is being shipped into Texas from hurricane-ravaged areas of Louisiana (as a recent flurry of e-mails alleges) it is being done so illegally, said a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry. No wood debris has been approved to move outside the quarantine area, said Ashley Rodrigue, press secretary for the department. The mulch is going to landfills, all but one of which is in quarantined parishes in Louisiana. The other landfill is in Mississippi but in an area quarantined for Formosan termites, she said. "The fact is, we do not know whether these materials are infested with Formosan termites," said Dr. Roger Gold, Texas Cooperative Extension entomologist in College Station. "We are concerned, and through education and alerts, we are trying to keep these termites from going farther," he said. Texas has quarantined the shipment of used railroad crossties, or products, articles or conveyance that could bring the termite – at any of its developmental stages – into the state, according to the Texas Administrative Code. This includes mulch.
"The Texas Department of Agriculture
strongly supports the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry's
quarantines to prevent the spread of the Formosan termite and are
encouraged by all the stringent steps they are taking to enforce the
quarantine measures,"
"TDA inspectors in our road stations along
the Texas border are keeping their eyes out for any quarantined articles
and will turn back any shipments that do not meet our rigorous entry Rodrigue said Louisiana has quarantined the movement of all wood material from areas affected by hurricanes.
The quarantined parishes are Calcasieu,
Cameron, Jefferson, Jefferson Davis, Orleans, Palquenines, St. Bernard,
St. Charles, St. John, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa and Washington, according
to a news release issued Jan. 13 by that department. These parishes are
known The release noted, "The quarantine specifies that wood cannot be moved from any of these parishes into Formosan termite-free parishes until a plan has been submitted to the Department of Agriculture and Forestry."
According to the Center for Urban and
Structural Entomology's termite Web site at
http://termite.tamu.edu
, Formosan termites cause the same type of damage as other subterranean
termites, but they are voracious eaters, attacking more than 47 plant
species in The site also noted Formosan termites do their damage more rapidly than other species of termites due to large colony sizes of more than a million individuals. Gold recommended that consumers be wary of generic or unlabeled wood products – including railroad crossties – even though they appear to be a good deal. Care needs to be taken through inspections or treatment of these materials before they are placed around structures in Texas, he said.
"This may be a situation where it is
better to look a gift horse in the mouth because of the cost of a poor
decision for the average homeowner if these materials were infested with
these Any purchased mulch that appears to have insects in it should be returned to the retailer or distributor for a refund, he advised. It would be ill advised for any homeowner to attempt to treat mulches on their own for both safety and economic reason, he said. "The cost of treatment may exceed the value of the product you are getting," he said. Rodrigue said any material moving illegally out of Louisiana needs to be reported to the pesticide division of that state's department of agriculture at (225) 925-3763. |
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Premises ID Hearing awaits word from USDA on NAIS timelines |
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Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) officials canceled their March 23 meeting in Round Rock regarding the proposed premises registration plan, saying more information was needed from the national level before they felt comfortable in making such rules at the state level. "We are seeking from the U. S. Department of Agriculture clear direction on National Animal Identification System (NAIS) timelines for implementation," said Dr. Bob Hillman, Texas' state veterinarian and TAHC executive director. Premises registration is the foundation of NAIS, which, when fully implemented, would enable animal health officials to trace the movement of diseased or exposed livestock or poultry within 48 hours. USDA originally set its sights on 2010 for a fully implemented NAIS, but delays in various aspects of the plan, both nationally and at state levels, lead many officials to believe the deadlines may not fall that soon. The proposed plan requires registration of all sites in Texas where animals are kept, managed or otherwise handled by July 1, 2006. More than 8,200 of the state's estimated 200,000 premises were registered as of March 8, and voluntary premises registration continues.
The next meeting of the TAHC is scheduled
on May 4. The time, date and agenda of that meeting will be posted in late
April on the TAHC web site and in the Texas Register. |
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Four educational seminars offered at Comanche Farm, Ranch and Dairy Day |
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Texas Cooperative Extension is again teaming up with The OX and KCOM radio in Comanche to present four educational seminars at the Comanche Farm, Ranch and Dairy Day, Friday, March 31, 2006 at the Comanche Rodeo Grounds. These seminars will cover a variety of topics and will be both educational and fun for all the participants. To get more information on any of the seminars, times or speakers call Texas Cooperative Extension in Comanche County at 325/356-2539. The seminars will begin promptly at 9:30 a.m. with a seminar entitled "Saving Live Oaks: Oak Wilt Disease Management." Renee Burks, Staff Forester with the Texas Forest Service will discuss the problem with oak wilt, how it is spread and measures homeowners and landowners can do to control the spread of this disease. She can also discuss other common problems homeowners may see in their trees. This program will be worth one hour of continuing education for pesticide applicators. At 10:30 a.m. Dr Chris Sansone, Extension Entomologist will present a program on controlling those pesky fire ants around homes and in pastures. Fire ants are the number one insect problem in Texas and they continue to invest electrical equipment, wells, lawns and pastures. There are several sure fire methods for controlling them and at a fairly low cost and Dr. Sansone will discuss them all. Chris will also discuss other insects of importance this including the potential for grasshopper damage. This class will be worth one hour of continuing education for pesticide applicators. The other program offered at 1:30 p.m. will be presented by Dr. Tamilee Nennich, Extension Dairy Specialist-Stephenville. Dr. Nennich will discuss "E. coli: Where Does It Come From and How Does It Get in the Water." This issue relates to the Leon River TMDL but Dr. Nennich will help dairy producers better understand bacteria and how to put in practices to insure that their dairy is not a source of contamination. This program will be worth one hour of DOPA credit for dairy owners or managers. At 2:30 p.m. Bob Whitney, County Extension Agent-ANR will finish out the seminars with a presentation on "Brush Control in the Cross Timbers." Bob will cover all aspects of the brush species we have in this area and the best methods of control including the right chemical to use on the right species. This seminar will be worth one hour of continuing education credit for pesticide applicators. |
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Native Bees Could Fill Pollinator Hole Left by Honeybees |
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If you build it, they will come. Native bees that is. And when native bees do come, they may be a hundred times more efficient as pollinators than are honeybees, said Jeff Brady, research assistant with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. Brady, working with Dr. Forrest Mitchell, Experiment Station entomologist, is building trap nests, a way to encourage native bees to do the agriculturally vital role honeybees have been relied upon for so long: pollinating crops. Honeybee populations, either because of fierce competition from Africanized honeybees or from species of mites they have no resistance to, are on the decline. Native bees offer an alternative because they are resistant to both the varroa and tracheal mites. And because they do not live in hives, native bees are not at risk of being overcome by Africanized bees. (Click here to see a related story.) Native bees, also called solitary bees, do not live in collective hives as do honeybees. They build nests in tiny holes or tunnels that they find, typically in trees and shrubs. Unlike honeybees, who have workers with specialized tasks, with only a part of the hive collecting pollen, each native bee is "on her own," and each is a potential pollinator, Brady said. Each native bee deposits her collected pollen as small balls inside the tunnel of a nest, then lays an egg, and seals it off with mud or circular pieces of leaves. She'll then collect more pollen, deposit another pollen ball then lay another egg and so on. Depending upon the species of native bee and the depth of the nest, the female may lay as many as 15 to 20 eggs in a single nest, sealing each egg off in its own cell with its own pollen ball. She may make as many as 100 trips to and from flowers to gather pollen for each of these eggs. And while honeybees hover around flowers taking pollen when and if they can, many native bees may have evolved so their actions on the flower actually trigger pollination. "You can actually find a native bee that's been (evolutionarily) tailored to a specific crop," Brady said. For example, some native bee species are particularly suited – having adapted their life cycles – to crops such as peaches, blackberries or watermelons. Another example is, one species is dormant or in developmental stages for 11 months of the year, and only emerges when crops such as melons are pollinating. Other species have adapted to row crops such as alfalfa may be active for most of the year. There's a great deal of genetic variance, Brady said, with more than 500 native bee species in Texas alone. Each may be adapted to specific crops, and each may have a different preference for nesting sites.
For these reasons and others, for a
specific crop at least, native bees, such as the alfalfa leafcutter bee,
may be much more efficient pollinators than honeybees, Brady said. "Two
hundred alfalfa leafcutters can to do the same amount of pollination that
a 20,000
Honeybees have other advantages however,
most notably their honey production. Because humans have cultured them for
centuries, Brady said, they offered some advantages to the agricultural
producer who wished to ensure there were enough local pollinators for his
crop. And though honeybees aren't as efficient pollinators as native bees, they make up for it in the sheer brute force of numbers. But these advantages have waned as both wild honeybees and cultured honeybees have fallen prey to parasitic mites and Africanized bees. Living in hives, honeybees have strength in numbers, offering the collective protection from enemies. Native bees, because of their solitary nature, are often at the mercy of predators, such as woodpeckers and parasitic wasps. "They are completely opportunistic when it comes to finding nests," Brady said. "They'll nest wherever they find the right size hole, in a dead tree, in a wind chime, even in the empty bolt holes of an abandoned tractor." This "opportunistic" behavior offers researchers an opportunity of their own, he said. By learning to build the right size nests for native bees, he or she should be able to encourage them to nest near agricultural crops for pollination.
But it's not just a simple matter of one
size fits all, he said. Not only are native bees adapted to specific
crops, they are also adapted to different sizes and depths of holes. So
the first stage
Brady has been building dozens of
different size"trap nests," blocks of wood with holes or collections of
tubes designed to "capture and hold" the bees as eggs, larvae and/or
pupae. He distributes the trap nests near crops in the spring, and when
collected later in the
Brady can also get an idea of what size
holes or tubes certain species prefer, he said. Brady noted that many native bee species build their nests in the ground. Presently, the only species drawn to the trap nests are the ones that opportunistically hunt for already-made holes as nests. But Brady cautions what he's actually doing is perfecting a technique for determining the best nests for native bees, not building a one-size-fits-all nest. That would be impossible. "The interesting thing about them (native bees) is they vary so much from region to region," he said. "The biological and other dynamics vary quite a bit." It is that variance, however, that makes them so well adapted – and the perfect choice as pollinators for many crops, he said. |
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