MANAGEMENT

As we move toward that time of the year when many of you will be swathing and baling hay, it’s important to remember potential liability can exist if that swather or baler causes a fire that damages your neighbor’s or landlord’s property.

The primary agriculture enterprise in the Southern Great Plains (particularly southern Oklahoma and northern Texas) is forage-based beef cattle systems (e.g., cow-calf, stockers). These profitable operations perform well but not without obvious challenges.

Since its early origins in south-central Asia, alfalfa has spread around the globe and is utilized as a top-quality forage for livestock. The feeding value of the crop has made it the most cultivated forage legume in the world. Despite this distinction, there has always been the desire by alfalfa workers to improve alfalfa’s performance to an even higher level.

A while ago, I attended a conference on leadership in San Antonio, Texas. Whenever I think about leadership, I think about something a minister shared with me. He said the mark of a good leader is not how well things go when they are in charge, but rather how smoothly things go once they are no longer leading.

This project was undertaken starting in 2009 in an effort to seek better varieties that will sustain yields and perhaps even thrive when grown under saline conditions. Salinity is a major challenge for alfalfa growers in irrigated regions and even in many non-irrigated regions.

On the surface, agricultural profitability looks dismal for 2019 – corn and especially soybean prices are down; milk price is low; and while beef prices look steady from 2018, supply is high.