Progress Slow in Fight Against Fever Ticks

Press Release From TAHC

A few miles north of the Rio Grande, where spring temperatures climb past 100 degrees, helicopters work in concert with cowboys to gather cattle. Despite thorny bushes nicked kneecaps, and dust and manure swirling up noses and down collars, cowboys inspecting, dipping or treating cattle are gritty and soaked with sweat before noon. For a small contingency of government “hands” and livestock producers on the border, the very presence or absence of ticks on cow bellies or deer flanks indicate defeat or victory in the fight against the fever tick, a foreign-origin pest that threatens the health of U.S. cattle. Read more on the Texas Animal Health Commission Web site.

Electricity, Diesel, Fertilizer Prices Tough on Farmers, Ranchers

By Betsy Blaney, AP Agriculture Writer
Originally Published on The Fort Worth
Star-Telegram Web site

LUBBOCK, Texas – South Plains cotton producer Don Langston is eager for a "big rain."

Without it he'll have to keep irrigation pumps running to water thousands of acres of dusty, parched land so there's enough moisture to plant this year's crop in a couple of months.

He figures he'll spend as much as $50 more an acre than he did last year, when rainfall was plentiful, even by West Texas standards.

"We're going to have to have a good crop just to break even," Langston said. "I'm OK. Just need a big rain." Read more on The Fort Worth Star-Telegram Web site.