The Texas A&M Agricultural Life Extension Service will host three free workshops in August that will discuss the role of planned fire and grazing in managing chemically defended plants in pastures.
Workshops will be held from 8am to 2pm at the following dates and locations. Pre-registration is required and the link is provided below.
For more information, please contact Dean Burson, a doctoral student in the Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management at Texas A&M University. (email address protected).
Targeted approaches to the management of chemically defended plants are discussed.
Berson said chemically defended plants are those that produce a range of phytochemicals to protect their leaves from selection and consumption by herbivores. Management practices such as planned fires can temporarily affect the production of these phytochemicals.
The workshop will focus on current and past research aimed at understanding the role of planned fire in managing chemically defended plants, such as redberry juniper and honey mesquite.
The workshop will also discuss grazing best practices that landowners can use to mitigate the impacts of chemically defended plants on pastures, she said.
Participants will also tour research plots and watch a demonstration of the new AgriLife Extension Poisonous Plant Identification mobile application, developed to help producers identify and manage poisonous plants within specific ecoregions of the state.
The workshop will also feature the latest graduate student research from doctoral students in the department.
Funding for the project is provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Rangeland Conservation Initiative.
agenda
The topics and speakers are:
Managing poisonous and chemically defended plants — Cody Scott, PhD, professor, Angelo State University College of Agriculture, San Angelo. Targeted approaches to fire and grazing — Doug Tolleson, PhD, rangeland management specialist at Texas A&M University AgriLife Research and associate professor in the Department of Range, Wildlife and Fisheries Management, Sonora. Graduate research sessions — Burson, Camille Carey, Tim Lyons and Chari Simpson, doctoral students, Department of Range, Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences. Using AgriLife Extension’s poisonous plant identification app — Burson.
