Department of Soil&Crop Sciences

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Forages Programs

Forages include both native (157 million acres) and introduced (111 million acres) pastures in Texas that provide about 70% of the nutrients consumed by livestock. Forage crops are the foundation on which the Texas livestock industry is built. Currently, cash receipts are more than $7 billion for cattle, $3 billion for wildlife, and more than $700 million in hay to Texas ranchers. Forages also enhance water quality, serve as sinks for the disposal of agricultural and municipal wastes, are renewable sources of energy, provide food and habitat for wildlife, and are used to revegetate disturbed lands and public right-of-ways.

Forage species in Texas are as diverse as the soils and climates found across the state. Research is conducted at Beeville, College Station, Dallas, Kingsville, Overton, Stephenville, and Uvalde to address ecosystem variations. The Texas Agricultural Experiment Station forage research team includes expertise in plant breeding, management, and forage utilization. Additionally, forage specialists with the Texas Cooperative Extension conduct numerous demonstrations across the state to evaluate new forages and management practices at the producer level. This collection represents the current research and extension information on grasses and legumes to enhance economic growth and animal production for Texas producers.

Copied from Forage Research in Texas

Faculty/Staff

NameSpecialtyLocation
Bean, Brent Row Crops and Weed Management Amarillo
Foster, Jamie Forages Beeville
Livingston, Steve Forages and Row Crops Corpus Christi
Malinowski, Dariusz Forages Vernon
Muir, James Forage Research Physiologist Stephenville
Redmon, Larry Forages College Station
Rouquette, Monte Forage Physiology Overton

Research Interests

The Crop Physiology program has research and extension interests in the following areas:

  • Obligatory summer-dormant cool-season perennial grasses - new persistent forages to complement dual-use wheat pastures.
  • Identification of morphological and physiological traits for breeding forage-type wheat.
  • Develop forage legumes to enhance the quality of forage available to cattle and wildlife in the dryer regions of Texas. These legumes include winter annuals such as annual medics, clovers and vetches. Some of these legumes also provide good seed sources for game birds. The recent release of the summer growing perennial legume, ‘BeeWild’ bundleflower is proving to be a valuable food and habitat plant for game birds, white tailed deer as well as forage for livestock.
  • Develop native plants for rangeland revegetation in cooperation with the South Texas Natives project of the Cesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at TAMU-Kingsville.
  • Fertility and irrigation management of summer perennial and winter pastures.

Related Links of Interest