Berry’s Picks

Corn Pre-Plant Program

Hard to believe but it will soon be time to start planting corn. We grow a lot of silage in Comanche County and approximately 4380 acres of it is corn silage.

With the record high input cost, we are looking at this year, it is going to be important manage your corn crop for maximum efficiency. To help producers get ready for the coming growing season we will be having a pre-plant corn production meeting. We have some good specialist covering topics that we have challenges with each year.

We have Corn Specialist, Dr. Ronnie Schnell, on hand to discuss “Nutrient Needs, Disease Management and Best Planting Practices”. IPM Agent, Tyler Mays, will be covering “Early Season Pest, Corn Ear Worm and Spider Mite Management”. The program is scheduled for Friday, January 21, 2022 from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Comanche Community Center.

This will be an excellent program with topics of interest to all of our corn silage growers in the central Texas area. We will also be awarding 2 CEU’s: 1 IPM and 1 general. The program and lunch will be covered by our good agriculture sponsors.

Vampire Bats

This week’s article is for sure a mixed bag. I have to admit, until I recently heard a Farm Bureau program, I was not even sure vampire bats really existed. Well, they do, and they are getting closer to Texas. The common vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus, previously restricted to areas outside the southern US border, has recently begun to expand its range northward toward the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. The Farm Bureau report indicated the bats have been found within 35 miles of the Texas border. Still, due to colder temperatures, models suggest that even with the current warming trend, the bats can only exist as far north as south Texas. Researchers do expect the bat to expand its range to southern Texas.

Vampire bats are the only species of bat that are blood feeders. They feed in the dark of night mainly attacking sleeping livestock, and occasionally humans. The bats will feed for 10 to 40 minutes on a single site and multiple bats may feed on the same site or on the same animal. Significant blood loss from this feeding does have a risk of infection and other health related illnesses. The potential for disease transmission and in particularly rabies is the biggest threat. In areas where vampire bats may start ranging it will be necessary to vaccinate all livestock, pets and maybe wildlife for rabies.

Just to clarify all bats currently found in central Texas are beneficial and are not vampire bats. However, if your complexion starts getting very pale, you only come out after dark and favor black capes, I encourage you to increase your garlic intake, Woo Haa Haa.