It produces relatively high yields of forage of good quality for grazing or hay. Varieties which have produced the most forage in clipping experiments are Tift, Piper, Sweet and Common, and the hybrids are Sudax, Grazer, Texas 9901, 9902 and 9907.

The use of warm-season grasses is seriously limited because of the difficulty of their satisfactory establishment in competition with volunteer Johnsongrass, sourgrass and weeds. Some of the more promising grasses are K. R. bluestem, side-oats grama, Coastal and Common Bermudagrass and Johnsongrass.

Research on crop and production improvement considers the detailed relations of plant roots to soil and climatic factors. Root systems determined by digging up various plants under natural growing conditions have proved to be deeper than 5 or 6 feet.

Stocker calves of Good or Choice quality are purchased annually for grazing and feeding experiments. Improved grazing crops and practices are introduced and tested, and combinations of homegrown rations and management variables are compared in the feedlot.

Cotton root-rot studies on the Blackland Station are conducted year-around in an air-conditioned greenhouse by means of large constant soil-temperature apparatus.

Crop rotation studies have been conducted on the Blackland Station for many years. No single rotation superior in all respects, but results have been consistently favorable where warm-season row crops have been rotated with cooI-season crops of small grain and for sweetclover.

New or improved materials and farming methods are tested in experimental fields. Soil conservation evaluations involve measured crops yields, chemical and physical determinations and estimates of erosion.

Economic calculations by cooperating agricultural economists are being used to determine the advantages and disadvantages of several systems or combinations of practices on different kinds of land.

July 13, 1998
Dennis Hoffman, Project Leader
Steve Dagitz, Webmaster