Texas - James E. 'Bud' Smith Plant Materials Center Highlights

Healthy plant and animal communities

'Selection 75' Kleingrass, ‘San Marcos’ Eastern Gamagrass, Centex Germplasm Threeflower Melicgrass and 'Lometa' Indiangrass developed for livestock forage.
'Sabine' Illinois Bundleflower, Plains Germplasm Prairie Acacia, ‘Comanche’ Partridge Pea, 'Eldorado' Engelmann’s Daisy, and 'Aztec' Maximilian Sunflower developed for inclusion in range mixes for livestock and wildlife habitat.
Improve grazing management practices by collecting growth curves and nutritional quality of forage of native grasses.
Evaluating and accessing plant material to increase forb diversity in conservation plantings.
Evaluation of biomass and quality of native legumes, forbs, and grasses.

Maintain and improve soil productivity

Improve soil health on crop land within the service area by identifying adapted cover crop species and developing management practices.
'Saltalk' Alkali Sacaton, Duck Creek Germplasm Texas Dropseed and Potter County Germplasm Dropseed developed for saline site reclamation.
Identifying salt tolerant native plants for use on agricultural lands.
Identifying adapted plants and develop management practices for mine restoration.

Promote plant material program and conservation

Provide training on collecting, processing, establishing, and managing native grasses for local projects throughout the service area.
NRCS field staff are trained in plant identification, establishment, and management of adapted plant materials for conservation programs.
YouTube video covering: Grain Drills and Planters.