Texas - James E. 'Bud' Smith Plant Materials Center Highlights
Highlights
LIVESTOCK FORAGE AND WILDLIFE HABITAT
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.
CONSERVE AND ENHANCE SOIL RESOURCES
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.
OUTREACH AND COMMUNICATION
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.