The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service will host a two-day, multi-state agriculture tour of ranches Sept. 9-10. The event is a cooperative effort by the AgriLife Extension offices in Moore, Hutchinson, Gray, Lipscomb, Hemphill, Ochiltree, Roberts and Wheeler counties.

Participants will meet at the AgriLife Extension office in Hemphill County, 10965 Exhibition Center Road in Canadian, on Sept. 9 at 7 a.m. to load onto the bus and leave at 8 a.m. for the first stop on the tour.

The cost is $300 per person and can be paid by check or credit card. A 3.7% fee will be added for credit card payments. To register, call 806-323-9114 or email Laina Koning at laina.koning@ag.tamu.edu.

Day 1: Management after wildfires and genetics

The first day of the tour will include stops at the Needmore Creek Ranch in Canadian, the Southern Plains Range Station in Woodward, Oklahoma, and Gardiner Angus Ranch in Ashland, Kansas.

During the tour at Needmore Creek participants will learn about the ranch’s recovery efforts following the Smokehouse Creek fire. Speakers and topics will include:

• Current ranch conditions and post-fire recovery efforts — Tim Steffens, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension range specialist and associate professor, West Texas A&M University, Canyon.
• Range nutritional value and handling cow herds in post-fire conditions — Jason Smith, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension beef cattle specialist and associate professor, Texas A&M Department of Animal Science, Amarillo.

Tarlton Holloway, insurance agent, Hilltop Securities, Amarillo, will speak on the bus about pasture forage insurance and how it can be used to build a drought management plan.

During the Southern Plains Range Research Station stop, participants will learn about the station, its history and research on innovative farming and ranching methods. 

At the Gardiner Angus Ranch, Ashland, Kansas, participants will view the ranch’s Angus herd, tour marketing facilities and learn about range pasture management after the 2017 Starbuck Fire. Ranch owner Mark Gardiner also will speak about the value of quality-driven genetics.

Day 2: Beef carcass quality and grazing systems

The second day will include a tour of the Boot Hill Museum, Dodge City, Kansas, and then return to Texas to tour the Blue Ranch, located south of Dumas.

During the museum tour, Brian Bertleson, vice president of field operations, U.S. Premium Beef, Dodge City, Kansas, will speak on beef carcass quality, and James Graves, vice president, Hilltop Securities, Amarillo, will discuss the topic of livestock risk management planning.

Blue Ranch owner Mike McCloy and ranch and resource manager Mike Turner will wrap up the tour with a presentation on range management grazing systems.