Tag Archives: Texas Department of Agriculture

Time for another warfarin update

Posted on November 17, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Not much effect on the feral hog population yet, but it’s still early days. Nine months after the Texas Department of Agriculture approved a new toxicant to curb crop-destroying feral hogs, many farmers and ranchers are still leery or unaware … Continue reading →

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Warfarin update

Posted on November 20, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Warfarin is a toxicant that has shown promise in reducing the feral hog population. A few years ago the Lege asked for a study on its effects before it could be approved for more general use. We now have the … Continue reading →

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Texas Department of Agriculture sort of recognizes climate change

Posted on January 9, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

It’s a start, I guess. On the heels of a historic drought that devastated crops from the High Plains to South Texas, a new Texas Department of Agriculture report released Tuesday linked climate change with food insecurity and identified it … Continue reading →

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Sid Miller’s political consultant indicted

Posted on January 21, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Well, this is interesting. Todd Smith, a top political consultant to Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, was indicted Tuesday on felony charges of theft and commercial bribery related to taking money in exchange for state hemp licenses that are doled out … Continue reading →

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HempLicenseGate

Posted on May 10, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

The headline on this Trib story is “Top political aide to Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller arrested in alleged scheme to take money in exchange for hemp licenses”, and I have no idea how to make it any pithier than … Continue reading →

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The freeze effect on farmers

Posted on February 28, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

As you might imagine, single digit temperatures are not good for agriculture. Well before the sun finally broke through the cloudy and icy haze in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley last week, Dale Murden knew he was in for a bad … Continue reading →

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Harvey was hard on farms, too

Posted on September 3, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

It wasn’t just the cities like Houston that suffered a lot of damage from Harvey. Harvey did more than transform cityscape by turning highways into rivers; It also upended life for farmers and ranchers across dozens of counties that Gov. … Continue reading →

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No more feral hog poison

Posted on April 27, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

It was not to be. The manufacturer of a controversial bait used to kill feral hogs withdrew its state registration for the poison, putting Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller’s plans for a Texas “Hog Apocalypse” on hold. “We have received tremendous … Continue reading →

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Hog apocalypse update

Posted on April 18, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

The poison plan for controlling feral hogs is set to be put on pause by the Legislature. A bill poised to pass the Texas House would amend the Texas Agriculture Code to prohibit the Department of Agriculture from registering, approving … Continue reading →

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Let’s have a study of that hog apocalypse first

Posted on March 13, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Maybe we should figure out what the effects of poisoning feral hogs might be before we start poisoning them. Two bills from Texas lawmakers — state Rep. Lynn Stucky, R-Denton, and state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin — would require state … Continue reading →

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If you can’t porkchop ’em, poison ’em

Posted on March 9, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

The war on feral hogs enters a new phase. At a Feb. 21 news conference in Austin, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller announced the agency had issued a rule that would allow Kaput Feral Hog Bait, a pesticide containing the … Continue reading →

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On selling junk food in Texas schools

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Every session, there’s at least one bill that gets passed with little to no notice that has completely unforeseen effects. The Lunch Tray breaks a story about one such bill from this past regular session, which has to do with … Continue reading →

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Hog killin’ update

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Because I know you like to know about this sort of thing. After a competition to kill feral hogs left more than 1,000 of the destructive animals dead in Hays and Caldwell counties, plans are emerging to further control the … Continue reading →

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RIP, Department of Rural Affairs

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

People say they want to shrink government, except when it happens to them. The Texas Department of Rural Affairs, the office that helps keep rural Texas communities afloat, is scheduled to close in October, and the lawmaker who wrote the … Continue reading →

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More on the broadband map of Texas

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Shouldn’t a map that purports to document broadband availability in Texas do a better job than this of actually including broadband providers? At an unveiling last month, the Texas Department of Agriculture touted its map of broadband Internet availability as … Continue reading →

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Was there no one in Texas that could tell us about our broadband situation?

Posted on June 24, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

I’m a little late in picking this up, so bear with me. Last week, the Texas Department of Agriculture published a map detailing where broadband access exists and doesn’t exist in Texas. Democratic candidate for Ag Commish Hank Gilbert, after … Continue reading →

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The Texas Partnership for Children in Nature

Posted on April 13, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

The National Wildlife Federation was in town this weekend for a summit to advance a national policy agenda to connect children with the outdoors. Basically, kids spend a lot less time outside these days, and there are measurable effects of … Continue reading →

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“Crazy ants” becoming a bigger menace

Posted on August 9, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

You may recall hearing about the “crazy ants”, also known as Rasberry ants, last year. They’re apparently gaining a large foothold in Texas and other states, and are threatening honeybees wherever they go. The range of the so-called Rasberry crazy … Continue reading →

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