Livestock & Pet
Bill Costanzo – LGD Research Specialist, Texas A&M AgriLife Research
Let’s Talk Livestock with Scarlett James Rudder FFA & Runtin’ and Gruntin’ 4-H
POLLINATORS RULE! Bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and moths have an amazing thing in common. They all work hard to pollinate over 30 percent of the world’s food supply. Without these hard workers, the food on our shelves in the grocery stores would be much less. How does pollination work? Well, in simple terms pollen from one flower is picked up by one of the many pollinators, commonly bees, and carried to another flower where the pollen sticks to the stigma. This is an essential part of plant reproduction and is needed for fruits and vegetables to grow. Although these pollinators are very important, they are also in lots of danger. Toxic herbicides are the biggest killer of bees. Some of these toxic products include Glyphosate (Roundup), Dicamba, and even household vinegar. These toxic herbicides get into the digestive system of bees and other pollinators and make them susceptible to infection. Here are three simple things we can all do to help stabilize the bee and pollinator populations. First, plant beneficial and safe shrubs, trees, and flowers such as milkweed and butterfly bush. Next, use safe products such as non-toxic weed killer and pesticides in your gardens. The last step is simple. If you see bees, let them bee! They are just trying to do their jobs to help us grow our food. w 26
Picture courtesy of Digital Matters 2022
GPS Technology to Aide in LGD Management This month we will be starting the first of a three-part series on GPS trackers. All the of the livestock guardian dogs (LGDs) that are in our Oyster 3 bonding project wear global positioning system cellular GPS (GPS) trackers for at least twelve months so that tracker made we can monitor their movement patterns. Other by Digital dogs at the San Angelo AgriLife Center or at our Matters. research ranches continually wear the collars for long term research we are conducting with the GPS Terms dogs. There are a variety of GPS trackers on the Two terms that producers should be familiar market today that use cellular, satellite or LoRa with when looking into GPS trackers are pings systems to collect data. They come with many and uploads. Uploads generally occur in hours of different types of functions that may be useful for time while pings are generally taken in minutes livestock producers. of time. A ping refers to a GPS position taken by GPS trackers work by pulling data from satthe tracker generally every 15-30 minutes. Most ellites orbiting above the earth in a set position. trackers can store thousands of pings at a time There are several different satellite location sysbefore they are overwritten in the unit’s memory. tems that are used by nations around the world. Pings generally do not use much battery life. The US system is called the Global Positioning Uploads occur at set times during the day, System or GPS. To take a location, a device usually every two to four hours and refer to the needs a minimum of at least three satellites to acping data being sent to the tracking companies quire a position. The more satellites that the decomputer system. Uploads are generally what vice can obtain data from, the more accurate the use the most battery life in a GPS tracker. By location will be. Cost is the main issue that arises adjusting the upload time, you can conserve batwith accuracy. The more satellites that a company uses, the more costly it is for the data points. tery life while still being able to see where the Most companies use three to four satellites to cal- dog has been over time. There are also other features such as heartbeat & movement settings that culate a data point on the earth’s surface. GPS trackers can make using and locating can be turned on or off to conserve battery life LGDs on a regular basis much easier. The track- of the tracker. Its best to discuss these features ers can also help you locate your livestock as the with your sales representative before placing the dogs are generally in close proximity to their tracker on your livestock guardian dog. We look forward to sharing our research charges. GPS trackers can also help you locate with the ranching community over the next severholes in your fences if your LGD is roaming onto al years as the LGD bonding project continues at the neighbor’s property or if your livestock have the Texas A&M AgriLife Center in San Angelo. left the pasture. By pulling up the travel path in Weekly progress of the puppies and the project the providers software you can find the location can be viewed on our Facebook and Instagram acon a fence line that the dog or livestock got out. counts @TAMUlivestockguarddog. Don’t forget There are many different types of GPS trackto sign up for our blog The Guardian Way https:// ers that are available on the market today. They sanangelo.tamu.edu/research/lgd/ and check out range in price, complexity of use and most imour YouTube channel also. portantly, battery life. GPS trackers specifically For questions regarding LGDs you can designed for canine use, often have very short email me at bill.costanzo@ag.tamu.edu or call battery lives as the manufacturer assumes that 325-657-7311. Look for my next article on Liveyou will be able to catch the dog on a regular stock Guardian Dogs in next month’s edition of basis and exchange batteries. However, many the SouthWest Horse Trader. w LGDs are not well socialized, making catching them difficult, if not impossible, in large pastures or open range.
SouthWest Horse Trader May 2022
