Good morning. This is David Annis, suburban ag specialist with the Noble Foundation. I’d like to visit with you about some information we believe is important to your operation.

Rick Maxwell, the county Extension agent in Collin County, and I had an impromptu meeting a couple of weeks ago while we were out standing in our fields. Ok, we were really just in our test plots at 6 a.m. feeding hotdogs to the fire ants and noticed how the small amount of rainfall had really kicked off the bermudagrass. While we were talking, the rancher drove up on his 4-wheeler and we were discussing the Max-Q fescue down the road and how it looked after two years of drought. A tour was born.

Fire ant control, Max Q fescue, stockpiling forages and winter feeding strategies will some of the items discussed on the Fire Ant and Forages field tour Friday morning September 29, 2006, at the Lone Oak Ranch starting at 9 am. The Lone Oak Ranch is located about 3 miles east of highway 78 on county road 622 between Farmersville and Blue Ridge, east of McKinney.

Experts from the Texas Cooperative Extension Service, Noble Foundation and the USDA-NRCS will be presenting and will be on hand to answer your questions.

There is no cost to attend the tour and refreshments will be furnished. For more information on this program, please call Texas Cooperative Extension’s Collin County office at (972) 548-4233 before Wednesday, September 27.

The Noble Foundation is offering an innovative program for those in Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties who are “new” to the business of agriculture. If you have cows, horses, goats, vegetable production, or native pasture restoration on your property; are located within our 100 mile service area and are interested in being a better manager and steward of your land, give us a call or visit our Web site for more information on the Suburban Ag program. Our services are free – which I think is the best part – and we are interested in helping you reach your land management goals through consultation and education.

That is all the time I have for today. If you have any questions about this field day or our suburban ag program, contact the Noble Foundation for more information. The Noble Foundation is located in Ardmore, Oklahoma, and provides free agriculture consultation within a 47 county service area – from Dallas to Wichita Falls to Paris, Texas, to Oklahoma City. If you are interested in working with us, call (580) 223-5810 or visit our Web site at www.noble.org.