AgriLife Extension sets Rancher Roundtable: Partners in Prescribed Burning Sept. 12-13 in San Angelo

The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service will conduct the Rancher Roundtable: Partners in Prescribed Burning on Sept. 12 to 13 at San Angelo.

Activities Sept. 12 take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Tom Green County 4-H Building, 3168 N. U.S. Highway 67 and on Sept. 13 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center north of San Angelo on U.S. Highway 87.

Morgan Treadwell, AgriLife Extension range specialist at San Angelo, said the program is 100 percent rancher oriented and rancher taught.

“This will be a fantastic opportunity for those landowners looking to learn more about prescribed burning,” Treadwell said. “Almost all the guest speakers will be local ranchers who have successfully incorporated prescribed burning into their ranch management plan to combat invasive brush and to maintain overall productivity and sustainability of their native rangeland forage.”

Individual registration is $75 for both days or $50 for one day. The fees include meals and a USB flash drive of the program’s proceedings.

The Texas Department of Agriculture Certified Insured Prescribed Burn Manager Exam will be available for those with the required 24 hours of training. To RSVP, contact Jaime Tankersley at 325-450-7025 or [email protected]. For more information, contact Treadwell at 325-657-7317 or [email protected].

Treadwell said the program will concentrate more on practice than theory as participants learn about technique, strategy, equipment and the elements of a good burn plan. Rancher testimony and liability discussions will also headline the agenda.

Participants will then team up with industry professionals to participate in a prescribed burn to be videoed by drone during the event.

“After the burn, we’ll review the drone footage and dissect the burn piece by piece with a Texas Department of Agriculture certified and insured commercial burn manager and discuss what was planned, what happened and what we can do differently next time,” she said. “Every burn is a learning experience, and watching and experiencing it firsthand with local ranchers and professionals is key to learning how to build a successful prescribed burn program on any ranch in West Texas.

“Done correctly, fire and grazing go hand in hand. This program will highlight that relationship and management style by learning from those who do it best.”