Texas A&M AgriLife Organic

09/07/2026

Last Thursday (9/3) we had a great Organic Variety Production Tour as a part of the SARE Producer Grant that Seth Fortenberry is leading. I am helping Seth with outreach and this tour gave us a chance to highlight the efforts. Everyone (32 attended) was welcomed at New Deal Grain in New Deal. A big thanks to Peter for helping with organization and welcoming everyone. Seth is pictured with the corn production section and is seen next to the poster. A big thanks to Andrew Sellers and Dr. Wenwei Xu for demonstrating how corn hybrids are crossed. Andrew did a great job explaining the breeding in the field we toured. Dr. Waltram Ravelombola spoke about his specialty crop breeding program that includes both guar and cowpea. The group was especially interested in the new cowpea varieties Waltram has developed for organic pea production. Dr. Bill Rooney, is our State Sorghum Breeder and he talked about organic hybrid sorghum production for both forage, grain and even human health. Varieties in the field displayed all three types and they were all grown under organic conditions. Now if we could just get that rain we need!

08/27/2026

We have an interesting Organic Variety Production Tour coming up next week on Thursday, Sept. 3rd starting at New Deal Grain just north of Lubbock. We would love to see you there! Registration is 9:30 am. Tour starts at 10 am. No cost, just good crops and information. Program and meal is free!

New Deal, Texas | Registration begins at 9:30 a.m. | No registration fee One of the continuing challenges for organic crop producers is finding seed varieties developed for the conditions in which …

08/07/2026

Lots of fun and educational organic tours in August and September! Great speakers too.... Check out the subjects and dates in the August 2026 Organic News: https://tinyurl.com/4rfmvxz3

07/16/2026

Corn Ear Rots have been a problem for corn growers in Central and South Texas. My corn growing son-in-law, Brant Hajda, has not been happy in the Granger Texas area! We have a multilocation test with one site in Taylor (just South of Granger) and have seen some impressive results from our breeding efforts led by Dr. Xu, TAMU AgriLife Research Corn Breeder! Check it out.

Sometimes two ears of corn can tell an important plant-breeding story. Ears from the 2026 Taylor, Texas, corn hybrid trial. TAMZ107 (top) remained free of visible ear-rot symptoms, while an unnamed…

07/04/2026

If you are in Central Market pick up Kate’s Berry Best organic blueberries! Texas organic at its finest and so sweet you can’t stop eating….

07/02/2026

This is just one of the articles in the July 2026 issue of Texas Organic News hot off the press! Click here to check it out: https://tinyurl.com/4mkwf9ka

06/29/2026

Sunn H**p is one of my favorite cover crops. Already this organic plot at the Stephenville Research Center is up to my elbow and still growing. A stopped-up seed tube means lots of w**dy grasses where there is no Sunn H**p but in the regular rows the Sunn H**p is keeping w**ds suppressed or never emerged! Organic farmers - Sunn H**p does not produce viable seed in Texas to become a w**d either!

06/19/2026

Cotton Planting: you get a rain just after planting that is perfect. You have warm, humid, mostly cloudy weather to get the cotton germinated. Then you get 101 temperatures and hot sunshine to bake the soil. Cotton is strong but maybe not that strong! You start to get something hooked up to break that crust when a good rain comes to help out! What could go wrong - just look at those w**ds in the picture and we are still days away from running finger w**ders and sweeps? Oh well, life for organic farmers! CA4019 Cotton Increase is underway.......

06/18/2026

Chad King is a super organic farmer near Sudan, Texas who planted 3 of the new TAMZ corn hybrids developed by Wenwei Xu, TAMU Corn Breeder. These are in a side-by-side trial with Chad's field variety. On the left is the TAMZ 101 and the right is the field variety under heat and water stress. Dr. Xu developed these corn varieties under Texas conditions and they do well as grain or silage and can certainly handle the heat!

05/28/2026

The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) is the primary certification used to verify organic cotton as it moves from the farm through the gin and into textile markets. While USDA organic certification covers production, GOTS governs how that cotton is handled, processed, and sold as organic in the textile supply chain.

The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) is the primary certification used to verify organic cotton as it moves from the farm through the gin and into textile markets. While USDA organic certific…