McLennan County, Agriculture - Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service

Private Applicator Training at our office on July 15, 8 am to noon. Call 254.757.5180 to rsvp.

There is alot of information available on the Texas Small Grain Variety Trial page. I included the Hard Red Winter Wheat Uniform Variety Trial that was at the McGregor Research Center on this post. Producers are encouraged to look at multiple years of production when making decisions on what variety to plant.

https://varietytesting.tamu.edu/smallgrains/

Future CEU Opportunities

Tuesday July 21, Summer Beef program - Groesbeck Sale Barn. (1 IPM and 1 Gen)

Thursday Aug 27, McLennan County Hay Show - Timber Crest Baptist (1 Gen)

Tuesday Sept 8, Turf Conference - Hewitt VFW (5 Ag or 5 Structural)

Monday Oct 26, Multi County CEU Program - Pridgeon Community Center, Franklin, (7 hours)

Thursday December 10, District 8 Mass CEU program - McLennan County Office, (8 hours)

2026 McLennan County Hay Show

We will be accepting forage samples at partnering feed stores and our office. Producers will complete paperwork for each sample and pay the testing fee which enters your sample into our county hay show (August 27th).
We will be accepting forage samples for nutritive value testing at
- McLennan County Extension Office-Waco,
- Watson Feed-Mart,
- Buzbee Feed-Waco,
- McGregor General Store-McGregor,
- Brazos Feed-Waco,
- Miller Hay and Feed-Elm Mott,
- West Feeds-West,
- China Spring Store-China Spring
- Bar None Ag-Speegleville

Accepting samples July 6 through July 24. Samples should not be taken from the outer 4 to 6 inches of round bales. Samples from square bales should come out of the middle of the bale. Most producers place a flake in a feed sack.

Write name, ID, and type of grass sampled on the sack (Bahia, Coastal, Tifton, Jiggs, Ryegrass, etc).
Example: “John Smith, South Pasture, Coastal”
There will be a charge of:
- $5.00 for NIR samples (Bermudagrass, Bluestems, Bahia, Legumes)
- and $15.00 for P-ADF (haygrazer, ryegrass, etc).

Hay samples and checks, made payable to Ag Program Account must be left with the sample and paperwork at the drop off location of your choosing. The hay show is open to McLennan County only.

Extension office staff will deliver your samples to the testing lab. Individual sample results will be returned to the Extension office and then distributed. We will mail all individual results to the persons sending in samples as soon as we get the results from the LAB.

The 2026 Hay Show will be August 27th at the Timber Crest Baptist Church, 1625 Crow Dr, Waco Tx. with registration at 5:30 pm and meal at 6 pm. Hay show speaker will be James Jackson, Range and Pasture Development-Alligare.

At the hay show we will recognized “Best of Show” for each category as follows: Bermudagrass, C-4 Perennial (Switchgrass, Big bluestem and Indiangrass, Bahiagrass and Dallisgrass) and C-3 Grass (wheat, oats, rye, barley, triticale, and annual ryegrass) and Legume.

We will be offering 1 General CEU to be applied toward a pesticide applicator license and offer a BBQ meal. For questions call the Extension Office (254)757-5180.

Great weather for the West Side Turn Row Meeting

Thank you to our speakers: Dr Ronnie Schnell, Dr Jason Johnson, Tyler Mays, Justin Hale AND our sponsors WRI Tractors, Ag Southwest, Lynch Ag and AgTrust.

Topics were: Growing Season Crop Update, Ag Commodity Market Update, Crop Scouting Report (Insect and Disease, including Pasture Mealy Bugs), and Utilizing Drones in Agriculture Operations. The drone demonstration was very good! Thanks to all that came out!

Breakfast provided by AgTrust Farm Credit and Lunch by Bubs BBQ and Burgers. Special appreciation to our host, the Mark Wiethorn family.

West Side Turn Row meeting this morning. Meeting in field

Forage producers in our county need to be aware and scout your fields for Pasture Mealy Bug.

The Pasture Mealybug: A New Invasive Pest of Pastures and Hayfields in Texas - Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service The pasture mealybug is a newly recorded insect in the US whose feeding and excretions destroy productive grazing land

Back in 2014 we had a new pest in our area, the Crape Myrtle Bark Scale. Now, it is a common call I receive at the office. Below is a publication that provides information on identification, management and control of this pest.

agrilifeextension.tamu.edu

For immediate release:

Since April 2025, southern Texas pasture and hay producers have been fighting the pasture mealy bug. The Department of Entomology and the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service have been working diligently to identify this new pest and to work towards solutions for landowners. This insect will decimate a hayfield. It has been confirmed in Bosque, Falls and Robertson Counties.

I am going to look at two field in McLennan County this week for possible identification. There is so much we do not know about this insect. Dr. David Kerns is working on what insecticides work, what doesn’t work, etc. This is an emerging threat you need to pay attention too. Please click on the link below for more information.

Picture: Extension Specialist and Associate Department Head for the Department of Entomology at Texas A&M University, David Kerns, Ph.D. leads a team of students searching for pasture mealybugs on Thursday, May 14, 2026 in College Station, Texas. (Hannah Harrison/Texas A&M AgriLife)
Images and additional details about the Pasture Mealybug can be found in the following publication:

https://foragefax.tamu.edu/files/2026/06/Pasture-Mealybug-ENTO-PU-248.pdf