N RANCHING


atural Resources


Brothers Tommy and Gary Antilley have been hands-on managers of mesquite on the family ranch for 60 years.


Family Legacy Continues in Management of Mesquite


B


ROTHERS TOMMY AND GARY ANTILLEY EASILY RECALL their early experience in mesquite control. It’s part of a 70-year family legacy of ranch con-


servation. Their father, Frank K. Antilley, dispatched them


and his hired hand with a Willys jeep and a 55-gallon drum of “coal oil” to basal-treat any brush he saw. “He’d say, ‘There are 3 over there — go get them,’”


Gary chuckles. They went through barrels of basal solution that way. Frank K. and his father, Frank H. Antilley, put


together the family’s 3,800-acre ranch from 14 small farms near Wingate in the early 1940s. Both cropland and rangeland had been overused and abused. But Frank K. proved himself an adept, committed conser- vationist, even being named the state’s “Outstanding Conservation Rancher” in 1965. He stabilized eroding farmland and built a series


of terraces, spreader dams and fl ood control structures to hold water on the ranch. He mechanically cleared brushy rangeland and reseeded it with native grasses. He also established native grasses on the barren farm-


42 The Cattleman July 2014


land. He developed water sources and cross-fenced pastures to manage grazing. When brush came back, family members worked diligently to control it.


Family keeps up conservation Eventually, the Antilley brothers left home for Texas


A&M University and careers as county Extension agents. Their sister, Cindy Cathey, went to McMurry University and is now retired from a long teaching career. Frank K. died in 2004, but the family partnership — Tommy, Gary, Cindy and their mother Marianne — continues to operate the ranch, steward the land and manage the brush. The brothers, now retired from Extension, don’t


basal spray mesquite anymore. But they use about ev- ery other method of brush control — hand-spraying leaves, mechanical grubbing and aerial broadcast. Most recently, they tried aerial application with the newest mesquite killer, Sendero® herbicide. They control the brush for the same reasons their


father did. thecattlemanmagazine.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108