N RANCHING
atural Resources
Anne Anderson and her friend Avery survey an area once covered in prickly pear, now restored to grass. It was hand-sprayed in 2010, and one rain in 2012 produced the grass response.
Prime Target: Prickly Pear The Andersons are surviving the drought and improving the resource
W
HEN ANNE AND JIM ANDERSON TRADED A SOUTHEAST Texas ranch for their Rain Creek Ranch near Menard on the western edge of the
Hill Country, they had a vision in mind. And, in 2009, it defi nitely took vision. “Prickly pear and mesquite hadn’t been addressed
in 20 years,” says Anne, who manages the business. “Shin oak was the No. 1 protein source on the ranch. “Our plan was to have a ranch to raise cattle and
for hunting for family and friends. We’re hoping to run 300 cows eventually,” she says. The path of turning vision into reality took a detour
in the drought, but that’s getting ahead of the story. The Andersons started brush work immediately and
Anne hired a wildlife biologist to help plan a mosaic of brush and open areas that would benefi t both cattle and wildlife. They hand-sprayed small mesquite and used a skid-
steer loader to grub out bigger ones. Prickly pear soon became the primary target, however. Some pastures had 50 percent pear cover and, in places, 85 percent. “It was awful,” Anne says. “We couldn’t get to the mesquite in some places because the pear was so thick.”
tscra.org
Hand-spraying prickly pear They considered aerial application in late winter,
when the shin oaks were leafl ess and live oaks healthy and dormant, but they still worried about hurting the trees. And there were other species they wanted to keep safe. “We decided to go with individual plant treatment so we would just kill the target species,” Anne says. For hand-spraying prickly pear, the Andersons opted
for a labeled mix of 2 percent Surmount® herbicide in water. Surfactant and dye went into the mix at 0.5 percent each. For prickly pear, that herbicide rate is higher than
the recommended mix of 1 percent Surmount. But in the big picture, herbicide was cheaper than labor, Anne reasoned. “Labor is so expensive, we didn’t want to have to do it twice,” she says. To apply the mix, they equipped a pickup truck
with 2 150-gallon tanks, pumps and hoses. The hoses allowed them to work 30 feet from either side of the pickup. They tried to cover both sides of the prickly pear pads. Someone on the ranch sprayed prickly pear every
November 2014 The Cattleman 59
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