1 COAES Newsletter, March 2020

Spring must be here! The daffodils and fruit trees are blooming. Another sign that

spring is here is the upcoming FFA Contests held at Tarleton. Be sure to look at the

UPCOMING EVENTS listed on this page and see announcements throughout the

newsletter for those and other happenings. There is a lot going on.

Student activities dominate this month’s newsletter. Our students, staff, and faculty

are helping create and are taking part in events and activities for the Tarleton fami-

ly, the surrounding community, and the entire state. The events are diverse and rep-

resent the tremendous range of opportunities we offer. The solid set of programs of

service and education are a credit to COAES. Plus, we sure do seem to have a lot of

fun at the same time.

A big shout out to Michelle Damerau for a very successful COAES Networking

event. Students and faculty were able to interact with potential employers. The fo-

cus was on giving students the opportunity to develop networking skills, receive

feedback from potential employers, and become aware of career opportunities. The

strong support from employers and alumni made this event possible and also made

it a success.

If you know of a potential Tarleton student interested in the programs our college

has to offer, please let them know about our upcoming COAES Preview Day

(p.14). We are offering lunch and information, including Agriculture Center tours

so we can show off our incredible facilities. RSVP at judgingcard.com.

The Research Review portion of this newsletter is especially rich with undergradu-

ate and graduate student research presentations. Tarleton is committed to scholar-

ship that includes students at the center of the new

knowledge generation. We are proud that the COAES

faculty routinely provides opportunities for student-led

research and other scholarship.

I hope your spring is going as well as ours. Hold on to

your hats! The best is yet to come!

WSD DEAN’S CORNER

Upcoming Events

Please send newsletter submis-sions to COAES@tarleton.edu

●3/12-13 Spring Break, University

Offices Closed

●3/21 Texan Tour

●3/21 Farm to Fork trail & fun run

●3/21 Block & Bridle Goat Roping

●3/25 Dairy Club Clinic & Contest

●3/26 FFA Invitational CDE

●3/26 Service Day

●3/28 Tarleton Round Up

●4/7 TREAT Special Kids Rodeo

●4/10 Good Friday

●4/14 Giving Day

●4/15 FFA Area CDE

●4/18 Pursuit of Purple Steer Show

●4/18 Wild Game Dinner

●4/30 FFA State CDE

●5/1-6 Finals

●5/8-9 Spring Commencement

Ceremonies

●5/7 FFA National CDE

●5/25 Memorial Day, University Of-

fices Closed

●6/4 Wool Judging Clinic

●6/5 Livestock Judging Clinic

●6/23 Livestock Judging Clinic

●6/24 Wool Judging Clinic

●8/7-8 Summer Commencement

Ceremonies

Monthly Newsletter College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences

March 2020

2 COAES Newsletter, March 2020

COAES Networking Event

The College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences held their first Networking Event for current students on Feb-ruary 25th. The purpose of this event was to allow students the opportunity to meet with potential employers, develop networking skills, gain feedback on their resume and more.

We are looking forward to our next one! If you’re an employer and interested in participating, please email coaes@tarleton.edu!

3 COAES Newsletter, March 2020

Stock Horse Team members compete at NRCHA Celebration of Champions

Student Organizations

The Stock Horse Team earned the Championship title at the National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) Celebration of Champions Collegiate Invitational on February 22nd. Team members: Clay Kinnison – Reserve Champion Non-Pro Division, Emily Hamilton – 6th Limited Non-Pro Division and Shadee Tye – Champion Nov-ice Division. This is the first time in the past 4 years the team has competed in this event. They rode well and rep-resented Tarleton very well in a tough competition!

The College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences and Student Leadership Council participated in Tarleton’s inaugural WELLFest on February 24th. Students were offered fun activities and resources under eight different wellness dimensions. The COAES students represented “Environmental Wellness” and talked to others about recycling and environmental stewardship. They also gave out reusable straws to promote sustainability. Students helping out included Cody Carter, SaraBeth Boggan, Molly Koecke, Breanna Bowen, and Preston Cummings. Agricultural & Consumer Sciences Alumna Katie Lynn Armstrong was one of the features wellness speakers for the event.

4 COAES Newsletter, March 2020

Student Organizations

Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow hosting annual Farm to Fork trail and fun run Grab your sneakers and head out to Tarleton’s Agriculture Center for the Agricultur-al Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT) annual Farm to Fork, which is a student-hosted trail and fun run. This year’s event will take place on March 21. The race begins at 9 a.m., with check-in beginning at 7:30 a.m. ACT is a student organization that hosts the event each year. The purpose of the event is to showcase the college’s facilities, increase agricultural awareness, and offset the organization’s expenses for the year. To enter the Farm to Fork trail or fun run, visit https://www.runraceday.com/registration. All entries received by March 10 will be guaranteed a race shirt featuring this year’s new logo.

Follow the organization on Facebook – Tarleton Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow.

Pursuit of Purple is coming The second annual Pursuit of Purple will take place on April 18. The prospect steer show will be held at the Lone Star Arena in Stephenville. Early check-in be-gins on April 17 and the full-fit show will take place on April 18. The Pursuit of Purple is part of several courses designed to give students real-world experience in planning, promotion, and implementation of agricultural events. Students are tasked with the entire event that includes sponsorships, pho-tography, livestreaming, judge selection and more. Many of the prospect steers at last year’s event went on to win their classes and the entire show at Fort Worth and San Antonio. Check out the Pursuit of Purple on Facebook for more information.

5 COAES Newsletter, March 2020

Student Opportunities

Texas Agribusiness Study Tours Approaching 25 Years … By Dr. Ashley Lovell

This year, we are on the road to Fredericksburg, Fort Worth and points along the way, May 11-15, 2020. For planning, we need to know who will be going on the Tour this year. We already have a number of students but have some availble seats on the vans.

May Mini Session Classes

AGEC 4086 & AGEC 5333

To enroll, you must attend one of these meetings! Organizational Meetings in Autry Room 110

Monday, March 2 @ 11:00 and 12:05 Tuesday, March 3 @ 12:00 and 1:20

Wednesday, March 4 @ 10:00 and 12:00

Juniors, seniors, and graduate students are encouraged to participate. This is a May mini-session

class offered as a summer class. Undergrads receive 3 hours of credit through AGEC 4086 and

graduate students receive 3 hours in AGEC 5333. Contact Dr. Ashley Lovell for additional infor-

mation at lovell@tarleton.edu or 254-968-1984.

6 COAES Newsletter, March 2020

Student Organizations

The COAES Student Leadership Council attended an etiquette dinner on February 19th, hosted by Career Services. The students learned about group social etiquette, formal dining etiquette, and several other tips to make their next interview or business dinner successful. Those attending were Dr. Jolena Waddell, Preston Cummings, Ryla Beam, Elizabeth Brogan, Grace Franke, Molly Koecke, SaraBeth Boggan, and Dr. Steve Damron. Thank you Alana Hefner, Director of Ca-reer Services, for this opportunity!

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) held their annual convention in San Antonio on February 4-8, 2020. Approximately 10,000 beef cattle industry professionals from all over the world gathered at the Henry B. Gonzales Con-vention Center, San Antonio, Texas. The Tarleton State Block and Bridle member attendees networked with numerous professionals in the industry. Dr. Runyan (Assistant Professor, Block & Bridle Advisor) and Dr. Owsley (Department Head) also made connections with alumni, and beef cattle professionals to enhance experiential learning opportunities for our students.

7 COAES Newsletter, March 2020

Student Organizations

8 COAES Newsletter, March 2020

Student Organizations

Texas Chapter of the Wildlife Society Annual Meeting By Sarah Wilson and SaraBeth Boggan This year, twenty Wildlife, Sustainability, & Ecosystem Sciences undergraduate and graduate students, along with Drs. Schwertner, Murray, Kafley, and Mathewson, attended the 56th annual meeting of the Texas Chapter of the Wildlife Socie-ty in Corpus Christi, TX. The Wildlife Society is the professional organization of wildlife biologists and the Texas Chapter is the largest of the regional subunits with over 600 attendees from all over the state. We kicked off the conference with students Elizabeth Brogan, Caitlyn Elliott, Jamileth Gonzalez, Josef Leachman, Jennifer Mathews, Avery Smith, and Sarah Wilson competing in the Plant Identification competi-tion led by team captain, Molly Koeck. Following the Plant ID compe-tition, Avery Smith, Hope Schoonmaker, and Molly Koeck competed in the Wildlife Quiz Bowl competition, led by team captain, SaraBeth Boggan; where the team made it to the semi-finals. Undergraduate students SaraBeth Boggan, Elizabeth Brogan, Colton Campbell, Cody Carter, Brandon Consalus, and Molly Koeck presented their research projects during the evening poster session (see next page). Elizabeth Brogan was awarded 3rd place overall for her poster presentation. Graduate students Kathryn Burton, Jordan Craven, Su-sana Husbands, and Ritika Prasai gave poster presentations and John Palarski and Marissa Pensirikul give oral presentations over their grad-uate research projects. Dr. Darrel Murray and his coauthors presented their research on native plant diversity. Elizabeth Brogan was awarded the Tarleton Outstanding Student award; an award bestowed by the Tarleton Student Chap-ter of The Wildlife Society on a member who has shown dedication towards the society over the last year. She also was awarded the Carl D. Shoemaker Memorial Scholarship for undergraduate students in wildlife science. Students also attended various workshops including the Texas Big Game Award Boone and Crockett certification course where students became certificated to age various game species based on the Boone and Crockett scale. Several students assisted Dr. Heather Mathewson during her workshop on R Programming Language for the statistical analysis of natural resource data, where she is recognized as an expert in the analysis of ecological data.

Kathryn Burton, Dr. Mathewson, and students from another university held the first meeting for the Student Subcommittee of the Conservation Affairs Commit-tee. Along with professionals from other universities and agencies, and students from universities across Texas, they discussed how students could become more involved in conservation-based policies. Kathryn also is a founder of the National Student Advocates for Natural Resource Legislation, a subcommittee with The Wildlife Society. All the students also helped the society by volunteering their time to help with registration, the raffle, the photo and art competition, Dr. Mathewson’s Student Affairs committee, and they stepped up to help the President of the chapter with various tasks as needed. Each year Tarleton wildlife students look forward to this meeting. They thank the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences and the Office of Research and Innovation for support to attend the conference.

Continue to next page.

9 COAES Newsletter, March 2020

Research projects presented during the Texas Chapter of the Wildlife Society annu-al meeting:

Undergraduate Research Presentations SaraBeth Boggan, H. Mathewson, K. Herrmann, and D. Beard. Comprehensive

study of parasites of the Texas state bison heard. Elizabeth Brogan, J. Palarski, H. Mathewson, B. W. Kubecka, and D. Rollins. Short

-term movements of translocated northern bobwhite in central Texas. Colton Campbell and J. Breeden. The effects of feeder density on white-tailed deer

dominance hierarchies. Cody Carter, H. A. Mathewson, D. Wilcox, and D. Beard. Recreationist effect on

bison movement at a state park. Brandon Consalus, J. Palarski, and H. A. Mathewson. Mesopredator abundance in

relation to Northern bobwhite mortality density and nest sites. Molly Koeck, M., A. Mitchell, D. Beard, and H. A. Mathewson. Grazing effects of

bison on native plant and insect diversity.

Graduate Research Presentations Kathryn Burton, H. A. Mathewson, and D. Murray. Monitoring wildlife communities within riparian areas. Jordan Craven, H. Kafley, H. A. Mathewson, D. Murray, and K. Taylor. Predictive mapping of two potentially listed rare plant species in Texas. Susanna Husbands and J. Breeden. The effects of social behavior on supplemental

feed use by free-ranging white-tailed deer in Central Texas. John Palarski, H. Mathewson, B. W. Kubecka, D. Rollins, and T. W. Schwertner. Translocation of Northern Bobwhite in Central Texas. Marissa Pensirikul, H. Kafley, D. Murray, H. Mathewson, and K. Taylor. Predictive mapping of potentially listed rare plant species. Ritika Prasai, H. Kafley, and H. A. Mathewson. Land use and land cover classification with change detection analysis of Chitwan National Park, Ne-

pal using remote sensing and GIS.

Faculty Presentation Darrel Murray, J. Muir, M. S. Miller, and D. R. Erxleben. Effective management practices for increasing native plant diversity on mesquite savanna-Texas winter grass dominated rangelands.

Research Review

Clinical Teachers

During this spring semester, twenty-nine Clinical Teach-ers spent their first weeks in

Agriculture Science Class-rooms across the state of Texas!

10 COAES Newsletter, March 2020

Research Review

The department of Agricultural & Consumer Sciences has a very successful conference at the Southern Region of the American Association for Agricultural Education in Feb-ruary! Both students and faculty were awarded for their efforts! Wacey Newman, Ma-kayla Arthur, Peyton Thomas, and Dr. Brant Poe presented their innovative poster presentations with Peyton Thomas and co-author’s poster receiving the Outstanding Innovative Idea Poster award for this conference, presenting An Innovative Assess-ment of Emotional Intelligence in Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agents.

Drs. Brant Poe and Chris Haynes had their innovative and research posters selected to appear in "Owl Pellets" a forum for practical application of teaching methods and ideas for agricultural educators across the United States.

Dr. A. Brant Poe, Dr. J. Chris Haynes, Dr. D. Frazier, Dr. Chandra Andrew. Dishing up Agriculture: A Unique Approach to Strengthening Agricultural Literacy J. Chris Haynes, Jacob Manlove, David Frazier, Chandra Andrew, Wayne Atchley. Effectiveness of Brainwrit ing as an Alternative to Idea Generation in Agricultural Education,

Dr. J. Chris Haynes was selected to serve on the Professional development committee for the Southern Region AAAE conference, and was additionally elected to serve a three-year term on the Journal of Agricultural Education editing - managing board.

These students and faculty represented the core values and principles of Tarleton State University.

Agribusiness at the Southern Agricultural Economics Association Students from the Agribusiness program recently attended the Southern Associa-tion of Agricultural Economics (SAEA) Annual Meeting in Louisville, KY in February. For the first time in program history, Tarleton was represented by a team of students in the academic quiz bowl competition. The team consisted of Timothy Griffin, Shelton Yates, Andrew Fuller, and Gracie Martin. Each student was paired with students from other programs across the country to compete. Our students represented us well with each team winning at least two rounds and one placing third out of over 40 teams. The team was coached by Dr. Jacob Man-love.

In addition to the quiz bowl participants, two students presented oral presentations at the conference. Glenn Conover, the only undergraduate accepted to present at the conference, presented research he completed with Dr. Manlove over the “Economic Contribution of Agri-culture to Texas GDP.” Jared Netardus, Agribusiness masters student, presented research titled “Impact of Climate Change on No-Till Winter Wheat in Texas.” Glenn Conover, Agribusiness Senior

Left to Right: Top row -Glenn Conover, Timo-

thy Griffin, Shelton Yates, Jared Netardus, Dr. Jacob Manlove; Bottom row – Gretchen Sin-

gleton, Gracie Martin

Timothy Griffin competing in the semi

-finals of the quiz bowl competition

11 COAES Newsletter, March 2020

At the Ag Center

Aquaponics and Turfgrass Field Lab

Trey Rodriguez has invented a prawn enclosure, so prawns can clean the bottom of the rafts where the lettuce growths, but the prawn will not be able to eat the lettuce roots.

Neesa Johnson and Anna Hatcher are placing prawns in their new enclosure.

Tommy Johnson is learning to measure, cut, and solvent weld PVC pipe, so the efficiency of the swirl filter can be improved.

Students are inventing ways to keep thrips off of the lettuce since no pesticides are applied to the aquapon-ics lettuce.

Austin Wildman is improving the rain wa-ter harvesting system on the Hydrotron.

Ronnie Williams, Adam Dailey, and Kanyan Klein built the air diffuser for the composting fish feces barrel.

Paige Lionburger is changing the light bulb in the bug zapper which runs only at night, so we can control the cabbage worms by attracting its moth to the zapper.

Parker Benavides and Eli Chavez add iron to the spray tank to make the tall fescue a darker green rather than using nitrogen.

Cole Summers is physically measuring the gallons of water applied to a known area which is a way to calibrate a sprayer with a lawn gun.

12 COAES Newsletter, March 2020

In the Classroom

Mary Ate A Little Lamb results Dr. David Roper Thank you to those that participated in our “Mary Ate a Little Lamb” event on February 19th. I hope you enjoyed the recipes and interaction with the students. I am pleased with their efforts and creativity in dishes offered. Along with the project this year, I added in a little competition. Tasters could rank each group based on three categories; Best Promoted Product, People’s Choice, Overall Score. The results are listed below. Overall Score (had a tie but broke on flavor category) Group 3 - carne guisada People's Choice Group 2 - Cajun leg of lamb Best promoted product Group 6 - egg rolls

13 COAES Newsletter, March 2020

Service Day 2020

COAES Service Day Projects

March 26, 2020

Aquaponics and Advanced Meal Management

Ag Sales FFA Invitational Contest

Dairy Cattle FFA Invitational Contest

Entomology FFA Invitational Contest

Environmental and Natural Resources

Farm Business Management FFA Invitational Contest

Floriculture FFA Invitational Contest

Homesite Evaluation FFA Invitational Contest

Horse FFA Invitational Contest

Land FFA Invitational Contest

Livestock FFA Invitational Contest

Marketing Plan FFA Invitational Contest

Meats FFA Invitational Contest

Milk Quality & Products FFA Invitational Contest

Nursery Landscape FFA Invitational Contest

Poultry FFA Invitational Contest

Range FFA Invitational Contest

Veterinary Science FFA Invitational Contest

Wildlife FFA Invitational Contest

Wool FFA Invitational Contest

Sign up for COAES Service Day projects

To volunteer for Area, State and National FFA contests, stop by Ag 105

Learn about other Tarleton Service Week

14 COAES Newsletter, March 2020

Community Outreach

Touring the Southwest Regional Dairy Center

The Maine Dairy and Nutrition Council toured the Southwest Regional Dairy Center in February. The executive director and communications manager were on hand to learn more about the Texas dairy industry!

Interested in taking a tour of the Southwest Regional Dairy Center, call 254-968-1837

The Department of Agricultural & Consumer Sciences’ Dr. Ted Ford, Mrs. Michelle Damerau and graduate student Gage Taylor served as Head and Assistant Superinten-dents for the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo Agriculture Science Fair. Photos courtesy of judgindcard.com

To attend this event, please register at JudgingCard.com

15 COAES Newsletter, March 2020

Follow The College of Agricultural Environmental Sciences

On the Home Front

Are you Alumni of the college? Join the COAES Alumni Group on Facebook

Dr. Barb Jones had two nephews born within a week of each other in January!

Kade Wadsworth Baldwin was born on January 15th (he is my sister’s second son)

Hudson Beam McMullan was born on January 23rd (he is my husband’s niece’s first son)

Would you like to receive our newsletter directly? Email COAES@tarleton.edu

Dr. David Roper’s

sons Ty, Kase, &

Lane, have had a

busy stock show

season so far!

Hudson

Lane

Kade

Ty

Kase