The LTAR Cropland Common Experiment at the Texas Gulf.

Texas Gulf is one of the 18 regional sites that is part of the USDA-ARS Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) Network and focuses on cropland and integrated grazing land research in Central Texas, addressing challenges posed by soil characteristics, climate variability, and urbanization. This paper provides brief site descriptions of the two Cropland Common Experiments being conducted in the Texas Gulf LTAR region, emphasizing conservation tillage practices and precision agriculture techniques. The plot-scale study is located in Temple, TX, at the USDA-ARS Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory and examines conventional tillage, strip tillage, and no tillage practices. The field-scale study, located in Riesel, TX, at the USDA-ARS Riesel Watersheds, assesses the impact of no tillage, cover crops, fertility management, adaptive management, and precision conservation on crop yield, profitability, and environmental footprint. Key measurements include soil and plant analyses, greenhouse gas fluxes, runoff water quantity and quality, and field operations recorded with precision agriculture equipment. Despite challenges posed by urban encroachment, future research aims to incorporate new technologies, such as unmanned ground vehicles, to enhance sustainability and productivity of the agricultural landscape. These experiments provide valuable insights for stakeholders, contributing to the development of sustainable agricultural practices tailored to the unique challenges within the Texas Gulf LTAR region.

The LTAR-integrated grazing land common experiment at the Texas Gulf.

Extreme weather and climate events have become more frequent and directly affect the ecological structure and function of integrated grazing lands. While the Great Plains have experienced a long history of regular disturbances from drought and floods, grazing, and fires, the increased frequency and magnitude of these disturbances can reduce ecological resilience, largely depending on management practices. Alternative strategies designed to adaptively manage grazing land resources based on the ecology of the system should increase the resistance and resilience to disturbances when compared to prevailing practices. Determining the ecologic and economic value of alternative strategies will require long-term evaluations across large spatial scales. The Long-Term Agroecosystem Research Network has been established to evaluate the differences between alternative and prevailing practices among 18 strategically located sites and across decadal time scales throughout the continental United States. A key integrated grazing land site within this network is the Texas Gulf located at the Riesel Watersheds in the Blackland Prairie of Central Texas. At this study site, the differences between alternative and prevailing grazing management strategies are now being evaluated. The alternative strategy was designed using a combination of knowledge of the site and species ecology with modern-day tools and technologies. Alternatively, the prevailing practice implements a conventional year-round continuous grazing system with heavy reliance on hay and supplemental protein during winter. Results will provide grazing land managers with economically viable adaptive management choices for increasing ecological resilience following extreme and frequent disturbance events.