Writer: Steve Byrns, 325-653-4576, s-byrns@tamu.edu

Contact: Dr. Dale Rollins, 325-653-4576, d-rollins@tamu.edu



ROBY – The Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch will conduct its 6th annual field day from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. Sept. 27 at the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch near Roby.

“Best Management Practices for Quail” is the theme.

Individual preregistration is $10 until Sept. 20 and $20 thereafter. Student preregistration is $5. The fees include lunch, refreshments and field day abstracts. For more information or to preregister contact Dr. Dale Rollins, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service wildlife specialist and Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch director, San Angelo at 325-653-4576 or e-mail d-rollins@tamu.edu .

“The quail situation looks better this year than any year since 2007,” Rollins said. ”With the adoption of good management practices, hopefully we can capture this momentum and get back to huntable levels across west Texas.”

Rollins said the program, which will be moved to Roby in case of rain, will include talks on Bermuda grass renovation for bobwhites, enhancing useable space for bobwhites on post-Conservation Reserve Program contract lands, establishing “brood patches” and “quail oases,” use of “camera trapping” in quail management, sculpting prickly pear habitats for bobwhites and shrub mortality response to prickly pear herbicides.

Other subjects to be addressed include translocation of scaled or “blue” quail into former ranges, key plants for quail, “shale and quail”-considerations in a pending oil boom, and updates on “Operation Idiopathic Decline” and “Operation Transfusion” research efforts.

The field day is a collaborative effort among AgriLife Extension, the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Park Cities Quail and AgriLife Extension’s Quail Initiative.

Two Texas Department of Agriculture continuing education units will be available for those with a valid private applicator’s license.

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