October 28, 2011

New Sales Tax Exemption Registration for Agriculture and Timber Operators
Well over a year ago, Comptroller Susan Combs sat down with the agriculture industry to discuss a way to remove some of the fraud that takes place when people claim agriculture sales tax exemption when they are not entitled. Retail stores have to pay the State of Texas the sales tax dollars that are lost due to people who are cheating. After a couple of meetings last year, there was no common ground that the agriculture community could find, so the issue was dropped. TNLA and a few other agriculture representatives met with the Retail industry to revive the issue. Click here for details.

October 17, 2011 Attention growers: Your input is needed to evaluate the current Nursery Crop Insurance Program. A Texas nursery evaluation listening session on nursery crop insurance is scheduled to take place in Tyler, Texas on November 16, 2011. Click here for more details.

October 7, 2011 Proposed Constitutional Amendments for 2011- Vote

On November 8th, the proposed Constitutional Amendments will be voted on in Texas.  The following information from the Texas House of Representatives Research Organization gives both the pros and cons to each of the ten proposals in a bipartisan means.  Click here to read the HRO report. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Jim Reaves.

SFA Gardens Lecture Series to feature East Texas Nurseryman
September 6, 2011 - SFA Public Affairs

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The SFA Gardens at Stephen F. Austin State University will host the monthly Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, in the Agriculture Building, Room 110, at 1924 Wilson Dr. Third-generation East Texas nurseryman Aubrey King will present "Great Plants for Tough Times."

King is a graduate of Stephen F. Austin State University and took over the Tenaha retail establishment, King's Nursery, from his father.

The nursery was opened by Aubrey King's grandfather and has been serving customers from East Texas and Louisiana since 1915. Aubrey lives with his wife, Cheryl, in Tenaha. Cheryl and Aubrey's mother, Margaret Freeman, manage a floristry at the nursery. Aubrey is also a founding member of the popular gospel quartet, The Calvary Boys.

The Theresa and Les Reeves Garden Lecture Series is generally held the third Thursday of each month at the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture's SFA Mast Arboretum. Refreshments are served by the SFA Gardens volunteers before the lecture with a rare plant raffle being held afterward. The lecture is free and open to the public. Donations to the lecture series fund are always appreciated.

For more information, contact Greg Grant at (936) 468-1863 or grantdamon@sfasu.edu.

July 1, 2011  Hays County added to quarantine area list for the Formosan subterranean termite infestation

The Texas Department of Agriculture (the department) adopts on an emergency basis an amendment to <*>19.181, concerning a quarantine for the Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus read more...

Additional Resources:

  Formosan Termites

June 28, 2011  Find out the current Texas Water restrictions by county

Updated weekly. Lists all public water systems that had restrictions in place as of the end of the week. Links to a map showing the location of each system on the list. read more...

June 27, 2011  East Texas Horticultural Field Day

About 180 folks attend the Horticulture Field Day at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Overton. Folks were having a good time on an unusually “mild” cloudy morning, strolling down row upon row of replicated plots of the latest seed and cutting propagated bedding plants. It was a great opportunity to see what has not only survived but performed well in the premature hot temperatures and dry conditions that have assaulted us for the last several weeks. read more...

May 5, 2011 Landscape Survey

Researchers at Ball Landscape recently conducted a survey of 376 landscape contractors from across the United States in order to learn more about the landscape industry, landscapers’ thoughts on sustainability topics, and their relationships with growers. 

Download the 2010 Landscape Survey Results Now >>