Tuesday, January 1. 2008
News Update
It's going to be a slow news day. From the Dallas Star-Telegram:
Man uses tractor to crush cactus
By FRED AFFLERBACH
TEMPLE, Texas -- The prickly pear cactus has been a thorn in the cattleman's side since the Mexican vaqueros began pushing their stock across the Rio Grande well over two centuries ago.
This invasive species chokes out native grasses with its aggressive root system that spreads horizontally, sending up new shoots. It sucks up rainwater before the moisture can soak in, or run off and fill reservoirs needed for watering stock....
Ranchers have sprayed it with chemicals, scraped it with bulldozers, and in times of drought used it for cattle feed by burning the spines with propane torches.
Fast forward to the 21st century and meet the Kactus Krusher, aka Dave Gross, riding a red 1954 Farmall tractor pulling an odd-looking train of cutting and crushing implements pulverizing the cacti into green mush....
"It's not like traditional methods where you lose a lot of top soil," Ringler said. "He cuts them out at the roots and smushes them so they dry out."
By FRED AFFLERBACH
TEMPLE, Texas -- The prickly pear cactus has been a thorn in the cattleman's side since the Mexican vaqueros began pushing their stock across the Rio Grande well over two centuries ago.
This invasive species chokes out native grasses with its aggressive root system that spreads horizontally, sending up new shoots. It sucks up rainwater before the moisture can soak in, or run off and fill reservoirs needed for watering stock....
Ranchers have sprayed it with chemicals, scraped it with bulldozers, and in times of drought used it for cattle feed by burning the spines with propane torches.
Fast forward to the 21st century and meet the Kactus Krusher, aka Dave Gross, riding a red 1954 Farmall tractor pulling an odd-looking train of cutting and crushing implements pulverizing the cacti into green mush....
"It's not like traditional methods where you lose a lot of top soil," Ringler said. "He cuts them out at the roots and smushes them so they dry out."
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