Texas Primary Filing – Monday the 14th was the filing deadline for Texas’s primary elections. Candidates who failed to register by then will not be eligible to appear on the March 1st ballot. The election will decide party nominations for president, Congress, state legislature, and local office, and the races are shaping up to be contentious and unpredictable. There are 20 candidates registered to appear on the ballot for the presidential primary – 12 Republicans and 8 Democrats. Neither John Cornyn nor Ted Cruz’s Senate seats are up in 2016, but every Congressional House seat faces an election. All 36 of those seats will be contested, except for Joaquin Castro from District 20. There are also a host of state legislature elections to keep an eye on: Democratic Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer will again contest Senator Jose Menendez for his District 26 seat and Rep. Ruth McClendon’s District 120 seat will be open as she steps down after 20 years of service. Eight candidates will challenge for the open position on the state’s Railroad Commission as well. To see who is running for office in your county, follow this link to the Secretary of State’s website.
Ag/Timber Exemption Renewal Deadline Approaches – All ag/timber registration numbers are expiring on Dec. 31, 2015, regardless of when they were issued. Under state law, agricultural and timber producers can claim sales tax exemptions for some items they use to produce products for sale. If you haven’t already renewed your registration, you need to do so now if you want to keep it. To continue claiming the exemption, you can renew through the Comptrollers office, online or by mail. You can get detailed information on renewals by clicking here or by calling toll-free 1-844-AG RENEW (1-844-247-3639).
Insecticide Efficacy Tests – Danielle Sekula-Ortiz (IPM Agent) and Dr. Raul Villanueva (Extension Entomologist) of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Weslaco, recently published results from trials performed in summer and fall of 2015. Results are illustrated below.
Insecticide efficacy tests in Summer of 2015
Insecticide efficacy tests in Fall of 2015
*For both Fall efficacy trials the insecticide treatments were replicated 3 times randomly
