 Ryan Mitchell with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. Today I'm on a site in Monroe County, Alabama. It's hard to imagine 20 years ago we'd be standing in the middle of a newly planted cotton field and now we're standing in the middle of a longleaf pine plantation. When this site was taken out of cotton production it was planted in longleaf with the objective of raking pine straw. Pine straw is a valuable non-timbered forest product for many landowners. It provides an early return on your investment and quite a bit of money over the long run of a stand. Many longleaf stands can begin being raked for pine straw around age six to eight maybe ten years old and can be raked throughout their teenage years until first thinning. In areas where they do not have a extremely developed pine straw market you still may be able to rake after your first thinning. The first thing you should do when contemplating whether or not to plant longleaf on your old ag site is to test the soil. In addition to the macronutrients make sure to include the micronutrients as well. If you've applied any poultry fertilizer in the past it could cause a problem down the road. One of the issues we run into on old ag sites is pitch canker. Once a pitch canker gall develops this wood quality is lost from that point on. It's okay for pine straw but we get a big wind event the tree will snap off if it doesn't get burned up beforehand. When establishing longleaf on an old agriculture site it is important to check for a hard pan. Oftentimes you'll need to subsold or rip the site in order to fracture the hard pan and allow the longleaf seedlings to develop a better root system. Another practice recommended is scalping. Scalping peels back the top three to four inches of soil usually 30 to 40 inches wide which by the longleaf seedlings about a year's worth of reduced competition. Do not recommend planting an old ag site or an old field without scalping and ripping. Another important consideration when creating a pine straw contract is specifying who will clean up the site. Sticks and pine cones need to be removed from the areas that are going to rake. Just make sure they're not piled up at the base of our desirable trees. When these piles burn they're going to burn for a lot longer time and in turn will probably cause damage to our desirable trees. Also in the absence of fire woody species may invade the site such as this Chinese privet. It is an invasive herbicides are a great option but we need to specify which herbicides cannot be used in the stand. Some herbicides even when following label recommendations can damage mature longleaf trees. When raking pine straw the contractors are targeting the newest straw which is usually more red in color. After the straw has been on the ground for a year it turns a little gray and that is not desirable. Longleaf averages between 50 and 200 bales of straw per acre per year. It is important when creating a contract to specify are you selling the straw on a per acre basis or a per bale basis. Prices per bale are usually higher when sold on a per bale basis but it often leaves a little bit to be desired if you're an absentee landowner where you cannot get an accurate count on how many bales are being raked. Harvesting pine straw is a good opportunity for an alternative income source from your timberland. If you're interested in more information please check out the extension publication titled Harvesting Pine Straw for Profit. Questions landowners should ask themselves. A link is provided in the summary. Also if you have any ideas for additional video content or questions you want answered please post them in the comment section. Thanks! Have a great day!