Search Results Within This Resource:

Arizona rancher Rich Collins has turned mandatory decrees to protect endangered species into a sustainable ranching plan that looks so good his once-angry neighbors are joining a coalition to collectively manage for healthy rangelands, better riparian habitat and improved livestock production. He did this by documenting the impacts of careful management while grazing his Forest […]

There’s nothing sexy about monitoring, but there’s probably no other single action that will keep rangelands healthier than checking vegetation. Measuring annual livestock use, documenting climatic and other potential impacts to the vegetation and watching the long-term trend in range health will do more to suggest management actions than any other use of a rancher’s […]

For most of the West’s livestock grazing history, riparian areas were considered sacrifice areas – dung piles deepened under shady conifers, livestock trampled the deep-rooted sedges that held streambanks in place, and willows provided scratching posts until the branches broke off. Today, range managers realize sacrificing riparian areas means potentially fouling clean water, increasing the […]

Timing, intensity and frequency: What do those terms mean and how, exactly, do you manage them? University of California-Davis researchers surveyed 300 successful ranchers as part of a SARE grant to learn real-world riparian management specifics. Here’s a list of the specific management techniques those producers use to take care of their riparian areas without […]

Grazing forage kochia and calving later in the season are just two examples of reducing feeding costs for livestock. In other places, producers feed protein supplements, augment with cheap grain such as wheat mids or use mineral supplements to increase livestock distribution in a pasture. Amanda Hancock works to find ways to extend fall grazing […]

Fall and winter grazing helps range plants by allowing them to rest during the growing season, and then be grazed while they are not trying to restock energy to leaves and roots. Livestock tend to graze more shrubs in the winter, so producers gain forage on shrubby rangelands, too. However, winter forage often will not […]

Severe salinity affects more than just Nebraska. In fact, much of the soil across the Plains and Great Basin tests above 7.8 pH, creating difficult conditions in which to establish most forage species. At the same time, winter feeding costs on Intermountain West rangelands can reach as high as 50 to 70 percent of the […]

When Nebraska producer Teri Edeal purchased a quarter section of irrigated bottom ground and applied for SARE funds to experiment with cool-season irrigated grass mixes, her neighbors were her biggest skeptics. After all, they reasoned, that piece of ground measured about 8.5 to 9 on the pH scale, way too saline for plants to grow. […]

Range plants – the grasses, forbs and shrubs that predominate on arid landscapes – have adapted to the seasonality of rainfall and temperatures. On warmer rangelands that typically receive summer rains – the Great Plains and the Southwest – the warm-season native plants mostly grow in July and August. In the Great Basin and along […]

Producer Profile: Steep Learning Curve Pays Off Fourth-generation Nevada rancher Agee Smith thought he knew the 35,000 acres that comprise his family’s ranch like the lines on his palm – until he attended a Holistic Management (HM)TM workshop in Elko. “That was a changing point in my life,” says the co-owner of Cottonwood Ranch. Smith’s […]