Rangeland Management
Post by Clemson Montana Summer Program student Allison Melcher
The world of farming and ranching is more complex than most people realize, especially here in the West where ranchers are in charge of thousands of acres and hundreds of cattle. It’s a business that many people aren’t cut out for, a place where one needs to be able to both think critically about the many issues that can arise on any given day and also be willing to work out in the field for long hours in the hot sun in order to solve those issues. While it’s easy for the general public to look down on ranching for it’s lack of flash or grandeur, or to write it off as something that is as simple as just feeding and watering animals, there is a lot that goes into a successful ranching operation. Some of the smartest, hardest working people I know are farmers and ranchers, and after learning and seeing first hand the many facets of this industry, it is not difficult to realize why. Because to survive in this environment, to thrive, means assuming many different roles, it means adjusting and reacting to what is given to you, the aspects of which can change on any given day.
A poorly managed ranching operation gives way to a variety of problems. Overgrazing damages grass roots, which can reduce the ability of the grass to rebound after grazing, lowering the protein content and the overall forage availability of a pasture. It can also lead to problems like erosion, which in turn can damage or pollute waterways, not to mention runoff from animals if not properly taken care of can be a major source of pollution for nearby waterways. But besides the environmental issues that can be derived from farms and ranches, it also isn’t in the best interest of the rancher to have a poorly managed system simply because it reduces profit. Managing in such a way that produces an optimal utilization of the land is important because it leads to healthier rangelands, which leads to healthier and more profitable animals. In order to correctly implement this, a general understanding of both how rangeland works and how the grazing animals behave is crucial, because cattle, goats and sheep all behave differently, each targets a specific kind of forage, and each digests that forage slightly differently. In this part of the country, cattle are the dominant livestock. As you drive down the road, looking out the window you see rolling pastures of lush grass with countless dots of black and red cows scattered throughout, grazing and chewing their cud.
Cows, though at odds with people who have concerns about their ability to work with native forage in a way that promotes the health of the rangeland, are an important part of the American lifestyle. Each year, the United States eats an incredible quantity of meat on average, second only to Australia, with a good portion of that meat consumption coming from beef. Dairy products, also, are an exceedingly important part of the American diet. Because of this, cattle are an integral and permanent part of the social, economic, and environmental climate not just in the West, but throughout the United States. But promoting the best quality meat and dairy products while simultaneously maximizing profits and maintaining the grasslands is a steep job, and so it is crucial for ranchers to formulate effective management plans, which oftentimes includes delegating particular jobs to people who specialize in certain fields.
One of the most important aspect of managing a livestock operation is animal nutrition. On rangelands, the nutrition that cattle are getting is almost exclusively from grasses, with some supplementation that can be made available in the form of silage, hay, grain, or a number of other things. The main goal of any nutrition or grazing management plan is to increase the protein content that cattle are consuming, which can be more difficult than it seems. What all management comes down to, essentially, is creating a flexible grazing plan that is able to produce healthy individuals that will produce the greatest profit. Because overgrazing can lead to an increase in weeds, erosion, and an overall decrease in forage palatability, management plans must combine a number of different grazing techniques that reduce overgrazing. It’s interesting to note, however, that just implementing fencing does not create a practical management technique, but rather it is an understanding of the regeneration rate of the grasses, the correct grazing period, and the right stocking rate for the the cattle that truly determines whether or not a ranch will successfully balance range health with profitability.
While learning about rangeland management practices and animal nutrition, we were also able to do some data collecting on the property, which was a first hand look at some of the work that goes into running a successful operation. In order to determine whether or not the contents of forage on plots of differing density and on either north or south facing slopes had been altered after thinning the trees on those plots, we used quadrats, which were each one square meter, to take samples of forage by trimming all the forage within quadrats placed in the given plot. The samples will be mailed back to Clemson and tested for protein and other nutrient content so that we can better understand the relationship between nutrient content and forest thinning, and this information can be used at the ranch in future years, which could possibly factor into the management plan here.
Another factor to be considered, though it is not always one that humans can control, is fire. Fire once dominated the prairie, with small brush fires sweeping through on a fairly regular basis and replenishing the ecosystem, allowing regrowth of healthy forage. Today, fire suppression has occurred at such a high rate that the ecosystem here is changing. With the buildup of brush and dead trees, fires are now able to climb much higher then they historically did, and they can be more difficult to control. There are social as well as political issues that suppress fire, and today prescribed fires are generally looked down on, because even though fire is necessary, memories of wildfires that have torn through towns and burned homes haunt the people here. With any prescribed burn, there is always a chance that it could spread onto private land. The Bureau of Land Management is attempting to work with ranchers to implement small scale prescribed burns, but even with these attempts, it is likely that the once fire-driven ecosystem will not return to what it was immediately, that it will take time, hard work, and lots of management from both the government and landowners to help reverse the years of fire suppression.
It is becoming increasingly important, as well as complicated, to understand how crucial ranching is, and the incredible amount of work that goes into running a successful operation. It’s easy to assume that ranching is simple, or that cattle are completely destroying wildlife habitat, or that all ranchers are alike. But as we sit down to dinner, eating burgers or steak or any number of foods that come from ranches and farms, we must remember that these can be false assumptions, and that everything is dependent on how well the land is managed, and that if properly managed, wildlife, range health, animal health, and profit can be combined in a way that is beneficial to all.
The world of farming and ranching is more complex than most people realize, especially here in the West where ranchers are in charge of thousands of acres and hundreds of cattle. It’s a business that many people aren’t cut out for, a place where one needs to be able to both think critically about the many issues that can arise on any given day and also be willing to work out in the field for long hours in the hot sun in order to solve those issues. While it’s easy for the general public to look down on ranching for it’s lack of flash or grandeur, or to write it off as something that is as simple as just feeding and watering animals, there is a lot that goes into a successful ranching operation. Some of the smartest, hardest working people I know are farmers and ranchers, and after learning and seeing first hand the many facets of this industry, it is not difficult to realize why. Because to survive in this environment, to thrive, means assuming many different roles, it means adjusting and reacting to what is given to you, the aspects of which can change on any given day.A poorly managed ranching operation gives way to a variety of problems. Overgrazing damages grass roots, which can reduce the ability of the grass to rebound after grazing, lowering the protein content and the overall forage availability of a pasture. It can also lead to problems like erosion, which in turn can damage or pollute waterways, not to mention runoff from animals if not properly taken care of can be a major source of pollution for nearby waterways. But besides the environmental issues that can be derived from farms and ranches, it also isn’t in the best interest of the rancher to have a poorly managed system simply because it reduces profit. Managing in such a way that produces an optimal utilization of the land is important because it leads to healthier rangelands, which leads to healthier and more profitable animals. In order to correctly implement this, a general understanding of both how rangeland works and how the grazing animals behave is crucial, because cattle, goats and sheep all behave differently, each targets a specific kind of forage, and each digests that forage slightly differently. In this part of the country, cattle are the dominant livestock. As you drive down the road, looking out the window you see rolling pastures of lush grass with countless dots of black and red cows scattered throughout, grazing and chewing their cud.
Cows, though at odds with people who have concerns about their ability to work with native forage in a way that promotes the health of the rangeland, are an important part of the American lifestyle. Each year, the United States eats an incredible quantity of meat on average, second only to Australia, with a good portion of that meat consumption coming from beef. Dairy products, also, are an exceedingly important part of the American diet. Because of this, cattle are an integral and permanent part of the social, economic, and environmental climate not just in the West, but throughout the United States. But promoting the best quality meat and dairy products while simultaneously maximizing profits and maintaining the grasslands is a steep job, and so it is crucial for ranchers to formulate effective management plans, which oftentimes includes delegating particular jobs to people who specialize in certain fields.One of the most important aspect of managing a livestock operation is animal nutrition. On rangelands, the nutrition that cattle are getting is almost exclusively from grasses, with some supplementation that can be made available in the form of silage, hay, grain, or a number of other things. The main goal of any nutrition or grazing management plan is to increase the protein content that cattle are consuming, which can be more difficult than it seems. What all management comes down to, essentially, is creating a flexible grazing plan that is able to produce healthy individuals that will produce the greatest profit. Because overgrazing can lead to an increase in weeds, erosion, and an overall decrease in forage palatability, management plans must combine a number of different grazing techniques that reduce overgrazing. It’s interesting to note, however, that just implementing fencing does not create a practical management technique, but rather it is an understanding of the regeneration rate of the grasses, the correct grazing period, and the right stocking rate for the the cattle that truly determines whether or not a ranch will successfully balance range health with profitability.
While learning about rangeland management practices and animal nutrition, we were also able to do some data collecting on the property, which was a first hand look at some of the work that goes into running a successful operation. In order to determine whether or not the contents of forage on plots of differing density and on either north or south facing slopes had been altered after thinning the trees on those plots, we used quadrats, which were each one square meter, to take samples of forage by trimming all the forage within quadrats placed in the given plot. The samples will be mailed back to Clemson and tested for protein and other nutrient content so that we can better understand the relationship between nutrient content and forest thinning, and this information can be used at the ranch in future years, which could possibly factor into the management plan here.
 |
| Part of the ranch’s property where a wildfire went through. |
It is becoming increasingly important, as well as complicated, to understand how crucial ranching is, and the incredible amount of work that goes into running a successful operation. It’s easy to assume that ranching is simple, or that cattle are completely destroying wildlife habitat, or that all ranchers are alike. But as we sit down to dinner, eating burgers or steak or any number of foods that come from ranches and farms, we must remember that these can be false assumptions, and that everything is dependent on how well the land is managed, and that if properly managed, wildlife, range health, animal health, and profit can be combined in a way that is beneficial to all.
