How big is big?
Guest post by Clemson Montana Summer Program student Addie Carter
During my time in Montana I have been constantly surprised by how closely wildlife and animal production are interwoven. Three of the places that we visited this week infused this idea that wildlife and range animal management can increase the productivity of the two when put together.
While at Montana State University we met with Tim DelCurto and Bok Sewell, two of the professors there. They talked about the three things that need to be considered when managing rangelands: animal science, natural resources, and wildlife. Each factor impacts the other because all resources are finite and Bok repeatedly stressed this fact. He also said how important it is to start quantifying data and to ask ourselves “How big is big?” So how big is Montana? Montana is around 3 times the size of South Carolina, but it is the 3rd least populated state. And while it has a small human population, its cow population is anything but small. At 2 cows for every person in Montana there are 2.6 million cattle in the state. This cow population, though, is limited by the resources in the environment.
John Pfister from the Montana State Extension service expanded upon this when he said “This country is a balance; if we don’t manage it ,Mother Nature will”. He gave an example of this when he talked about a fire that happened a couple of years ago. This fire destroyed many homes, livestock, and properties. While Mr. Pfister's property did get burned, the house that was on it was spared. The reason for this is because he managed his property by clearing out some of the understory of the forest so there wasn’t as much fuel for the fire. Mr. Pfister also talked about how grazing cattle on the land can increase not just the plant diversity, but also the wildlife diversity such as elk. He finished this section of his talk by stating that not doing anything can be as harmful as doing too much.
We finished this week by visiting Fort Keogh, the USDA livestock and rangeland research laboratory. We learned about the hybridization of cattle from different cattle breeds, advantages of dietary restrictions in cows, biocontrol of brome, and the effects of water quality on cattle. Before we learned about these research projects that Fort Keogh does, we learned that when they first started as a research facility the wildlife levels of animals such as pronghorn were very low. Now though, because of their cattle grazing management strategy, the populations of pronghorn on their land have greatly increased. I find this repeated statement that beef cattle grazing can increase the wildlife of the area very interesting because, in South Carolina, wildlife and production animal management don’t have this unification. One seems to always take precedent over the other.
Originally I wasn’t going to mention the fourth place we visited because, while it was historic, I didn’t think it had to do with anything regarding the wildlife, animal science, or resource management. Upon further thought, though, I realized that the history of Montana is the reason why rangelands are managed the way they are today. The place that we visited was the location of the Battle of Little Bighorn and Custer’s Last Stand. Here we learned that General Custer was part of a government project that’s goal was to force the Lakota natives back to their reservation in South Dakota. Many of the natives had refused to stay in this reservation because there was insufficient food supply, and they wanted to maintain their native way of life. Those who didn’t stay in the reservation mainly went into the unceded territory that included Wyoming and Montana. In this land they did what their ancestors had done for centuries, hunt buffalo. This was becoming increasingly difficult because the buffalo numbers were in a sharp decline due to the invasion of white settlers. Today there are still very few buffalo compared to the millions that used to roam the Great Plains and this is why cattle are important to wildlife diversity. Since the Great Plains ecosystem was dependent upon these big herds of grazing animals, an important niche was left vacant when the buffalo numbers declined. This niche was filled by cattle and if these cattle are managed right, then the biodiversity of the prairies increases and functions the way it did long ago when large herds of buffalo used to roam central North America. For me, it is interesting that the historical events that had occurred in Montana long ago affect the management of wildlife and production animals today.
While at Montana State University we met with Tim DelCurto and Bok Sewell, two of the professors there. They talked about the three things that need to be considered when managing rangelands: animal science, natural resources, and wildlife. Each factor impacts the other because all resources are finite and Bok repeatedly stressed this fact. He also said how important it is to start quantifying data and to ask ourselves “How big is big?” So how big is Montana? Montana is around 3 times the size of South Carolina, but it is the 3rd least populated state. And while it has a small human population, its cow population is anything but small. At 2 cows for every person in Montana there are 2.6 million cattle in the state. This cow population, though, is limited by the resources in the environment.
John Pfister from the Montana State Extension service expanded upon this when he said “This country is a balance; if we don’t manage it ,Mother Nature will”. He gave an example of this when he talked about a fire that happened a couple of years ago. This fire destroyed many homes, livestock, and properties. While Mr. Pfister's property did get burned, the house that was on it was spared. The reason for this is because he managed his property by clearing out some of the understory of the forest so there wasn’t as much fuel for the fire. Mr. Pfister also talked about how grazing cattle on the land can increase not just the plant diversity, but also the wildlife diversity such as elk. He finished this section of his talk by stating that not doing anything can be as harmful as doing too much.
We finished this week by visiting Fort Keogh, the USDA livestock and rangeland research laboratory. We learned about the hybridization of cattle from different cattle breeds, advantages of dietary restrictions in cows, biocontrol of brome, and the effects of water quality on cattle. Before we learned about these research projects that Fort Keogh does, we learned that when they first started as a research facility the wildlife levels of animals such as pronghorn were very low. Now though, because of their cattle grazing management strategy, the populations of pronghorn on their land have greatly increased. I find this repeated statement that beef cattle grazing can increase the wildlife of the area very interesting because, in South Carolina, wildlife and production animal management don’t have this unification. One seems to always take precedent over the other.
