7/2/2008 10:46:00 AM Pasture Monitoring 101 It is for every operation, large or small
More from Orchard
Charlie Orchard will be presenting a pasture monitoring workshop in Bison, S.D. July 22. The half-day workshop will provide hands-on skills to assess your own grazing management. Contact Ryan Beer, NRCS rangeland management specialist (605) 374-3389 or ryan.beer@usda.sd.gov
Orchard will also be speaking at the National Grazing Conference Aug. 12-13 in Kearney, Neb. Contact Center for Grassland Studies at (402) 472-4101 for more about this event.
By Codi Vallery
In the Great Plains there are two things that you do not take for granted. The amount of annual precipitation you receive and the amount of land available for livestock production.
Learning how to jointly monitor these two elements can help establish a management protocol for your beef cattle operation.
Charlie Orchard of Land EKG, a range monitoring, training and management consulting company in Bozeman, Mont., grew up in the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming, a ranching area by any standards. In 1992 he began addressing issues that concerned him in regards to native rangelands - conservation by livestock operators and the public's increasing emphasis on environmentally friendly practices.
It was with these two things in mind that he began a practical monitoring system for rangelands. Over the last decade his methods and techniques have been taught and implemented throughout the nation by farmers and ranchers alike.
Steps to monitoring
Orchard says the reasons to begin a monitoring program are many, but among the top are the ability to provide support data for any production records and to offer a basis for performance.
During a recent Leachman's No Better Bull segment, Orchard outlined steps to starting a range monitoring system.
1. Invest in several rain gauges and place them throughout your ranch to allow for running records of precipitation levels.
2. Establish portable grazing cages so you have some sort of basis to calculate pasture status. Each pasture should have a grazing cage and if in a rotational grazing situation, Orchard says you may need a cage for each pass.
3. Grazing records need to be kept on all livestock activity for each pasture. Herd type, number of animals, in date, out date, grazing intensity level and rainfall need to be included in the record.
4. Build a permanent exclosure that will allow record keeping of short-term and long-term rest periods.
Beyond the basics
Steps beyond these static devices involve dedication for detail.
Monitors should pick locations in the pasture for permanent monitoring stations. These spots will serve as the location for the photographs chronology of the pasture's usage. The photographer will want to take both landscape and surface cover shots.
Transects used in range monitoring are also generally permanent structures like fence lines, however portable fence lines can also be used. Transects are mainly used as boundary areas for conducting monitoring.
Production calculations from those transects need to be determined before and after grazing, if not even more frequently. Ideally, a clipping after each grazing rotation should be conducted. Your local NRCS or county extension agency can help provide you with the forage calculations needed to determine your stocking rate compared to available forage.
"The key really is to put some kind of numbers to what is taking place out there in that biological system," says Orchard of the need for clippings. "Clippings help determine utilization levels and lets you compare rainfall to production."
Grassland monitoring kits and forage production kits are also available at Land EKG's website at www.landekg.com.
