- - AGRICULTURE CORE CURRICULUM - - (CLF3000) Advanced Core Cluster: ANIMAL SCIENCE (CLF3500) Unit Title: RANGE MANAGEMENT ____________________________________________________________________________ (CLF3501) Topic: RANGE MANAGEMENT Time Year(s) 4 hours 3 / 4 ____________________________________________________________________________ Topic Objectives: Upon completion of this lesson, the student will be able to: Learning Outcome #: (I-1) - Define the terms common to rangeland management. (I-2) - List three ways in which overgrazing or poor rangeland management can negatively affect the environment. (I-3) - Calculate, from information provided, the carrying capacity of an acreage of rangeland for a species of livestock. Special Materials and Equipment: Supplementary Worksheet #1. References: Mel George, Kurt Olson, and John W. Menke. CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURE, Jan-Feb 1988, "Range Weather". California's Forests and Rangelands. California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. California Vocational Agriculture Curriculum Guidelines, INTRODUCTION TO AGRICULTURE, Vol. A, "Forage Crop Production". Forest and Rangeland Resources Assessment Program, 1988. Heath, Maurice E. (1973). FORAGES (5th ed.). George, M., et. al. JOURNAL OF RANGELANDS, 7(1), Feb. 1985, Annual Grass-land Forage Productivity, Stoddart and Smith. (1985). RANGE MANAGEMENT. Evaluation: Quiz by instructor. TOPIC PRESENTATION: Range Management A. Introduction 1. Range as a Resource: a. Our range resource is one of the most valuable of all our natural resources. b. It is just as important for non-users of rangelands to promote its conservation and maintenance for future use as it is for the person operating and living on the range. 2. Range is: a. all land with a permanent cover of native or naturalized grasses, forbs, and other forage plants and trees. b. land well suited for grazing of domestic and wild animals, for watershed production, and for recreational use. c. privately owned or publicly owned, fenced or unfenced. d. level, rolling, or mountainous. e. a source of our meat supply. f. land that provides feed and habitat for wildlife. 3. Range distribution: a. United States- more than 1 billion acres, with most of it in the 17 western states. b. California contains 41 million acres of rangeland. 1) Foothill rangeland: 16 million acres that contribute about 80% of the forage for domestic livestock grazing on the states' wildlands. 2) Intermountain and desert rangelands: 25 million acres, but only 20% of the forage is grazed by livestock (includes grazing on forestlands also). 4. Range Ownership: Much of the western rangelands are publicly owned. a. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), manages 10 million acres in California. b. U.S. Forest Service (USDA), manages about 4 million acres. c. Defense Department, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Bureau of Reclamation are federal agencies that also manage rangeland. d. Department of Fish and Game, State Parks Department, County Parks, Open Space Agencies, and Utility Districts are state and local agencies that own and manage rangelands. e. The Cooperative Extension Service and the Soil Conservation Service do not own or manage rangelands, but they provide education programs, information, and services to private and public rangeland owners, managers, and policy makers. B. Range Management 1. Management includes care and use of rangeland to get the highest sustainable yield of goods and services without endangering the range soil and water resources and other important uses of the land. 2. Good range management provides us with food, fiber, water, recreation, and wildlife resources. 3. The goal is to maintain a continuous production of plant and animals and to maximize beneficial uses. This is done by: a. Keeping our range covered with good forage plants. b. Using forage in a way to provide feed reserve for the poor years on a dependable range and to provide for conservation of soil and water. c. Manipulating the vegetation in ways that will increase the storage of water in the soil and result in even flow of water in streams. d. Balancing livestock use and other uses (wildlife, watershed, and recreation) to gain the greatest benefit from each acre of range and pasture. C. Range Sites: 1. are distinct rangeland environments. 2. are areas of range where the soil, slope, biotic factors, and climate are similar throughout, but different from adjacent range areas. 3. differ as to the plants that they will best support, depending on whether the range includes the mountains, foothills, or deserts. 4. are judged separately, for example, a sandy site will differ from a clay range site. 5. are used as a management tool on rangelands. 6. go through stages of change called ecological succession. __________________________________________________________ ACTIVITY: 1. soil survey: Students will go out to an area of land, gather one cup of soil and perform a soil test, identifying soil characteristics. 2. field trip: Students will travel from valley elevation to foothill elevations to look at differences in range sites on various rangelands. __________________________________________________________ D. Rangelands: 1. are well suited for grazing, and is the pre-dominant use of available rangelands throughout the world today. 2. are too steep, too rocky, too shallow, (soil) too dry, or too salty for intensive crop production. 3. have range plants that are renewable natural resources if they are managed properly by: a. grazing, is a natural part of the rangeland ecosystems, in fact grasses are most productive if they are grazed in moderation; b. not allowing repeated overgrazing or (the plants will loose vigor and eventually die); c. not allowing even light grazing, the range will accumulate dead or non productive leaves and stems that will shade new growth, thus reducing its productive capacity; d. never allowing stock to remain on winter range too long, or otherwise the next winter's feed may be reduced because forage for the mountain ranges grows mainly during spring and early summer; and e. using the old range management guideline of "take half, leave half". The half left will regrow quickly during the growing season, allowing the plant to recuperate from grazing and provide good soil cover. E. Range Carrying Capacity: 1. is the maximum stocking rate possible without causing damage to vegetation or related resources. 2. may vary from year to year in the same area due to fluctuating forage production. F. Stocking Rate: 1. is the number of acres allotted to each grazing animal, acres per animal unit month (AUM). 2. is the present state of the vegetation as it relates to the potential on each site. 3. utilizes the term AUM, which is commonly defined as the amount of feed required to support a 1000 pound cow for one month. a) If the stocking rate is 5 acres per AUM, then a 1000 pound cow would require 5 acres to support it for one month. G. Livestock Species and Other Factors that Affect the Stocking Rate: 1. Cattle tend to congregate on level creek bottoms, ridge tops, and around shade and water. 2. Sheep, especially when herded, tend to graze an area more uniformly. 3. Taller vegetation, such as grasses, are utilized more efficiently by cattle. 4. Horses are more selective than any other grazers and cause the greatest damage. H. Grazing "animal equivalents:" ======================================== 1. 1 1,000 lb. cow = 1 A.U. 2. 1 calf or yearling = 0.6 A.U. 3. 1 bull = 1 1/2 A.U. 4. 1 horse = 1 A.U. 5. 5 ewes = 1 A.U. 6. 6 goats = 1 A.U. 7. 6 deer = 1 A.U. 8. 7 antelope = 1 A.U. ========================================= I. Using Animal Units and Animal Unit Months to Calculate Stocking Rate: 1. Using the definition of an animal unit month (AUM) we can determine the stocking rate of a range. For example: a. Given 1 acre of range, it will provide 1 ton (2000 pounds) of dry matter, how many AUM's of grazing will this provide? 1) Only 50-60% of the ton of dry matter will be used. The policy of "take half/leave half" is crucial to allow for soil cover, erosion control, and adequate cover and food for wildlife. 2) Remember, according to our definition, a mature cow (1000 lbs. DM) needs 20 lbs of dry matter per day (2% of cow's body weight) - this could be as high as 3% depending on the quality of forage consumed). This works out to 600 pounds of dry matter per month (20 lbs/day x 30 days/month). The cow will waste some, so it is better to use 800 pounds of DM/AUM. 3) By dividing 2000 lbs by 2, we utilize the "take half/leave half" policy and will work with 1000 lbs. of DM. We divide the 1000 lbs. by 800 lbs/AUM and get 1.25 AUM. We find that this 1 acre could support one cow for about 1 1/4 months or 1.25 Animal Unit Months (AUM's). 2. Another example, a. Given 200 acres of range which produces 10 tons of dry matter and we have 10 cows, how many AUM's would this range support? 1) First, we find that we have a total of 10 tons x 2000 lbs/ton = 20,000 lbs of dry matter. 2) Next we divide the 20,000 lbs. by 2 and get 10,000 lbs. DM. 3) Then we divide the 10,000 lbs by 800 lbs per day per cow and get 12.5 AUM's. This 200 acres would support one cow for 12.5 Animal Unit Months but we have 10 cows, a) So, 12.5 AUM's/ 10 cows = 1.25 AUM's. These cows could live on this range for approximately 1 1/4 months. __________________________________________________________ ACTIVITY: 1. Use actual examples and problems in Supplementary Worksheet #1 to practice calculating Stocking Rate. __________________________________________________________ J. Rangeland Management: 1. Hardwood range, brush range, and grasslands cannot be managed separately. They occur together in management units and are managed together by managers in the fields of livestock, range, wildlife, and watershed. 2. Traditionally, there are many range management practices that have been used to improve ranges by increasing forage, improving utilization, or improving quality. Often these practices improve wildlife and watershed values, but not always. 3. Much effort and money has been invested in controlling undesirable plants on rangelands throughout the U.S. In California, we have focused on converting our brushlands to grasslands by using chemical, mechanical, and biological methods, as well as fire. a. Methods of Improvement: 1) chemical- a) chemicals are used less today because of the regulations and expense. 2) mechanical- a) variety of methods include chaining, root plowing, mowing, and bull dozing (an expensive process, used only in productive areas). 3) biological- a) goats have been used with limited success to control brush. b) Klamath Weed has been controlled by introducing the Klamath Weed Beetle. 4) fire- a) primary means of removing brush in our foothill rangelands. b) burning reduces fire hazard, increases forage, and improves wildlife habitat and watershed values. c) brush must be replaced by grass seeding and good range management or it will revert to brushland requiring burning again. 5) grazing management- a) herding, fencing, water development, and salt control the time, intensity, and location of grazing so that range productivity can be maintained or increased. b) rotation grazing is a system in which the grazing of areas is alternated at intervals throughout the season. c) under a deferred grazing system the rangeland is divided into 3-5 or more units. The grazing of at least one unit is deferred each year or at certain times of the year, until the seed crop has matured. This also provides wildlife shelter and is often combined with the rotation. 6) seeding and fertilization- a) improves range and pasturelands by increasing the desirable plants in a pasture. b) places highly nutritious legumes in the pasture. c) are applied together depending on the situation. d) are expensive practices and should be used only where the rangeland is sufficiently productive to generate an economic return from the practice. - productive rangelands are more likely to generate a return than rangelands that have shallow soils and low rainfall. K. Range Utilization: 1. Improvement occurs by developing stock water, herding, and fencing. a. New Zealand fencing techniques of using smooth wire, portable poly wire, and electricity has revolutionized traditional thinking about fencing. b. Fencing no longer is considered an expensive task if properly planned and installed. 2. Problems a. Rangelands are often managed by wildlife biologists or foresters who have little range or livestock management training. b. Environmental issues are often dealt with in an irrational manner with the decisions based on emotion instead of fact. Environmental activists and their groups tend to have money to contribute to campaigns often aimed at curbing multiple use of rangelands (i.e., they want to preserve it in a wild state, no domestic animals allowed). L. Overgrazing: 1. Definition a. The loss of vigor by plants because of too frequent and intensive grazing, allowing for less desirable plants to increase or invade the range. b. Grazing that is too heavy or too frequent for the grazed plant to recuperate, so that it gradually loses vigor and eventually dies. c. Overgrazing is an often misused term, particularly by special interest groups who wish to reduce or remove grazing from publicly owned rangelands. 2. How overgrazing affects the environment: a. Grazing animals select the most palatable plants first. If these are over consumed overgrazing, the desirable plants eventually are crowded out by and replaced with; 1) less desirable grasses and forbs, 2) weeds and brush, and 3) poisonous plants. b. Severe overgrazing may leave areas devoid of vegetation and the soil is subject to severe erosion. c. Soil compaction may occur where areas are heavily grazed in the spring when the ground is soft. This makes it very difficult to establish new growth. M. Selective Grazers: 1. are livestock that prefer to graze the plants that taste good, while ignoring others. 2. prefer new growth or regrowth because it is tender and nutritious. 3. are livestock that will return and graze the same plants over and over while other plants will remain ungrazed, unless the livestock species is managed. 4. cause overused plants to die leaving space for a new and perhaps DIFFERENT variety of plant. Thus, the uncontrolled grazing results the loss of desired plants and an increase in volume of other less-desired plants. N. Rangeland Characteristics: 1. Available water a. Certain desert areas are so poorly watered that only the occurrence of winter snows make their use practical. b. Sheep are better adapted to poorly watered ranges than cattle because they can go for longer periods without water. c. Sheep can use snow as a sole source of water whereas cattle need a liquid source of water in addition to snow. d. Many times cattle will not break ice in order to drink. 2. Since some rangelands suffer severe winter storms, adequate shelter should be available to protect the animals/livestock against these storms and high winds. 3. Poisonous plants are more common in early spring. a. They cause the greatest damage when animals are first turned out on summer range (too early). b. Larkspur and Death Camas affect cattle and sheep respectively. Losses from these can be minimized if livestock are kept of the range until the best forage plants grown enough to provide a supply which precludes the cattle and sheep from consuming these poisonous plants. Supplemental Worksheet #1 STOCKING RATE NAME_____________________ DATE_____________________ PER._____________________ 1. Describe differences between cattle and sheep that may affect the stocking rate: 2. How can brush control improve stocking rate? 3. Suppose we have 25 mature cows and our range provides 1/2 ton of dry matter per acre. How many AUM can we keep these cows on 30 acres? Show all work!! 4. Suppose you have 250 head of steers (require 1/2 AUM each) to graze 1000 acres and the range is estimated to provide 500 lbs of dry matter per acre. How many AUM's could your cattle graze this land? Show your work!! 5. You own 250 acres of rangeland that is estimated to produce 10 tons of dry matter. How long could this land support 10 cow/calf pairs (1 1/2 AUM's each)? Show all work!! 5/4/90 SG #%&C