Planning for Adaptive Grazing Management
April/May 2020
Chris Schachtschneider, OSU Umatilla & Morrow County Extension Agent chris.schacht@oregonstate.edu & Vanessa Schroeder, Faculty Research Assistant, OSU Extension Service Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center vanessa.schroeder@oregonstate.edu
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Successful ranching operations employ a grazing management plan that balances forage use with maintaining or improving rangeland health. Effective grazing management plans can increase forage base and profitability with relatively low inputs. Producers have reported that grazing management has allowed them to focus on what they want to improve and create a plan to do so. Through this process, producers have demonstrated increased forage production and on one ranch, a producer achieved an increase of upwards of 485 percent over a five-year period. Factors to consider for successful land management when planning are 1) General rangeland ecology, the balance between timing and intensity, 2) the art and science of grazing management (i.e. adaptive management), and 3) tools to help you be successful. Rangeland Ecology: A brief overview Disturbances, such as wildfire, drought, flooding and grazing are common to rangelands. While our plant communities are adapted to some level of disturbance, as land stewards, our job is to manage the disturbances we have control of, such as cattle grazing, to maintain or improve ecological function. This can be achieved by managing the timing and intensity of livestock use to balance both under and overuse of forages. If you are interested in learning more of the details of rangeland ecology, Saving the Sagebrush Sea and The Ecological Provinces of Oregon are two great resources. Timing It is not necessary to know how to identify every species
on the range to develop an effective grazing management plan. Plants can be categorized into key groups based on the role they play in the ecosystem (Figure 1). As managers, we can then tailor our management practices to ensure these groups are in balance and functioning as a healthy ecosystem. Each of these groups have different growing characteristics which enable them to thrive within the ecosystem. An effective grazing management plan aims to increase desirable deep-rooted perennial grasses and to decrease invasive annual grasses and other noxious weeds. At various times of the year, certain groups will be desired, tolerated or avoided by livestock based on the growth stage of the plant and the nutrients it contains. For example, cheatgrass is highly palatable and desired by cattle in the early spring, but becomes tolerated or avoided after seed set, then palatable again after fall rains. Grasses are most vulnerable during the stages leading up to reproduction (e.g. flowering and seed production) and are most susceptible to grazing when they are devoting their resources to production of seed heads. When cattle graze grass stalks that are forming seed heads, those stalks cannot continue to grow, but must re-start growth from resources stored in the plant’s base. After plants set seed, they become less vulnerable to grazing. Varying the timing of grazing each season, such as spring grazing one year and deferring grazing until after seed-set the next or allowing a full year of rest, can help beneficial plants thrive in the community. A successful example of this practice can be found in New Mexico and Nevada, where many of www.orcattle.com | Oregon Cattleman
