Conservation practices are commonly broken down into two groups.

Ciji Taylor

Management practices are the active part of land stewardship, such as herding, gathering, doctoring, rotating and sorting herds in a fashion that gives the range and pasture plants rest between grazing periods and deals with animal health and well-being.

They help the ranch to be resilient to changes in weather patterns, resistant to erosive forces and productive for the future.

Facilitating practices like fences, water facilities and establishing forages on new or depleted landscapes actually make management practices possible.

Practices are most effective when used in a suite. Each of these conservation practices has benefits, but by combining multiple practices together into range and pasture management systems, landowners can see huge results in production and the environment.

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grazing management

Management practices

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) recommends a variety of management practices for ranchers, but the most common recommendations include prescribed grazing and prescribed burning. To a lesser degree, silvopasture is also recommended.

Prescribed grazing systems offer an effective way for cattle producers to reduce energy use and costs while improving animal health and productivity.

Well-managed grazing systems improve plant health and vigor and increase quality and quantity of feed harvested by livestock. This leads to a reduction of energy-related inputs by ranchers.

“I went to some meetings, and all of the people who had switched to rotational grazing said the cattle handled so much better and that they performed better,” says Ann Whitehead, a rancher in Missouri who worked with NRCS to adopt a prescribed grazing system on her land.

“And the grass goes so much further, which is important because I would like to get away from feeding so much hay.”

Prescribed grazing

Prescribed grazing enables producers to alternate cattle between pastures, giving pastures time to rest. The rotations of cattle are based on the rate of plant growth, level of vegetative cover, needs of the cattle and other environmental inputs.

“One of the primary goals of prescribed grazing is to align the plant community composition with what is needed to provide optimum livestock forage and solve resource problems that arise,” says Sid Brantly, NRCS national rangeland management specialist.

Making prescribed grazing part of a resource management system also benefits the overall health of the environment by:

  • Reducing and minimizing soil compaction
  • Providing vegetative cover to help reduce soil erosion and sediment runoff
  • Enhancing wildlife habitat
  • Improving water yield and quality
  • Increasing soil organic matter

Silvopasture

Silvopasture is the deliberate integration of trees and grazing livestock operations on the same land. These systems are intensively managed for both forest products and forage. Well-managed silvopastures typically include introduced or native pasture grasses and legumes.

“It’s an old concept that has been re-energized,” says Walter Jackson, NRCS grazing lands specialist in Mississippi.

Typical silvopasture management involves a prescribed grazing system that employs short grazing periods that maximize vegetative plant growth and harvest.

Prescribed grazing, modest stocking and careful monitoring of forage and trees are essential elements in silvopasture management. Trees need to be selected carefully for open-type canopies, such as conifers, walnuts, hickory, pecans or locusts, and need to be pruned and thinned as needed in order to maintain wood quality.

Silvopastures require more management, but when carefully studied and properly managed, they may provide benefits such as:

  • Cooler summer environment for livestock
  • Shorter timber rotations because of forage fertilization and competition control
  • High-value timber products resulting from pruning and management of tree density
  • Shaded, cool-season forage plants that can be more nutritious for livestock
  • Diversification of income streams spreads out market risk and increases income opportunities
  • Greater plant nutrient uptake efficiencies because the deep tree roots, coupled with pasture plant roots, acquire nutrients from a greater range of soil depths

Prescribed fire

Prescribed fire is a carefully planned, safe method to renew prairie and grasslands. Prescribed burning is not meant to be an annual management practice.

Burns should only be used to meet a specific management objective. Generally, it is not necessary to burn more than once every three to seven years.

Prescribed fires can be useful by:

  • Preparing sites for planting or seeding
  • Reducing excess plant litter and dense sod formation
  • Allowing sunlight to reach the soil, encouraging new growth of forbs and legumes
  • Suppressing brush and other non-native plants
  • Creating brooding habitat for grassland birds

Facilitating practices

NRCS also recommends a variety of facilitating practices such as pasture planting, range planting and installing water troughs and pipelines.

“It’s important to note that doing facilitating practices by themselves doesn’t capture benefits like they do when implemented together with management practices,” Brantly says. “Like their name, they are there to facilitate the management practices you can apply.

By incorporating both facilitating and management practices, landowners see the most benefits.”

Pasture planting is used to establish or renovate native or introduced forage species to help improve or maintain livestock nutrition and health, provide or increase forage supply during periods of low forage production, reduce soil erosion, improve soil and water quality, and produce feedstock for biofuel or energy production.

“With pasture planting, it is important to follow recommendations for planting rates, methods and dates for planting based on information from research institutions, extension agencies, plant materials centers or agency field trials,” Brantly says. “And successful plantings occur when grazing deferment and weed control recommendations are carefully followed.”

For livestock nutrition and health, use forage species that will meet the desired level of nutrition appropriate for the species. Forage species planted as mixtures will exhibit similar palatability to avoid selective grazing.

To supplement forage supply, select plants that will help meet livestock forage demand during times when “normal” production is inadequate. If the goal is increasing the level of organic matter in the soil, select deep-rooted perennial species.

Range planting establishes perennial or self-sustaining native vegetation on grazing lands. The practice applies where desirable vegetation is below the acceptable level for natural re-seeding to occur or where the potential for enhancement of vegetation by grazing management is unsatisfactory.

Species, cultivars or varieties selected must be compatible with management objectives and adapted to climatic conditions, soil, landscape position and range site. In addition, the selected species for planting must provide adequate cover for erosion control.

In range planting, it’s crucial to determine what species will persist on the particular site. Then select the ones that will accomplish your goals from the list of those that will thrive on the site.

The most common mistake in range planting is planting seed too deep. Follow recommendations for planting depths, seeding dates and rates, and then control weed competition.

Water troughs and pipelines ensure livestock have ready access to clean drinking water from streams, ponds, springs or wells. These watering facilities help meet daily water requirements and improve animal distribution on the land.

Appropriately placed watering facilities can ensure manure and urine are more evenly spread across the pasture, improving grass growth. Multiple watering sites help reduce overgrazing and soil erosion since cattle aren’t continually going to one place.

In addition to providing livestock water, a watering facility can be installed to keep cattle out of streams and other surface-water areas where water quality is a concern.  end mark

Ciji Taylor is a public affairs specialist with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

PHOTOS

PHOTO 1: Combining timber and forage in silvopastures provides cooler summer environments for livestock. Pastures also benefit from deep tree roots that access nutrients from a greater range of soil depths.

PHOTO 2: Soil with prescribed grazing management (left) has improved structure and more organic matter and grows more forage. Soil with continuous overgrazing (right) exhibits compaction, reduced porosity and grows less total forage. Photos by Ciji Taylor.