Devastating damage for livestock owners across southwest Idaho is prompting land and fire managers from multiple agencies to declare this year’s fire season the worst in over two decades.

“It’s not a complete silver bullet, but nothing is,” says Jay Smith of the J Lazy S Angus Ranch of Carmen. He and his wife Chyenne are using virtual fencing to manage cattle grazing on their Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service (USFS) permits after the 130,000-acre Moose Fire scorched their USFS grazing allotment in 2022. “I think the proof’s in the pudding when I say we want to keep using it,” he says. “The cost and the work were worth it.”

The Public Lands Rule recently enacted by the BLM has the potential to be a positive step in the direction of flexible grazing management on public lands, or a significant challenge to the ranching industry in their ability to access affordable grazing options. It will be in livestock producers’ reaction, and subsequent forward action to this rule, that the outcome is written. 

We’ll focus on the selenium accumulator plants that thrive in arid regions – the toxic plants that distressed Marco Polo, the toxic plants notorious in cowboy movies for causing “blind staggers” and “alkali disease.”

Historically, the objective of supplementation programs for grazing cattle has been to address nutrient deficiencies based on the difference between animal nutrient requirements and the nutrients provided by the forage, with emphasis on improving forage utilization and animal performance.

In most instances, the dormant season (late fall and winter) provides the best opportunity to remove litter and germinating annual grass seedlings without negatively affecting perennial plants.

A multiyear study involving University of Idaho researchers has found that allowing late-fall and winter grazing on rangeland heavily infested with invasive medusahead grass could provide extra forage for cattlemen while reducing wildfire fuel.

Undoubtedly, ranching demands immense effort and sacrifices. The increasing pressure to adopt environmentally friendly practices can sometimes feel at odds with producer interests. However, carbon ranching presents an opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate farmer and ranchers’ contributions in more ways than one.

Overgrazing pastures and rangeland has detrimental consequences on cattle, forage, soil and producers’ bottom lines.

Rangeland scientists at the Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center (EOARC) tested whether virtual fencing could prevent cattle from grazing recently burned areas within sagebrush steppe pastures.