Grazing management on rangelands

Excerpt

RANGELANDS are a major life-support system for mankind. They provide forage for livestock and wildlife, habitat for wildlife, recreational opportunities, water, and aesthetic values. Today's growing numbers of people are putting more and more demands on range-land productivity. Forage-based livestock production reduces grain requirements, conserves energy, and uses resources not readily usable by other means.

To meet forage-fed livestock needs and provide the other products and services that people expect from rangelands, these lands must be managed wisely. If rangelands are mismanaged to the extent that plant cover fails to provide sufficient soil cover, the species composition of the plant communities changes, reducing productivity and soil protection. Continued abuse can result in severe soil erosion. This does not imply that proper grazing is destructive. Some native plant communities evolved over thousands of years with grazing use by native animals. But native plant communities are not always the most productive under intensive livestock grazing. Production can be increased on some sites with the use of improved forage plants.

Grazing management concepts

Range management involves both range improvement and grazing management practices. Range improvement generally has greater potential than grazing management for increasing production. Such practices …