Monitoring drought for grazing land management

J. A. Dyer

Excerpt

MONITORING weather conditions that lead to drought represents an important tool for grazing land management. Early warning of probable low soil moisture levels can enable producers to avoid overgrazing and ensure financial stability.

A computer-based system to provide early warning is now operational in western Canada, where the beef industry is particularly sensitive to drought. Nicknamed FoDEWS (Forage Drought Early Warning System), the system uses a combination of current year's weather data and historical weather data for late winter and early spring to project likely moisture reserves by late spring (4).

By analyzing current weather records from drought-prone areas, more objective decisions can be made about who the drought victims are, who the most likely victims will be in the future, and where the need for assistance will arise. Assistance can be given to beef producers more quickly and equitably, and producers can find alternate feed sources earlier.

A conservation perspective

The important resource management aspect of drought monitoring is prevention of overgrazing caused by overstocking. High cattle populations do not result in overgrazing in all years. Overgrazing occurs during that occasional year when moisture reserves do not provide enough forage growth to meet the land …

Footnotes

J. A. Dyer is resources and environment officer with the Crop Production Division, Regional Development Branch, Agriculture Canada, Sir John Carling Building, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A OC5. This article is based on a poster paper presented at SCSA's 38th annual meeting in Hartford, Connecticut.
Copyright 1984 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society

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