U of I: Building a Rangeland Management Plan for Your Ranch

Building a Rangeland Management Plan for Your Ranch

BY JIM SPRINKLE, PH.D. Extension Beef Specialist University of Idaho Nancy M. Cummings Research,

For most Idaho ranching operations, a grazing plan has been in existence for many years. Livestock grazing has been tailored to fit the climate, cattle breeding and calving schedules, labor availability, and overall private land operations such as irrigation and haying. Additionally, most Idaho ranches also contain public land grazing with standards and guidelines that are expected to be followed.

There is certainly much to be said about the advisability of using past stocking rates in helping to determine carrying capacity for rangeland pastures. This information can be viewed as long standing evidence that enhances the predictability of ranching enterprises. Yet, rangelands in the West are notoriously unpredictable from year to year with respect to the timing and frequency of precipitation and seasonal and yearly adjustments to the grazing plan are often needed. Also, issues and concerns may arise on private or public land which can benefit from a slight adjustment to the traditional grazing system being employed. Examples may include a range fire that could remove certain pastures from the yearly grazing plan or could make lower elevation pastures more vulnerable to annual grass invasion. A recent challenge faced by most Idaho ranchers was the 2021 drought.

Other considerations could include changing the timing, intensity, or duration of grazing in order to gather information for an upcoming NEPA. By gathering rangeland monitoring information preceding and following minor grazing changes, one can evaluate vegetation and soil responses to changes in how cattle are grazed. Many of these changes in grazing could be performed while still staying within the ad-

Photos by Jim Sprinkle

ministrative requirements for the grazing permit. Thus, one could provide needed data to support more flexible grazing in the upcoming grazing permit renewal.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The ranch management team establishes goals to enhance animal performance and overall profitability of the ranch. They will also develop goals which enhance the quality of life for all who participate in the ranch operation. A drought management plan is developed to consider triggers for culling, early weaning, accelerated grazing timing, alternative water sources, etc. In conjunction with agency partners, the ranch management team will seek to maintain or improve rangeland health. They will also seek to build a body of evidence for management practices and actions to address issues that will be addressed in the upcoming NEPA grazing permit renewal. Other objectives may include maintaining or improving healthy riparian systems and wildlife habitat. At least two or three years data assemblage and summary usually precede a NEPA scoping document for federal grazing permits. Committed ranchers will actively participate in range monitoring preceding and following proposed action(s) that will be described and implemented in the NEPA grazing authorization. Grazing permittees are not considered a member of the NEPA Interdisciplinary Team and so must make a focused effort to stay involved throughout the NEPA process. They will contribute to the formulation of existing and desired conditions and proposed actions to address the grazing allotment concerns. The ranch team will also identify needed range improvements to improve livestock grazing distribution and management that are included in the NEPA document. It will also be of great value to the grazing management of the ranching operation if outcome based management (BLM) or adaptive management (USFS) are emphasized in the preferred NEPA alternative (see October 2021

Figure 2

Figure 3

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Line Rider article on Outcome-Based Management). Another useful document that can easily be read in an evening (32 pages) is the NEPA for Ranchers publication available at: https://extension.arizona.edu/sites/extension.arizona.edu/files/ attachment/2019NEPA-for-ranchers. pdf . Short videos which accompany the NEPA for Ranchers booklet are available at https://rangelandsgateway.org/topics/ uses-range-pastureland/nepa-ranchers .

TOOLS TO ASSIST IN GRAZING MANAGEMENT

I have developed an Excel spreadsheet that may be useful for planning grazing events. It is available at: https:// drive.google.com/drive/folders/17KY1mXi3Frp537u8Zi7acMMeE_ZZSlcn?usp=sharing.

The spreadsheet was developed for the Rinker Rock Creek Ranch (RRCR) but you can change the cell values shown in red to match your ranch and cattle. The spreadsheet will calculate estimated days you can graze a pasture with the type and number of cattle you specify (Figures 2 to 4). You can adjust allowable use to reflect your desired level of forage removal. The forage production (lbs/A) values listed are estimates for the different pastures at RRCR. The Google Drive shared folder above has a couple of publications describing how to determine estimated forage utilization and production, along with short instructional video links for these procedures. In the example output, I entered the actual number of cattle which grazed the Lower Poison Pasture. Other cattle were used on the allotment, but only these cattle are listed. In a normal year, it was predicted that the Lower Poison Creek Pasture would accommodate 149 cattle (186 AUMs adjusted to 1,000 lb. standard Animal Unit Month) for 79 days. As you know, the 2021 drought reduced forage production dramatically. When forage production was reduced to an estimate of 150 lbs/A, the estimated days of grazing to stay at 40% utilization or less was 24 days. Cattle were actually left in the pasture for 27 days. When utilization monitoring was completed in the fall of 2021, one site in the Lower Pasture showed 16 ± 2.3% and one other site showed 32 ± 2.9% utilization. With an average of 24% utilization, cattle could have stayed in the pasture for 45 days. Using the higher percentage utilization of 32%, cattle could have stayed in the pasture for 34 days. These values were obtained with the formula below:

Allowable utilization x Number of days (or cows) grazed = Targeted days (or cows) of grazing

ACTUAL UTILIZATION

The estimated days grazing for RRCR includes some BLM pastures. There are 1,200 historically suspended AUMs (753 active) for the four BLM allotments which adjoin RRCR, so the total allowable days must be reduced to accommodate the suspended AUMs. It is our hope that the upcoming Outcome-Based Management alternative we are pursuing will restore the opportunity to use the suspended AUMs during favorable years. Our upland forage utilization on the BLM allotments adjoining RRCR has averaged 19.3% from 2016 to 2021. Data collected indicate that we should be able to increase the AUMS and still meet utilization targets.

CONCLUSION

Grazing rangeland pastures to achieve desired conditions on the ground is a moving target. The spreadsheet described herein will assist in your grazing management when adapted to fit your ranch.