IMPROVE
GRAZING
DISTRIBUTION
N
ever forget, notes Cornell Professor of Forage Management
Jerry Cherney, the relationship between grazing cattle and
their grass is one of predator and prey. Like any meat-eating predator,
cattle hunt where the hunting’s easiest. On hilly range, that usually
means they linger within a mile of water, and as near as the food
supply allows, to shade.
The spot-grazing that results creates several problems for
producers. In fact, it is uneven grazing distribution rather than
too many cattle that causes most overgrazing problems in western
range-lands, according to Derek Bailey with Montana State. Those
problems include:
Forage isn’t used fully, uniformly and to highest profit. Cattle often
congregate in lowlands along streams and overgraze that vegetation,
even while abundant quality forage goes unused on uplands.
The resulting high-traffic watering areas are subject both to
pollution and erosion. Trampling by cattle and wildlife can reduce
stream bank stability and increase erosion.
Nutrients returned to the soil through manure are not spread to
their best effect.
Spreading the utilization of range land forage across the landscape
usually prevents the heavy use associated with concentrated grazing.
When producers successfully even out distribution, the resulting
light or moderate forage use allows plants to grow more vigorously,
maintaining or even increasing cover.
Several tools have been identified over the years to improve distribution:
Fencing and herding. Numerous studies show that when pastures
are fenced into controlled paddocks, and cattle are herded at a
relatively high stocking rate, they will reduce their time spent resting
near water and shade where overgrazing occurs.
Water placement. Spacing water supplies—if practical—can help
even out grazing patterns.
Fertilization and renovation. Improving range with selected species
of native and tame grasses as well as strategic fertilization can help
stretch the forage base located at natural grazing hotspots.
62
Salting. Strategic placement of salt/mineral also draws cattle from
water, evens out grazing pressure and widens the area of grazing.
Judicious salting has been shown to increase carrying capacity as
much as 19 percent.
Each of those solutions, however, creates its own set of problems.
Riding cattle is labor-intensive. Fertilization is expensive and usually
short term. Water developments and fencing are expensive and often
impractical in range settings.
Low-moisture block supplements. Research suggests low-moisture
block supplements help to cost-effectively distribute grazing on
open ranges.
Strategic placement of supplement has been suggested as one tool
to improve grazing distribution. In fact, past research has shown
grazing near riparian areas dropped dramatically when supplement
was moved to areas that were previously underutilized. However, the
difficulty in delivering supplement cost-effectively has often made its
use as a grass-management tool impractical.
Low-moisture molasses-based high-protein supplement blocks
are highly palatable, easy to deliver by four-wheeler, trailer or
pickup truck and can be placed and self-fed in rougher terrain
than liquid or dry supplements. They offer managers the potential
to lure cattle to more rugged topography than is practical with
other types of supplement.
Derek Bailey, while at Montana State, conducted a study during the
fall and winter of 1997 to evaluate that potential. The study, based
on two ranches near Havre and Cascade, Montana, measured forage
use and grazing patterns in a 640-acre foothills pasture varying from
3,800 to 4,200 feet elevation, an 800-acre foothills pasture varying
from 3,500 to 4,000 feet, and a 1,620-acre mountain pasture varying
from 4,900 to 5,500 feet. After discarding both riparian areas and
those with greater than 40 percent slope, Bailey’s team divided the
remaining ground into moderate and difficult terrain, platted into
• JANUARY 2020
continued on page 64