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| News » AgKnowledge » Number 70 |
| UI-OSU Research Supports Sustainability of Livestock Grazing |
 uring cattle away from streamsides with
off-stream water tanks and salt blocks seems like a
perfectly good idea—good for the environment, good
for cows, and good for western ranchers.But will cattle actually spend more time grazing uphill, can the costs of providing off-stream water be recovered in increased profits, and will the practice really make an environmental difference? A multi-year study by the University of Idaho, Oregon State University, and Blue Mountain Natural Resources Institute is finding that cattle do indeed appear to distribute |
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| themselves more evenly across summer
pastures that are supplemented with water tanks and salt
blocks. This change in the cows’ behavior could
protect ranchers from threatened reductions in the
density of livestock allowed to graze public lands. At OSU’s Hall Ranch in Union in 1996-97, faculty and graduate student researchers from both universities also confirmed superior weight gains: an additional one-third pound daily in calves and two-thirds pound daily in cows having access to off-stream water and salt. Those gains would boost annual returns by $2,424 to $3,976 in a typical 300-cow herd. Together, the increases in cattle performance, coupled with the projected support of traditional grazing levels through improved distribution, bring the practice’s estimated potential net returns to $4,517 to $11,054 a year, depending on beef prices. The researchers say returns like that would pay for supplementary water and salt systems in just two years. “Very seldom do you find things that are profitable in such a short period of time and that are also good for the environment,” says Neil Rimbey, range economist at UI’s Caldwell Research and Extension Center. “With what we’ve determined in the study and from what we’ve seen on ranches that have had the money for alternative water systems, I think we can tell ranchers that this is an economically viable management practice,” says Pat Momont, UI extension beef specialist in Caldwell. “We not only improved the environment, but we saw increases in animal performance. It’s a method that will improve sustainability.” To measure the practice’s impacts, graduate students Marni Dickard of the UI and Amy Stillings of OSU collected more precise data on riparian grazing activity and impacts than would ever have been feasible before the invention of motion-sensitive video cameras, aerial photography, global positioning systems, and livestock pedometers and neck-mounted grazing clocks. Using these tools, they recorded precisely where and for how long the cattle grazed. Analyses of environmental impacts, range-monitoring methods, and turn-out times remain under way. Rancher Jack Shaffer of Indian Valley called the sustainable grazing project a demonstration of “exactly what agricultural universities are good for. I think it’s great that they are doing all this research. We can’t afford to risk our own pastures for four years.” For more information, call (208) 885-6681. |
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| News » AgKnowledge » Number 70 |
