Range Management Procedures When the Drought Is Over

Drought or periods of below average rainfall is a natural phenomena. Planning for management of rangeland should take drought into account and contingencies should be made for it. But this is generally not the situation! What does a rancher do after a severe drought, which may have been compounded by other climactic conditions such as extremely hot summers and cold winters? Gambling on the next rain coming sooner than it did resulted in keeping livestock longer than there was forage to support them; the general livestock and agricultural economy which is usually uncertain added to the problem. The end result is rangeland which has deteriorated, range condition and productivity have been lowered, and fewer livestock can be grazed.

The challenge is "What can be done to aid or speed up range recovery?" Many things should be done; developing conditions, economics, man's abilities and whims, etc. will dictate what will or can be done. Man does not know if normal rains will begin this fall or next spring. A return to the expected rainfall pattern will cause different responses pending on the time of year.

When the drought is really broken, an inventory of the range resources or determination of range sites and condition (or plant composition) is a must before application of improvement practices or improved grazing management strategies. Alternatives must be analyzed. Improvement and grazing practices then must be selected and implemented to match goals of land ownership and enterprises which may or may not have changed during the period of drought.

Drought can cause changes to occur in the plants, soil and animals. Observation or awareness of these changes can serve as guideposts to understanding further deterioration or future improvement. If changes are not evaluated, improvement and grazing practices may be selected which may not contribute to improvement in the recovery period.

Indicators of Deteriorating Range Conditions

1. Decrease in vigor and number of desirable species

2. Appearance of invader plants

3. Increase of less desirable plants species (increasers and invaders)

4. Absence of sufficient litter, soils crusted with hoof pan

5. Plants on stools, indicating accelerated erosion; bare spots and gullies forming

6. Lack of seedling of desirable species

7. Development of livestock trails

8. Livestock grazing undesirable plants

9. Decrease in water infiltration

Indicators of Improving Range Condition

1. Increase in number and vigor of desirable species

2. Invading species less vigorous and less abundant

3. Bare spots, gullies and trails healing

4. Increase in desirable plant seedlings

Analysis of Alternatives

After range sites have been delineated and plant compositions calculated, an analysis can be made of various range improvement alternatives.

Range Seeding

One of the more obvious practices which might be applied to ranges in low conditions is seeding. Seeding is a high risk and often expensive practice. However, a successful seeding can result in more rapid range recovery than grazing management alone.

Guidelines for seeding can be found in Texas Agricultural Extension Service B-1379, Seeding Rangeland available at local county Extension offices.

Noxious Plant Control

When undesirable weeds and brush are present, they will hinder range recovery. Control of some species and uses of some methods have a lower risk and can result in fairly rapid improvement.

Another Texas Agricultural Extension Service publication, B-1466, Suggestions for Chemical Weed and Brush Control on Rangeland, outlines current recommendations for use of available herbicides.

Grazing Management

Grazing management has been defined as "the manipulation of livestock grazing to accomplish a desired result." Grazing management is certainly a fundamental part of range management. The results generally include maintenance or improvement of range vegetation, efficient utilization of the forage resource, and production of animal products from livestock and/or wildlife. Grazing management is a broad term and encompass a large number of areas related to the manipulation of domestic livestock and wildlife. The ability to manipulate range plants through succession to a more favorable community is tied directly to grazing management. While grazing management on tame pastures focuses primarily on increasing harvest efficiency, grazing management on rangeland has to address range improvement through management of secondary succession.

The objectives for grazing management have been grouped into three categories: economic, biological and personal. Economic objectives may include maximizing net income, reducing income variation, reducing risk, improving cash flow, reducing capital required, and others. Biological objectives could include increased calf crop or weaning weights, increased stocking rate, larger wildlife populations, improved range condition, reduced erosion, increased water yield from the watershed, and many others. Personal objectives result from the whims of man to do it the way he wants to have it done. The selection of the objective is important and requires making choices and setting priorities. There is no management system that can maximize all objectives. Trade-offs often occur.

Many of the items previously discussed are management tools and practices which enables one to reach a desired goal. These practices are part of a grazing management plan, "a program of action designed to secure the best practical use of the forage resource," i.e., a grazing system is merely another tool of grazing management to achieve the desired result. The essentials of grazing management required to obtain the optimum utilization of the forage resource can be grouped into four categories which have been fostered for decades as management principles:

1. Proper stocking rate

2. Proper season of grazing

3. Proper distribution of grazing

4. Proper kind and class of livestock or wildlife

There are basically three approaches to grazing management.

1. Continuous grazing has been the traditional method. This is constant use of forage on a given area, either throughout the year or during most of the growing period.

2. Deferred rotation has been tried and tested in Texas for almost 40 years. This type of grazing involves one-half or more of the total land in the system being grazed at any one time. The time a pasture is grazed equals or exceeds the period or rest. These systems have proven effective at providing long-term range improvement and high animal performance, especially when combinations of stock can be managed.

3. Short duration grazing (SDG) systems are those in which livestock are concentrated on less than one-half of the total land area and the length of deferment periods exceeds the length of grazing periods.

It is important to remember than no grazing system can compensate for overstocking, or is a grazing system the solution to all of the existing problems. Grazing systems are designed to control selective grazing and distribution problems. Selective grazing problems are intensified under low grazing pressures. Deferred-rotation grazing systematically defers all pastures to allow desirable plant species to recover from heavy use. Intensive grazing systems seek to control both the frequency and intensity of defoliation to achieve specific plant animal production objectives.

Planning for Drought

Planning for the next drought must begin when one is broken! Many ranchers have been forced to greatly reduce or liquidate their herds, plus the range has been used excessively, and many have lost considerable amounts of money. The use of planned grazing is certainly not going to solve all problems. Once we are into a drought, though, fewer options exist.

Items for Drought Management Consideration Using Grazing Management:

1. Adequate forage must be left to provide a reserve for the inevitable periods of drought.

2. Healthy vigorous perennial grasses with a good root system can maintain some production longer into a drought and recover more quickly once rain occurs.

3. Light rains are more effective if some litter and stubble remain.

4. There will be a few preferred plants used by cattle that serve as an indicator of use and health of a range for determining when management adjustments are needed such as stocking rate or deferment.

5. Realize that drought is inevitable; a drought plan should be developed. Flexibility in forage use, livestock numbers, livestock classes, marketing strategies and others will allow greater management decisions.

6. Maintain a percentage of the livestock herd as a readily marketable class of stock such as stocker animals (steers and/or heifers).

7. Set an annual timetable for decisions on stock numbers, improvement practices, supplementation, and marketing in relation to seasonal forage production and quality patterns.

8. If moisture becomes available within the first two or three weeks after time for plant growth to start, near-normal production may be expected. However, if available moisture is delayed until near or after the mid-point of the growing season, forage production will be greatly reduced, regardless of the condition of the range. Initiation of growth after the mid-point of the growing season results in emphasis on development of reproduction processes and leaf growth will be reduced to a minimum.

9. During a recognized drought:

a. Top priority should be on recovery rate once the drought breaks. This means forage response as well as potential animal production.

b. The ranch can sell out entirely; sell part of the herd only; gradually reduce the herd; or maintain the herd through feed purchases.

c. Cull borderline animals with least reproductive potential when reducing gradually..

d. Curtail replacement animal development.

e. Sell light offspring earlier than normal.

f. Determine the amount of money that can be spent on animals for feed purchases.

g. Utilize drylot all-concentrate feeding to maintain livestock, thus reducing needless exercise in search for food, thereby allowing forage to fully utilize light rains, then followed by grazing after sufficient growth or dormancy occurs.

h. By all means, have a destocking policy. Adjust stocking rate to meet the usable forage on hand.

i. Plan to have adequate forage on hand.

A rancher who survives a drought in the best possible financial situation with range capable of growing abundant quality forage can quickly capitalize on the good rainfall years. The basic principle then becomes one of protecting resources during drought so that faster recovery and higher returns can be realized. The earlier a rancher determines when decisions need to be made, the higher potential "profit" and less damage to the forages and land resources. Landowners need to avoid crises decisions by evaluating all and determine the best management strategies and market situations. Delay eats up the forage resource.