In the western portion of the southern Great Plains, grasslands are defined as “southern mixed”, with warm season or C4 mid-grasses being dominant and cool season or C3 short-grasses in less frequent densities. As woody plant encroachment increasingly dominates, the productive warm season C4 grasses begin to decline with less abundance on the landscape and even less productivity. Woody plant dominance also reduces plant diversity eroding heterogeneity in the mixed-grass prairie. Recently, researchers measured the effects of various combinations of spring clipping (mimicked cattle grazing) and prescribed fire treatments over an 8 year period on Texas wintergrass and buffalograss with the overall objective of reducing Texas wintergrass abundance and increasing warm season C4 mid-grass species and diversity.
Impact of Goats on Cattle Diet Composition
Did you know that having goats in your pasture could potentially complement the existing cattle operation while boosting livestock productivity and plant community diversity? Goats normally prefer and preferentially consume various types of woody and forb species more so than cattle do, and that their presence in a pasture does not alter what the cattle preferentially select to eat.
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Herbicide Efficacy Following Defoliation on Honey Mesquite
Grasshoppers are in full force this year! Has that delayed your foliar herbicide applications on mesquite? If herbicide application success is dependent on optimal uptake through healthy, mature leaves, then what effect can varying defoliation rates have on herbicide efficacy of clopyralid, triclopyr, and clopyralid+triclopyr applications?
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Prescribed Fire Lessons
The Nebraska Prescribed Fire Council has published its second issue of Prescribed Fire Lessons Learned! The Nebraska Prescribed Fire Council takes submissions from practitioners on lessons learned from prescribed fires to assist producers, landowners, PBAs, and other prescribed fire professionals to keep improving season after season. This forum has been invaluable in learning from one another in hopes that mistakes or judgment calls turn into valuable lessons for all of us building and contributing to prescribed fire culture. Below are some highlights from this issue.
CO2 Flux over Burned Honey Mesquite Savanna Rangeland
Prescribed fire is a management practice used to reduce woody plant encroachment on rangeland and maintain native perennial grass diversity and productivity. Prescribed fire effects on CO2 fluxes and their contribution to atmospheric CO2 is not well known. The study below discusses the effect of fire on net ecosystem CO2 flux above Prosopis glandulosa Torr. (honey mesquite) using the Bowen ratio/energy balance method (BREB), and to compare these fluxes to fluxes determined by an empirical model.
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Texas Pasture Land Values Summary
USDA has recently released their land value summary for 2023. Texas is located in the Southern Plains region along with Oklahoma.
USDA Expands Conservation Practices Qualifying for Climate-Smart Funding
At the end of October, USDA released an updated NRCS expanded list of practices and activities that are eligible for Climate-Smart funding through the Inflation Reduction Act. In addition, they added additional funding for the practices for the fiscal year 2024.
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2020 Resources Planning Act Assessment
The Resource Planning Act Assessment reports on the past, present, and future of renewable resources on public and private forests and rangelands. The recent 2020 assessment forecast was released in November and includes the following topics:
What Goats Really Eat, With Grazing Menu Tips to Benefit Your Ranch
Did you know that goats are meticulous eaters? They move across the landscape selectively browsing, picking out desirable pieces of forage, and combing hard to access pastures and areas for their favorite plant parts and species.
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The Dangers of Duff: How long-term fire exclusion can put “fire-tolerant” trees at risk
Did you know most landscapes in the southeast and southern Great Plains are thought to have experienced frequent fires (3-5-year return intervals) in the time period between glacial retreat about 15,000 year ago, up until the time of European colonization?