The educational materials listed on this page are about Rangeland/Pasture Management.
There is no one specific pasture definition because of how diverse farming systems look and operate, but pasture management is a critical concern for grazing lands, especially on rangeland and open range management systems. So, what is rangeland? Rangeland management includes the health, riparian area condition, fisheries habitat, water quality, and threatened and endangered species within the system being managed. This is one reason why the definition of pasture or the rangeland definition may be complex and diverse. Cattle may heavily graze areas with gentle terrain near water instead of rugged terrain or areas far from water, thus making rangeland ecology and management critical. The key to resolving such problems is to critically think about pasture management systems and to implement practices that protect rangeland ecology. This is one suggestion for what can be done to sustain the productivity of rangeland and improve rangeland pasture management. Key practices include holistic management, grazing management, rotational grazing, stocking rate, rangeland pasture management, range improvement, pasture renovation, watering systems.
The Rangeland Management Strategies bulletin provides information regarding multi-species grazing and winter grazing, and offers advice to manage forage and vegetation, and protect riparian areas on farms. Diversifying Cropping Systems is a bulletin that can be useful in identifying practices that enhance diversity on farms, thus improving rangeland pasture management. Smart Water Use on your Farm or Ranch can be used to better understand the role of water in a farm system and in pasture management or riparian protection. SARE’s book Building Soils for Better Crops provides examples of soil management practices to improve pasture resiliency in grazing systems.
Showing 1-8 of 8 results
Biofertilizers in High Elevation Meadows
Livestock producers in the high elevation areas of Wyoming and Colorado depend on hay meadows for their forage production. Because of limited precipitation and low fertility, producers have routinely practiced flood irrigation in these meadows and apply high rates of nitrogen fertilizer to guarantee sufficient production. Yet, these integral meadows are underperforming, expensive to manage, […]
Exploring Montana Agriculture
The SARE Fellows trip to Montana was amazing. I enjoyed seeing the collaborative efforts among the various farms and organizations to share their knowledge, expertise, and resources to help each other thrive while meeting the needs of the community. This experience has shown me how people working together is what truly makes programs sustainable. – […]
Cheatgrass-Eating Sheep
Wildfires in the West are inevitable and part of a natural, necessary ecological cycle, but invasive grasses like cheatgrass can make fires burn hotter, spread farther and cause more destruction. So, across the West, researchers, range managers, cattle ranchers and others are looking for ways to economically control cheatgrass and other invasive grasses on millions […]
WSARE Quick Guide: Selecting Cattle to Improve Grazing Distribution
Quick guide summarizing what you can do to select cattle to improve grazing distribution.
Collaborative Grazing for Sage-Grouse: Centennial Valley
This video portrays the Collaborative Grazing for Sage-Grouse Project in the Centennial Valley focusing on understanding how grazing management affects sage-grouse survival. Better understanding will be important to increasing sage-grouse populations.
Sustainable Ranch Management Assessment Guidebook
The purpose of the guidebook is to assist the rancher and/or land manager use business planning and ecological monitoring to ensure the ranch or land is managed in a sustainable manner.
Pasture and Grazing Management in the Pacific Northwest
A book that provides knowledge of ecological processes involved in pasture growth and utilization and an understanding of how management influence those processes for good or bad.
Fresh Growth Podcast
Fresh Growth: Approaches to a More Sustainable Future from Western Ag Practitioners introduces you to farmers and ranchers from around the western United States who are finding innovative sustainable practices that enrich the natural resources we all care about. These successful multi-generational operations experiment with new ideas and are making it pay. Listen in as […]