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ARS Home » Plains Area » Las Cruces, New Mexico » Range Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #255538
Title: Rotational grazing systems and grazing management research: Mapping the future

Author
item BROWN, JOEL - Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS, USDA)
item Derner, Justin
item DOBROWOLSKI, JAMES - National Institute Of Food And Agriculture (NIFA)
item Havstad, Kris

Submitted to: Proceedings of the National Conference on Grazing Lands
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/30/2009
Publication Date: 12/13/2009
Citation: Brown, J., Derner, J.D., Dobrowolski, J., Havstad, K.M. 2009. Rotational grazing systems and grazing management research: Mapping the future. Proceedings of the 4th National Conference on Grazing Lands and the Society for Range Management, December 13-16, 2009, Sparks, Nevada. CDROM.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: A recent publication reviewed a substantial amount of evidence generated from a geographically diverse effort by university and agency scientists over the past 6 decades to investigate the impacts of rotational grazing on fundamental rangeland ecological processes. Their findings, and others as well, clearly indicate that varying frequency and intensity of defoliation by rotating grazing livestock does not significantly affect plant or animal production when other factors (stocking rate, season of use etc) are held constant. However, many producers, advisors and researchers have substantial observational evidence that rotational grazing can be an important tool in achieving ranch level goals. This symposium was organized to examine the current state of the knowledge, the range of objectives and goals that producers and conservation programs may have beyond production and opportunities for improving the transfer of research information among scientists, policy makers and producers.