Cattle GRazing & Wildfires

Welcome to Open Range, I’m Susan Allen. Stay tuned because after the break I’ll check in with our field reporter, Greg Martin for the AgriBeef Minute.

I’m Greg Martin with the Open Range AgriBeef Minute. A 14-year study by the Ag Research Service in Oregon has found grazed ranges recover better after a wildfire according to research leader Tony Svejcar.

SVEJCAR: We had burned and unburned; long-term grazed and not grazed and the most interesting results were that where we had not grazed since 1937 that the bunch grasses - you know those native grasses that we have - the plant little builds up. If you run a fire through that you have a lot of fuel that builds up.

That means a long, hot fire that will actually kill down the grasses and the ground. What they found was when those plants died off, cheatgrass came in and established itself. Grazing helps to remove all that built up dead grass material and allows the native grasses to recover while holding the cheatgrass at bay.

SVEJCAR: A lot of people now are proposing that grazing is bad and that we should just remove grazing off rangelands and everything will be wonderful. And what we’re showing is there’s some potential risks to these plant communities of not grazing. There may be risks to grazing incorrectly but there are also risks of not doing any grazing.

I’m Greg Martin and that’s today’s AgriBeef Minute.

Thanks Greg. Don’t forget Greg will be back each Wednesday with the AgriBeef Minute. Agri Beef Co - Real Families, Great People, Exceptional Beef. I’m Susan Allen.