Can raising cattle support conservation goals? Researchers are investigating how grazing livestock on native plants can yield agronomic, economic and ecological benefits by mimicking natural processes.
“Often in agriculture, we think production and environmental protection of land are exclusive—you can only have one without the other,” says agronomy professor Mary Wiedenhoeft. “I am interested in both, environmental protection of land while producing food, feed, fiber and fuel.”
Grazing animals have been present on Iowa’s landscape for thousands of years. Free-ranging herds of bison used to graze the tallgrass prairie. This grazing caused a beneficial disturbance that combined with fire to promote plant and animal diversity.
Prairie management typically involves both prescribed burning and mowing. Grazing livestock on prairies can promote land health while also supporting producers, but the practice is rarely implemented.
One barrier to implementation has been the lack of research demonstrating the ecosystem benefits that grazing offers. With more evidence to support short intervals of grazing as a prairie management practice, prescribed grazing may earn greater recognition from governmental programs, resulting in more flexible policies that allow more grazing to occur on conservation lands.
A 2010 grant from the Leopold Center’s Ecology Initiative supported research on grazing native plants at Whiterock Conservancy, a land trust in Coon Rapids, Iowa. The long-term goal of the Conservancy was to manage their 5,300 acres as a multifunctional landscape, where land management includes both agricultural and conservation lands.
The researchers also hoped that the project could help other land managers as well as graziers by providing additional insight into the benefits and risks of grazing native plants in Iowa.
The Whiterock Conservancy project is one of eight profiles featured in Grazing Native Plants in Iowa: Processes and Experiences, a 16-page publication by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. The publication includes profiles of four graziers and four land managers, highlighting a wide range of experiences grazing native plants in Iowa.
Bruce Carney, for example, grazed at Chichaqua Bottoms as part of a related 2008 Leopold Center Ecology grant. Most of him cows increased body-conditioning scores and maintained calf-weaning weights during their four years at Chichaqua Bottoms.
“It seemed like the cows learned a little more each year as far as the different plants they could eat,” Carney says. With only 100 cow-calf pairs on 400 acres, his cattle had the choice of forage and could select whichever plants were most nutritious at any given time.
“I think the cattle are good for the land, mimicking what the buffalo did, and the native plants are good for the cattle,” Carney adds. “It was a great experience.”
Source:iastate.edu