How do I repair pugged pasture?

Jan 07, 2022

Livestock may damage pastures when the soil is waterlogged. Wet soils are less able to carry weight than dry soils. Hoofprints that cut into the sod, make mud, and/or fill with water are called “pugmarks”, which is where the name “pugging” for this type of damage comes from.

Pugging can reduce pasture yields between 16% and 80% in the following 12 months, depending on the soil type, how wet it is, the stocking density, and how long livestock are in the paddock[1]. Some of this yield loss is due to plant damage, such as burying or bruising leaves.

The rest of the yield loss is a result of soil compaction in the root zone. Smearing and compression from hooves in the mud destroy the soil structure and pore space. These are necessary for water to drain through the soil, rather than run off the surface. Compacted soil limits the ability of roots to grow down through the soil profile, which in turn reduces the plants’ access to water and nutrients at depth.

Pugged pastures also have bare soil that allows weeds to encroach. Timely repairs are important to keep weeds out of the pasture. In addition, the pugged surface can sprain ankles, and is rough to drive over.

Preventing pugging

Preventing pugging is often easier than repairing the damage. Take preventative action when wet weather is in the forecast.

Move livestock to a barn or dry lot and feed stored forage until the ground dries.
Move livestock to a sacrifice paddock and feed stored forage until the ground dries. Ideally this paddock is well-drained. The sacrifice paddock may be an under-performing paddock that is scheduled for renovation anyway.
Use on/off grazing during wet conditions to maintain high-quality pasture while minimizing pugging.
Reduce travel through high-traffic areas by using different gates to enter and exit the paddock.
Move water troughs and salt/mineral feeders daily.
Create temporary laneways with electric fence to concentrate damage to smaller areas.
How to assess a pugged pasture
Tools required:

A quadrat (either 1 square foot or 0.25 m2) or hula hoop
A tape measure or ruler
Select several areas across the pasture to gain a representative view of the pugging. Use the quadrat to help estimate the percentage of the pasture area that is pugged. Use the tape measure or ruler to measure the depth of the pugmarks. Table 1 combines these factors into a severity rating.

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Video: The 15-Year Bet Behind Every New Variety!

Canada is trying to decide how much agricultural research capacity it can afford to lose. Brian Rossnagel believes the better question is whether the country can afford to rebuild it.

The longtime barley and oat breeder makes the case with a simple fact about his profession: the consequences of today’s decisions may not become visible for 10 or 15 years.

“Pick the right parents. That’s the biggest thing,” Rossnagel says. “If you pick the wrong parents, you’re not going to get anywhere—and you don’t know that until 10 years, 15 years later.”

That warning carries particular weight as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada moves to reduce spending and streamline parts of its science operations. The department’s 2026–27 plan anticipates the loss of approximately 665 positions by 2028–29 and says some research will be reduced where capacity exists in academia or industry. AAFC says the changes will make its science operations more cost-effective over the long term.

For Canada’s seed industry, Rossnagel’s career illustrates what is at stake.

This fall, the retired University of Saskatchewan breeder will be inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. During his 35-year career at the Crop Development Centre, he helped develop more than 100 barley and oat varieties, including CDC Austenson—one of Western Canada’s most widely grown feed barleys. His induction recognizes not only those varieties, but the collaboration and research system that made them possible.

Rossnagel is quick to emphasize that none of it was the work of one person.

“The first thing I thought about was all the other people who contributed to whatever success I and my program had over the years,” he says. “We know that it’s not an individual who does this. It’s a group—a team.”

That team extends well beyond the breeder whose name appears beside a variety. It includes technicians, pathologists, quality specialists, statisticians, regional testing sites, seed growers and industry partners. It also includes the breeders who came before and those who will carry the germplasm forward.

CDC Fraser barley, for example, moved through three breeding careers. Its parents came from Brian Harvey’s program. Rossnagel advanced the material after Harvey retired, and Aaron Beattie later guided it through registration and release.

That kind of handoff is normal in plant breeding. The person who makes the original cross may never see the resulting variety reach farmers.

It also explains why lost research capacity cannot simply be switched back on when budgets improve.

“If you shut it off, it’s very, very difficult—and particularly costly—to start it up again,” Rossnagel says. “If you have to start from scratch, it’s going to be at least 10 years before anybody notices whether you’re getting anything done or not.”

The concern is not simply how many experimental lines Canada can process. Modern equipment, statistical tools and genetic technologies allow today’s breeding programs to evaluate tens of thousands of lines—far more than Rossnagel could handle when he entered the field in the early 1970s.

But efficiency and automation do not generate every idea.

“If you pare back down, and instead of having six or seven individual scientists concentrating on wheat breeding, you go down and say three people could handle all this, well, that’s half the ideas gone,” he says. “Particularly if you happen to lose the three people who had the really neat and innovative ideas, boy, that’s a problem.”

It is a timely distinction for Canadian agriculture. Consolidating programs may preserve the volume of material moving through a system, at least initially. It may not preserve the diversity of thinking, regional knowledge or willingness to pursue unconventional crosses.

That regional knowledge matters because Canadian agriculture is not one uniform production environment. A variety suited to southern Alberta may face different disease, moisture and maturity pressures than one grown in Manitoba, Ontario or Atlantic Canada.

“Agriculture is applied biology,” Rossnagel says. “Biology, all around the Earth, moves from the poles to the equator. It does not move from Newfoundland to B.C. like politics do.”