The 2008 Joint Meeting of the Society for Range Management and the America Forage and Grassland Council. |
Monday, January 28, 2008 - 3:40 PM
Modified Intensive-Early Stocking on Shortgrass Rangeland
Keith Harmoney and John Jaeger. Western Kansas Ag. Research Center - Hays, Kansas State University, 1232 240th Ave., Hays, KS 67601
On Kansas shortgrass rangeland, intensive-early stocking (IES) using double stocking the first half of the grazing season was found to have no production advantage over continuous season-long (CS) stocking from May to October. It was hypothesized that by using IES at less than double the density, and then allowing some animals to remain on pasture season-long, that gains per acre could be increased without limiting individual animal gain potential. A comparison on shortgrass rangeland was made between a CS system (1.42 ha/steer May to October), and modified IES system (0.89 ha/steer from May to July, then removing the heaviest animals and stocking at 1.42 ha/steer until October) from 2002-2006. After five years, during the first half of the season, average daily gains (0.81 kg/day vs. 0.72 kg/day) were greater for the CS treatment. Animals that remained on pasture season-long from both the CS system and the modified IES system had similar daily gains (0.74 kg/day vs. 0.70 kg/day) and individual total weight gain (113 kg vs. 107 kg) over the entire season. Greater stocking density in the early season did not reduce late season animal gains in the IES system. Total gains on a land area basis were greater for the modified IES system than for the CS system (102 kg/ha vs. 83 kg/ha). Blue grama, sideoats grama, and buffalograss populations changed across years, but changes were similar between grazing systems. Thus far, the modified IES system has increased beef production and economic returns without negatively impacting vegetative populations.