Virtual Workshop Looks To Help Improve Rangeland Management

Washington State University and the University of Arizona will host a series next month to help ranchers and land managers effectively and sustainably care for their land and livestock.  Rangeland scientists, ecologists, and web developers  will hold the StockSmart virtual workshop series starting Wednesday, November 6th, running through December 11th.

The StockSmart decision support tool lets users to remotely access information to calculate stocking rates; how many cattle, sheep, or other animals can be sustainably fed for a season by a particular rangeland area.  

“StockSmart allows managers to better understand how much of their forage is actually usable and accessible by their animals,” said Tipton Hudson, WSU Rangeland & Livestock Extension Specialist and project leader.

StockSmart calculates stocking rates using remotely sensed forage production data for every quarter of an acre over the last 40 years. This provides much more information than previous datasets on how production varies across geography and from year to year, according to Hudson.

“Proper grazing means keeping forage consumption below supply, then distributing your animals in a way that supports the ecosystem,” he said. “While there are many variables to consider, ‘How many animals for how long?’ is the unavoidable starting point in a grazing plan. Our tool helps producers and range managers make that plan as accurately as possible.”

To determine stocking rate ranges, ranchers and federal, state, and Tribal rangeland managers need to know how much forage their land produces each year.  But forage can vary from one end of a rangeland management unit to the other, or in the same spot from year to year. Drought can reduce production by nearly half, while plentiful precipitation can double it.  Some forage comes from shrubs that grazing animals may not favor. Some must be left untouched so that grasses thrive, stabilize the soil, and continue to produce the following year.  Until now, rangeland managers have relied on general estimates of forage production based on soil types or sparse sampling. Neither approach adequately reflects variation or the problem of extrapolating to large scales. 

Developed by researchers at WSU, the U of A, and the U.S. Forest Service, the StockSmart tool allows users to define their livestock’s terrain use with key parameters, such as steepness of slopes that livestock traverse and how far from water animals disperse. It also allows managers to explore potential scenarios, such as how the amount of forage and stocking rate might change if they invest in new water developments or fencing.

Learn more or register for next month's training series by visiting WSU's Website, or E-mail Hudson.  You can also call him at (509) 962-7507. A second round of trainings is planned for some time in 2025.

To try StockSmart or learn about the tool, visit Stock-Smart.com. 

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