Management of Growing-Season Grazing in the Sagebrush Steppe: A Science Review of Management Tools Appropriate for Managing Early-Growing-Season Grazing

Abstract

Proper livestock-grazing management and the maintenance of native shrub–bunchgrass vegetation are critical concerns throughout the Intermountain West. Lower-elevation sagebrush–steppe communities have long been used as early-spring grazing areas and are an important forage source for livestock and wildlife (Fig. 1). Protein-rich, spring forage is critically important in the reproductive cycle of all herbivores. The very short, spring growing season is also critical to maintaining healthy perennial forage plants and should be the focus of grazing management when spring grazing occurs. However, techniques commonly used by agency personnel to determine appropriate stocking rates, such as measures of use or ocular use estimates, are not appropriate or adequate methods to manage growing-season grazing. Because plant growth during the spring growing season is a constantly changing variable, these techniques do not adequately assess the effects of spring grazing. Therefore, management of spring grazing should be based on the phenology cycle of key bunchgrasses in the sagebrush plant community.