Rain Gauges for Range Management: Precipitation Monitoring Best Practices Guide

Abstract

Precipitation in the form of rain and snow is critical to many aspects of working lands from controlling the growth of vegetation used in grazing by livestock and wildlife to recharging local water resources found in springs, tanks and riparian areas. Land management decisions often require some knowledge of how much precipitation fell within a management unit to assess how past actions have performed and what to do next. For example, do forage conditions reflect a lack of precipitation or grazing management? Did the next pasture or allotment in my rotation get any rainfall over the past season?