The inaugural Range Practicum: A hands-on land and livestock training

Abstract

The inaugural Range Practicum incorporated practical, hands-on training and demonstrations into the SRM Annual Meeting and Training, contributing to its "new look" in 2020. The Range Practicum translated stockmanship, packing, horse training, and prescribed fire, as well as agency rangeland monitoring and soils training, into practical skills. It also included rangeland monitoring, soils training, equipment demonstrations, and a small tradeshow. The Range Practicum incorporated the 2020 Producer Forum as the transformative Women in Ranching Forum and included a Producer Reception. Over 200 rangeland professionals, including students, ranchers, agency managers and specialists, and applied scientists, attended the Range Practicum. Most Range Practicum participants registered for the entire annual meeting. Most participants were very satisfied or satisfied with the training sessions. The most popular sessions of the Range Practicum were the hands-on livestock workshops, specifically the horse and mule packing and low-stress livestock handling, followed by a wild horse demonstration and a hands-on prescribed fire workshop. We recommend the Range Practicum be an ongoing event at future SRM annual meetings and trainings. We recommend it include experiential sessions that cannot be included in the traditional format of the annual meeting (e.g., hands-on, with live animals, fire, etc.).