Invasive species threaten biodiversity and incur costs exceeding billions of US$. Eradication efforts, however, are nearly always unsuccessful. Throughout much of North America, land managers have used expensive, and ultimately ineffective, techniques to combat invasive Phragmites australis in marshes. Here, we reveal that Phragmites may potentially be controlled by employing an affordable meas...

Montana is a typically low-rainfall area with limited irrigation in some areas. Moisture is critical for producing high-yielding, highquality forages. Finding forage species that can produce both a high-quality and high-yielding product is important for livestock producers throughout Montana and the region. While quality of perennial and annual grasses may be comparable to corn, their yield per...

Research was initiated at the Texas Experimental Ranch by 1981 to quantify the effects of 2 livestock densities on forage quality in a rotational grazing (RG) treatment. Livestock densities evabmted were equivalent to 14 and 42-paddock RG treatments. Baseline data were collected in 1981 from 3 adjacent 30-ha paddocks in a 465_ha, M-paddock, ceil designed RG treatment stocked at a rate of 3.6 ha...

In the arid and semi-arid regions of Northeast Asia, grassland degradation has become a major environmental and economic problem, so sustainable utilization of resources is crucial in terms of not only supporting the local and animal production but also thinking about the global environment. Especially in Mongolia and North China, grassland degradation has mainly been induced by artificial fact...

Advances in global positioning system (GPS) technology have dramatically enhanced the ability to track and study distributions of free-ranging livestock. Understanding factors controlling the distribution of free-ranging livestock requires the ability to assess when and where they are foraging. For four years (2008-2011), we periodically collected GPS and activity sensor data together with dire...

A basic, desirable goal for virtually any livestock producer is to minimize stored feed requirements. It is less expensive to have livestock harvest forage for themselves by grazing than to harvest it for them; therefore, the greater the extent to which pasture can be used to provide nutrition, the more profitable a livestock operation will generally be. Thus, it is worthwhile to consider all o...

introduction:changes caused by grazing on range ecosystem are generally assessed based on the soil conditions and vegetation. livestock as one of the major elements in range land ecosystems has different effects on different parts of this ecosystem. one of these impacts is excessive livestock grazing capacity which can have different effects on soils and plants in various intensities. materials...

Livestock face complex foraging options associated with optimizing nutrient intake while being able to avoid areas posing risk of parasites or disease. Areas of tall nutrient-rich swards around fecal deposits may be attractive for grazing, but might incur fitness costs from parasites. We use the example of dairy cattle and the risks of tuberculosis transmission posed to them by pastures contami...

Pasture established on polluted soil may pose a risk to grazing livestock creating a requirement for mechanical management which may affect biodiversity and expend energy. The risk associated with managing pasture by grazing horses (non-edible livestock) is being assessed in the Guadiamar Valley (SW Spain), where soils are polluted with trace elements following a major pollution incident. Soil ...

Pastoralists in the wildlife-rich East African rangelands use diversification into conservation and tourism as a strategy to supplement livestock-based livelihoods and to spread risk. Tourism incomes are an important alternative source during drought, when livestock incomes decline. However, tourism may also reduce access to rangeland resources, and an abundant wildlife may destroy crops and in...