In 1858 H. S. Thompson, writing in the “Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society”, quoted an ancient Persian proverb, “The sheep has a foot of gold, and turns to gold whatever it touches”, and wrote that, although at first he agreed with the proverb, he rapidly became dissatisfied with it. In his experience-sustained yheavystockifig-w? sheep caused pastures to deteriorate. In my opinion his im...

Context.Wolf predation on livestock can cause economic hardship for livestock producers as well as reduce tolerance for wolves. Lethal control of wolves is often controversial; thus, development of effective non-lethal methods for reducing wolf–livestock conflict is important. Electrified fladry is a new tool that is similar to fladry (i.e. a barrier system that scares wolves), but electrifiedf...

Livestock trails frequently evolve in pastures when plant growth or establishment cannot keep pace with vegetation disturbance. In some instances, man-made trails are established in rangeland settings to encourage uniform use of forages or facilitate livestock passage through dense vegetation or across rugged terrain. A long-term assumption has been that livestock establish pathways of least re...

Clovers and other legumes are highly desirable species in pastures and hay meadows. First, legumes are able to obtain nitrogen from air through their symbiotic relationship with Rhizobium bacteria and, there­ fore, are not dependent on nitrogen fertilizer. The fixed nitrogen is primarily used to support clover growth, but parts of it become avail­ able to neighboring grass plants when clover ti...

This experiment compared California ground squirrel (Spermophilus beecheyi) activity on replicated grazed and ungrazed pastures in a blue oak (Quercus douglasii) savanna. During the 4-year study, squirrel activity, measured as the number of active burrows, generally declined in grazed and ungrazed pastures without oak canopy. Squirrel activity declined least in grazed pastures with blue oak can...

Clearing tropical forests of the Amazon Basin for pasture alters rates of soil nitrogen cycling. Previous studies have shown that rates of soil net N mineralization and net nitri®cation are lower in established pastures than in forests. We compared soil inorganic N concentrations, rates of net and gross mineralization and net and gross nitri®cation in a chronosequence and an experimental slash-...

THE TERM “pasture quality” is a measure of the ability of the pasture to provide the nutritive requirements of the grazing animal. Many plant constituents contribute to this policy but only one group, the carbohydrates, will be considered here. At present probably the only reliable and meaningful method of assessing the relative nutritive value of different pastures is by comparing actual anima...

Diflubenzuron is an insect growth regulator labeled for application to pastures and rangeland to suppress grasshopper (Orthoptera: Acrididae) populations. Livestock are permitted access to land immediately after treatment. We hypothesized the development and survivorship of horn fly Haematobia irritans (L.) larvae feeding on manure resulting from these animals would not be impacted due to the p...