Getting started
I found this article of information on how to begin grazing. I thought that it was interesting. It starts with some information that will aid in setting economic goals for the graziers. It reports some studies that have been done to prove the economic advantages to grazing. For example, grazing animals can manage vegetaion on the banks of rivers resulting in increases fish populations and also prevent fish overpopulation. It concludes by suggesting ways to select the species to graze.
posted by Jessica @ 11:12 AM
1 Comments:
I read through the article, and it did not seem very well prepared. It never seemed as if the details of the management plans were explained at all. The arguments that were displayed to promote the plan also seemed very weak. The main argument that caught my eye was that of the water and fish systems. In my water classes I have rarely heard of the extent of the listed benefits from grazing. Most commonly, the effect has been negative. Riparian areas are very fragile, especially in the presence of cattle. The banks have a tendency to collapse and the vegetation surrounding the stream is greatly impacted. It is true that as the vegetation surrounding the stream is eliminated or decreased, the light that is able to enter the stream system increases. This increases the primary producers (algae and plants), and this growth could work its way up the tropic levels to increase fish production. The other possibility is that it just creates a system overrun with algae or becomes unproductive because of the high intensity light changing the system. One thing to remember with this is that many species have ranges of temperatures in which they are able to survive, and with an increase in light, the water will increase in temperature.
I also do not see how grazing could be productively managed to produce the effects that were discussed. In class we talked about how grazing was made productive while still not harming the environment. This involved intensive grazing and then rotating to different pastures. The intensive part is what would worry me when dealing with the water issues. I do not see how grazing can be environmentally effectively managed while remaining productive. Of course one solution to this problem could be the fact that this was from the Ohio State University, a different environment than here. However, they would still have the same riparian concerns.
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