Eastern Oregon’s rangelands are diverse due to different soils, topography and climate. Ranchers and land managers who view the landscape as a collection of ecological sites can better predict how vegetation and other resources ...
Monitoring trends in vegetation is an important component of effective rangeland management. There are many monitoring methods but two stand out for being easy to use, efficient, repeatable and effective.
Poisonous plants are a major cause of economic loss to the livestock industry. Two poisonous plants common to Oregon are poison hemlock and Western water hemlock. Ingestion of either by humans or livestock typically results in death.
Silage-making has been used to reduce the concentrations of toxins in a variety of crops. But in the case of poison hemlock, the opposite is true — making silage out of it actually increases one of its toxic alkaloids.
Healthy sagebrush rangelands provide a bounty of foods for sage-grouse. Sage-grouse browse for different foods during different times of year and periods of their lives. Not all rangelands provide equal quality forage for sage-grouse.
You may have encountered white, segmented “worms” or grubs when chopping firewood and wondered what they were. Common questions include, did they kill my tree? And are they a danger to other trees? The quick answers are no, and no.
Forage quality of common pasture weeds was determined through laboratory testing to compare feed value of weeds to desirable forage species and nutrient requirements for grazing livestock.
Shelby Filley, Andy Hulting, Amy Peters |
May 2010 |
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