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Monitoring Livestock Forage Use in the Black

Hills

Thomas M Juntti

Wildlife use will be up to 106 million pounds of forage per year or approximate population levels of 70,000 deer and 4,500 elk or other combinations that use the same amount of forage.

Forest grazing capacity of 128,000 AUMs (@26lb/day, 30 days/mo, 128,000 AUM = 99,840,000 lb) available for livestock utilization

Black Hills National Forest Land Management Plan

2505. Livestock and wild herbivore allowable forage use or residual levels on rangelands by grazing system and range condition are as follows:

Proper Allowable Use Guidelines(Percent Utilization by Weight Each Year)

SEASON OF USE SATISFACTORY CONDITION

UNSATISFACTORY CONDITION

Continuous Use Spring/Summer

0-45% 0-40%

Continuous Use Fall/Winter 55-60% 0-55%

Deferred Rotation 0-50% 0-45%

Rest Rotation 0-55% 0-50%

Measuring Utilization

1. Fence out three or more areas.2. Clip inside the fence every two weeks.3. Sort out the non-forage plants.4. Dry and weigh the remaining plants.5. Sum the weights.6. Clip outside the fence post-grazing7. Repeat steps 3 and 4.8. Calculate utilization

Some have suggested that it is more important, and more straightforward, to measure the amount of residual vegetation (stubble height or biomass) than the percentage removed (e.g., Hyder 1954). They argue that it is the amount of residual biomass that is important to the plant's ability to recover or to the amount of soil protection provided. Removal of a certain percentage of annual forage production would result in greatly different amounts of both forage removed and residual vegetation left because production varies greatly from year to year. Emphasis on residual vegetation has increased due to the interest in leaving residual vegetation for wildlife cover, soil cover, and sediment trapping on floodplains.

Seasonal Effects on the Measurement and Interpretation of Utilization. E. Lamar Smith. 1998. Annual Meeting of the Society for Range Management. Rapid City, SD.

Uresk, D.W., D.E. Mergen and T.A. Benzon. 2009. Monitoring meadows with a modified Robel pole in the Northern Black Hills, South Dakota. Prairie Naturalist 41:121-125

Study funded by Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks; and Safari Club international.

2010 Sampling Design

24 randomly selected pastures out of 61 total4 ungrazed pastures4 transects per pasture200 m transects20 reading stations per transect4 readings at 90° intervals

2011-2013 Add clipping vegetation before and after grazing on a subset of pastures so utilization can be measured more directly.

Transect Locations

Years CumulativeJan.-June(inches)

CumulativeGrowing season(Apr.-Aug.) (inches)

CumulativeJuly-Dec. (inches)

Annual cumulative(inches)

Northern Hills        

Long-term monthly 13.56 14.47 9.57 23.13

2010 average 15.15 16.13 9.93 25.08

2011 average 16.08 15.40 7.75 23.83

2012 average 9.88 10.44 5.70 15.58

         

Central Hills        

Long-term monthly 10.22 12.88 7.98 18.20

2010 average 13.81 16.27 6.72 20.53

2011 average 14.58 16.55 7.13 21.71

2012 average 7.67 10.04 5.37 13.04

         

Southern Hills        

Long-term monthly 9.26 11.09 6.89 16.15

2010 average 15.97 19.25 7.58 23.55

2011 average 11.26 12.40 6.15 17.41

2012 average 7.35 8.98 4.67 12.02

Boxelder Alpine

Buskala Anderson

Deadman West

Roubaix Salt Dumont Middle

Wolff Tilson Higgins Gulch Sheep

Flats

Roubaix East

Little Spearfish Dry Gulch

Pettigrew Red Lake

Pasture Middle

Buskala Rod and Gun

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2011 Pre-grazing Robel Pole

95% CL VOR

2010 Northern Black Hills Robel Pole Pasture Summary

Bu

sk

ala

Pe

ttigre

w

Be

ar B

utte

Ho

p C

ree

k

Hig

gin

s G

ulc

h

Wo

lff

Ro

ub

aix

De

ad

ma

n

Wo

lff

Du

mo

nt

Wild

ca

t

Cu

ste

r Pe

ak

Little

Sp

ea

rfish

Little

Sp

ea

rfish

Hig

gin

s G

ulc

h

Du

mo

nt

Ro

ub

aix

Co

rral C

ree

k

To

llga

te

Bo

xe

lde

r

Griffith

Bu

sk

ala

Pa

stu

re

Elk

He

ato

n

SD

GF

P

Little

Sp

ea

rfish

Elk

An-derson

Red Lake

Bear Butte

West Citadel

Tilson

Salt West Pas-ture

Greens

Gulch

South

North

Peak Tom Sprin

g

Dry Gulc

h

Sheep

Flats

Middle

East Creek

South

Alpine

West Year-ling

Rod and Gun

Middle

Mayhapp

y

Govern

ment

near Bulldog

Tor-nado

Brown

Spring

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

4095% CL

VOR

Pasture

VO

R

Bear B

utte

Alpine

Rod a

nd G

un

Corra

l Cre

ek

Custe

r Pea

k

Deadm

an W

est

Dumon

t Midd

le

Dumon

t Sou

th

Wes

t Yea

rling

Citade

l

Sheep

Flat

s

Hop C

reek

Wes

t

Dry G

ulch

Tom S

pring

Pastu

re M

iddle

Red L

ake

Rouba

ix Eas

tSalt

Tollga

te S

outh

Tollga

te N

orth

Green

s Gulc

h

Tilson

Ungra

zed

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

2000

2010 Forage Utilization

Limit

Residual

Pasture

Res

idu

al V

eget

atio

n (

kg/h

a)

Corral Creek

Deadman

Dumont

Wildcat

Custer Peak

Buskala

Griffith

Higgins Gulch

Wolff

Bear Butte

Pettigrew

Higgins Gulch

Boxelder

Dumont

Wolff

Pasture

Roubaix

Roubaix

Buskala

Hop Creek

Elk

Little Spearfish

Elk

Creek West Pas-ture

South

North

Peak An-derson

West Year-ling

Citadel

Greens

Gulch

Bear Butte

Red Lake

Sheep

Flats

Alpine

Middle

Tilson

Middle

East Salt Rod and Gun

West Mayhapp

y

Dry Gulch

Brown

Spring

0

5

10

15

20

2595% CL

VOR

Pasture

VOR

*

* Ungrazed

2011 Northern Black Hills Robel Pole Pasture Summary

Anderson Rod and Gun West Pasture Middle Red Lake Greens Gulch Tilson0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90CL%Use

% U

tili

zati

on2011 Forage Utilization by Direct Measurement

Hop Creek W

est

Buskala

Anderson

Wolff Sw

ede G

ulch*

Corral C

reek C

reek*

Pettigre

w Red La

ke*

Deadman

West

*

Dumont Middle

Buskala

Rod and Gun*

Dumont South

Higgins G

ulch Sh

eep Fl

ats*

Boxelder

Alpine

Bear B

utte Bea

r Butte*

Custer P

eak P

eak*

Griffith W

est Ye

arling

Roubaix Sa

lt*

Wolff Ti

lson

Tollg

ate So

uth

Elk M

ayhap

py

Wolff Gree

ns Gulch

Pasture

Middle

Wild

cat North

Roubaix Ea

st*

Little

Spea

rfish

Dry Gulch

Higgins G

ulch Cita

del

Elk Bro

wn Sprin

gs0

5

10

15

20

25

30

2012 Pre-grazing Robel Pole

95% CL VOR

VOR

Corral Creek Creek

Wolff Sw

ede Gulch

Dum

ont South

Boxelder Alpine

Hop Creek W

est

Buskala Anderson

Custer Peak Peak

Deadm

an West

Dum

ont Middle

Griffith W

est Yearling

Buskala Rod and Gun

Roubaix Salt

Wolff Tilson

Wildcat N

orth

Pasture Middle

Wolff G

reens Gulch

Bear Butte Bear Butte

Higgins G

ulch Citadel

Pettigrew Red Lake

Tollgate South

Higgins G

ulch Sheep Flats

Little Spearfish Dry G

ulch

Roubaix East

Elk Mayhappy

Elk Brown Springs

0

5

10

15

20

25

2012 Northern Hills Robel Pole Summary 95% CL

VOR

VO

R

Boxelder Alpine

Buskala Anderson

Corral Creek Creek

Custer Peak Peak

Dum

ont Middle

Dum

ont South

Griffith W

est Yearling

Higgins G

ulch Citadel

Hop Creek W

est

Little Spearfish Dry G

ulch

Pasture Middle

Tollgate South

Wildcat N

orth

Wolff G

reens Gulch

Wolff Tilson

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

2012 Utilization by Direct Measurement%

Uti

liza

tion

Conclusions

Managing annual forage use by maintaining a constant residual results in more conservative management the managing by percent utilization.

Indirect methods are much more efficient than direct measurement by clipping pre- and post-grazing.

The Robel pole produces more precise measurements than clipping.