Integrated Strategies for Drought Recovery
March 5, 2004
Colorado State University (CSU) Cooperative Extension and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) are working to bring rangeland drought workshops to ranchers in Southeast Colorado. These workshops will assist ranchers with the many decisions confronting them on how to proceed with their ranching operations during and following recovery from the drought we now find ourselves suffering through, according to Bill Hancock, CSU Extension Agent, Ag and Natural Resources, Otero and Crowley counties.
Ben Berlinger, NRCS Area Rangeland Management Specialist and Hancock are organizing workshops that will concentrate on an integrated approach to dealing with developing recovery and restocking strategies. Ranchers will need to consider the condition their range grass is in at the present time and how and when the range conditions will improve. At the same time, and with a significant impact, is how to restock, at what stocking rate, with which classes of livestock, and for how long a grazing period. Also ranchers need to consider what will be the expected animal performance related to the decisions they make. Another vital component to the integrated approach is the economic considerations and evaluations of each decision.
The workshops titled "Integrated Strategies for Drought Recovery" will be held Thursday, March 18, 2004, from 10:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. at the Otero Junior College Student Center in La Junta, Colo. The same workshop will be held on Friday, March 19 in Lamar at the Lamar Community College, Bowman Building, Large Lecture Hall from 9:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Lunch will be provided at no cost to participants at both sites. Pre-registration is required (for lunch count). To pre-register contact Bill Hancock for the La Junta location at (719) 254-7608 or John Ming for the Lamar location at (719) 523-6971 by March 15.
The program for each location will feature CSU Extension Range Specialist Dr. Roy Roath, who will cover the topics related to evaluating your range conditions and range recovery. Dr. Jack Whittier, CSU Extension Beef Cattle Specialist, will cover the topic of restocking strategies for different range conditions and classes of livestock, with livestock performance in mind. Norm Dalsted, CSU Extension Ag Economist will tie it all together looking at the economic outcomes for the different restocking strategies. All three CSU Specialists are with the Western Center for Integrated Resource Management. Also a segment of the program will be devoted to a panel discussion involving three ranchers from three different counties who are coping with the drought using different strategies with unique successes and problems.
Financial sponsors of the workshops include the Renewable Resources Extension Act (Drought Grant), the conservation districts in the Upper Arkansas and Lower Arkansas Watershed Associations, and the Colorado Chapter of the Soil and Water Conservation Society.