Publication Type: Oral Presentation
Abstract: One of the keys to profitable livestock production is minimizing the cost of producing a marketable animal product. Feed costs are commonly 70-80 percent of the cost of growing or maintaining an animal. Utilizing rotational grazing systems and improving pasture management offers the single greatest opportunity to lower production costs. The most limiting factor for optimum use of grazing systems is usually water availability. Since it is cost prohibitive to run water lines or electricity to the far reaches of most farms, it is necessary to develop alternative water supplies. Solar powered watering systems provide the opportunity for livestock producers to put water within their grazing systems where needed. In 2003, The Penn’s Corner Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Council partnered with Pennsylvania Project Grass to obtain funding from the Department of Environmental Protection’s Energy Harvest Grant Program to demonstrate the use of solar powered watering systems on grazing farms. The purpose of this project is to improve the grazing systems on farms by installing solar watering systems on grasslands that are underutilized. Currently, 12 systems have been installed and the following types of data are being collected 1) number of acres converted to pasture, 2) reductions in NOx, CO2, SO2, and Hg, 3) number of kilowatt hours of electricity saved by using solar power, and 4) cost of installing solar systems versus traditional systems. This presentation will address the benefits of improving grazing systems, positive and negative aspects of solar system installation, and the results of the data collection.

Publication Type: Poster Presentation
Abstract: Abstract
According to the Wyoming State Climatologist Jan Curtis, “Wyoming’s current drought, now in its fifth year, is beginning to look like past droughts that lasted 10 to 15 years, most recently in the 1950s.” Drought impacts the surface water right away, while it takes much longer to impact the underground aquifers. Using solar and wind electric power stock watering systems, this project will:
1. Alleviate the effects of drought on Wyoming’s grazing land by providing stock water using solar photovoltaic and wind electric powered pumping in remote locations.
2. Promote grazing land conservation through improved uniform grazing and rotation.
3. Improve riparian areas by increasing vegetative cover, improving water infiltration and stream bank stability and decreasing soil erosion by providing water away from riparian areas.
4. Improve wildlife habitat by providing water during the severe drought conditions.
Through the State’s individual Conservation Districts, in association with the rural electric coops, stock growers associations, etc., multiple stock watering sites in each of the twenty-three counties in Wyoming will be selected using a priority scoring method based on the project objectives. Design, installation, and technical support of each system will be done by the University of Wyoming (UW) Motor Center. Each participating producer will then monitor and provide feedback to the UW Motor Center, in addition to showcasing their working system to other ranchers and the general public for further dissemination of the knowledge for two years.

Update
Kicked off on March 31, 2005, the pumping initiative was able to have its first system installed July 6, 2005. Since the installation of that first system a total of 81 systems have been installed throughout Wyoming. Averaging four systems per county, this project has met it initial goal for system installations. In addition to the demonstration systems, workshops, seminars, tours and assistance to other ranchers has been, and is continuing to be provided by the project.
As part of the stockwater pumping initiative, the UW Motor Center has conducted multiple seminars to help inform the agriculture community about this project and remote stockwater pumping in general. On February 9, 2006 the first of five regional workshops were conducted on the subject of remote solar and wind electric stockwater pumping. Various tours and demonstrations have been held by individual conservation districts as well.
After a year’s use, some recipients of systems in 2005 were polled on the performance of their system. Of those polled 80% stated that the system outperformed their expectations, 20% said it performed to their expectations and 0% said it underperformed. When asked if they would recommend a solar stockwater pumping system to another rancher, 100% said they definitely would.
Overall the project, which concluded in November, 2006 has been a complete success. According to one conservation district manager, “never in my time at the conservation district has a program attracted such attention.”

Publication Type: Abstract
Abstract: The ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forest type occupies nearly 34 million acres across the Western United States, and is believed to be in significantly degraded condition across much of this extent. Historically maintained by low-intensity, high-frequency fire as open-canopied forests of diverse age structure, these ecosystems today form dense even-aged thickets prone to catastrophic fire. The United States Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, responsible for managing nearly 19 million acres of these forests, continue the fire suppression and livestock grazing activities that have fostered the degradation of these ecosystems, despite a professed commitment to allow fire to regain its natural role in fire-adapted landscapes. We used Geographic Information Systems to determine the extent of ponderosa pine ecosystems across the western United States, and the amount of this ecosystem type that is actively grazed by domestic livestock on Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management grazing allotments. Our results show that over 80 percent of the ponderosa pine forests on public lands managed by these agencies are subject to grazing by domestic livestock, creating the high likelihood of conflicts with agency stated intentions of managing these forests to restore natural fire regimes.

Publication Type: Abstract
Abstract: The Grazing Lands component of the CEAP National Assessment (CEAP GL) will quantify the environmental effects of conservation practices used on non-federal rangeland, pastureland, and grazed forests. There are 576 million acres of non-Federal grazing lands in the United States (117 million acres pastureland, 405 million acres of rangeland, and 54 million acres grazed forestland).
Challenges: Development of a CEAP for grazing lands must address a number of unique challenges that are typically not present on croplands at management scales. Grazing lands have a greater diversity in climate (especially precipitation), soils and topography. Management practices and their effects are less precise and less well defined, making the results of specific studies even more difficult to extrapolate.
• National Assessment - Assessing the effects of conservation management in the vast rangelands of the western US can best be accomplished through a combination of ground-based measurements and aerial images with hydro-ecological simulation and economic models. Ecological Sites will be used to stratify assessments at all three levels.
• Watershed Assessment - New watershed studies will be initiated to quantify conservation effects.
• CEAP GL Scientific findings will be tied back into NRCS grazing land practice standards and specifications, and into the NRCS planning process.
• For assessment purposes, NRCS must acquire the ability to view applied conservation practices, both those that are management oriented (prescribed grazing, burning, etc.) and those that are facilitative (fencing, water development, etc.). These practices must be depicted across space and time in a GIS environment to allow assessment with measured and modeled environmental variables.

Publication Type: Abstract
Abstract: The effect of livestock grazing on spatial distribution of wildlife was not addressed properly in previous research. The aim of this study is to explore and analyze the spatial distribution of red deer in relation to livestock grazing. 301 species’ point records (15*15 m) for cow, horse, deer, sheep/goat and gazelle based on dung (pellets) counts and 30 environmental predictors were prepared in GIS environment to map probability of spatial distribution of deer in Hustai National Park, Mongolia. Chi Square illustrates significant association of park management and distribution of the deer pellets (X2 =94, df =3, P<0.001) as well as the distribution of marmots burrows (X2=16.4, df =3, P<0.001). Our study of livestock association with red deer demonstrated significant negative association (X2=137, df =9, P<0.00) for sheep/goat pellets and negative association (X2=79, df =9, P<0.001) for cow dung abundance. But positive association (X2=18.3, df =9, P<0.03) was observed with horse dung abundance. Logistic model (R2=.752) shows highest probability of deer distribution with increasing elevation, higher slope, nearer to river and farther away from the roads. Elevation (R2=.654) alone explain deer distribution similar to our final model. Further analysis of elevation related factors was carried and this confirm human disturbance and livestock grazing in the lower elevation is the causative factor governing occurrence of red deer in the higher elevation.