Project Overview
OW16-013
Project Type: Professional + Producer
Funds awarded in 2016: $49,774.00
Projected End Date: 01/15/2019
Grant Recipient:
UC Davis
Region: Western
State: California
Principal Investigator:
Dr. Leslie Roche
UC Davis
Co-Investigators:
Dan Macon
UC Cooperative Extension
Annual Reports
Commodities
- Agronomic: general hay and forage crops, grass (misc. perennial), hay
- Animals: bovine, sheep
Practices
- Animal Production: grazing management, pasture fertility, pasture renovation, grazing - rotational, stocking rate, feed/forage
- Crop Production: irrigation, nutrient cycling
- Education and Training: decision support system, demonstration, extension, farmer to farmer, networking, on-farm/ranch research, participatory research, workshop
- Natural Resources/Environment: biodiversity, habitat enhancement, soil stabilization, carbon sequestration
- Pest Management: weed ecology
- Production Systems: holistic management, integrated crop and livestock systems
- Soil Management: organic matter, soil quality/health
Abstract:
Irrigated pasturelands are at the nexus of integrated plant and animal production. Until very recently, these agricultural landscapes have been overlooked in terms of integrated management, production potentials, and environmental benefits. These critical land resources allow livestock producers to meet annual forage demands for their operations, offer flexibility to accommodate annual grazing constraints on public land grazing allotments, and provide short-term alternative forage sources in years with below average precipitation. Irrigated pastures are especially important to sustaining economic viability of livestock operations during drought years when productivity of dryland resources is severely reduced.
Project objectives:
- Develop demonstration pasture management studies (demonstration sites).
- Conduct a cross-sectional field survey of ranches to quantify agricultural and environmental outcomes across a gradient of intensity of integrated pasture management strategies.
- Conduct on-ranch workshops at demonstration sites to highlight collaborative research findings, manager expertise and experience, and best management practices.
- Develop an online information hub that allows users to access information and tools on best practices.
Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or SARE.