Connecting Diverse Perspectives for Improved Understanding and Implementation of Sheep Targeted Grazing on Western Rangelands

Commodities

• Animals: sheep

Practices

• Production Systems: agroecosystems

Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) invasion increases the risk of wildfire and negatively impacts agricultural production in the western United States. Livestock grazing has been suggested as a tool to combat cheatgrass. While most studies on targeted grazing of cheatgrass have used cattle, sheep could be better suited to the higher-elevation, rugged terrain where cheatgrass is increasingly invading with climate change. This project will answer the question of how sheep can be used to reduce cheatgrass, while minimizing undesirable impacts to other ecosystem components and considering the practical realities of range shepherding.

We will extend the duration of our sheep targeted grazing experiment in Idaho to examine ongoing vegetation responses and soil processes affected by grazing. Grazing treatments will compare early-season targeted grazing in spring and dormant-season targeted grazing in fall to “traditional” summer grazing. In addition to continuing to assess treatment effects on the composition of aboveground vegetation, we will investigate how sheep trampling may be affecting soil erosion potential, plant litter incorporation into soil, and resulting consequences for carbon and nitrogen cycling. We will complement our ecological measurements with insights from herders and sheep producers about how environmental and herding factors contribute to variations in treatment effects across years, seasons, and locations. We will draw together these results with practical considerations about targeted grazing implementation from the perspective of herders, producers, federal land managers, and researchers.

Our outreach efforts will provide up-to-date resources for federal agency staff, sheep producers, and other partners about how targeted grazing is being tested and used on public lands, as well as considerations for its effective and sustainable implementation. Through local media, podcasts, a brief documentary film, and expanded distribution of K-12 education materials, we will continue to raise public awareness of cheatgrass invasion and sheep grazing as a potential cheatgrass management tool to help restore degraded rangeland ecosystems. 

This work will be of significance throughout the Intermountain West, much of which is invaded by cheatgrass. With over 2 million sheep being raised in the western states, harnessing their ability to reduce cheatgrass poses an opportunity to improve environmental conditions and enhance sheep producers’ and herders’ roles as stewards of the lands they manage. Our ability to achieve this goal will be aided by input from our advisory board of experienced sheep producers.

Project findings will be disseminated among agricultural stakeholders via a targeted grazing guidebook, podcasts, newsletters, presentations, video, and fact sheets, with assistance from the American Sheep Industry Association, Idaho Wool Growers Association, U.S. Forest Service, and Great Basin Fire Science Exchange. An online atlas of targeted grazing projects will be shared through these venues to increase awareness of the scope of existing projects from which additional lessons could be learned. 

Expected outcomes: 

1. Ecological understanding of sheep as a management tool for cheatgrass and rangeland ecosystem restoration.
2. Practical understanding of how to effectively and sustainably implement sheep targeted grazing from producer, herder, agency, and researcher perspectives.
3. Increased collaboration among scientists, land managers, and livestock producers.
4. Wider public acceptance of active rangeland management.

Research objectives:

1. Evaluate the effects of sheep grazing treatments on vegetation community composition by quantifying changes in cheatgrass and perennial species cover. 
2. Examine impacts to soil processes by quantifying the effects of sheep grazing treatments on litter incorporation, nitrogen and carbon cycling, and erosion potential.
3. Identify how environmental and herding factors contribute to variation in sheep grazing treatment effects on cheatgrass, perennial species, and soil conditions.
4. Synthesize practical considerations from diverse groups involved in the implementation of sheep targeted grazing.

Education objectives:

1. Increase understanding of the ecological impacts of using sheep targeted grazing as an invasive grass management tool.
2. Increase practical knowledge of how to implement sheep targeted grazing to reduce invasive annual grass and restore rangeland ecosystem functioning.
3. Assess the efficacy of ongoing outreach and education efforts to identify and promote successful strategies.