- Author: Karen Giovannini
Matchmaking grazing animals with grass and rangelands
Professional grazing of overgrown rangelands, pastures and parcels is proven to reduce the spread of dangerous and costly wildfires.
Do you have land but no livestock and feel concerned about fire fuels on your property? Or are you a livestock owner that can provide a grazing service and/or need land and forage for your animals? Match.Graze can help.
Match.Graze is a free online platform connecting landowners statewide who want grazing animals to livestock owners with animals that can provide vegetation management services, created by UC Cooperative Extension.
From small semi-rural communities to large open spaces, grazing can provide an affordable solution to the inevitable accumulation of fire fuels. Grazing can be more cost-effective for reducing fuels on landscapes that are too steep, rocky or remote for mowing or chemical treatment, or in the wildland-urban interface where burning is not an option.
“I've noticed on several fires, including extreme fires, the fence lines where the fire just stopped. And the one variable, the one difference, was grazing,” said Marshall Turbeville, CAL FIRE battalion chief.
Cattle, sheep, goats and other grazing animals all have different roles to play in grazing for fire fuel reduction. If you want to use livestock to help reduce fire risk in your area, visit MatchGraze.com.
“Every property is different and requires thoughtful consideration of how it should best be grazed,” said Stephanie Larson, director of UCCE in Sonoma County, UCCE livestock and range management advisor and co-creator of the livestock-land matchmaking service. “UC Cooperative Extension is here to serve, put Match.Graze to work and let's prevent catastrophic fire while helping landowners and agriculture.”
To find a local grazing partner, visit MatchGraze.com,
set up a free account, create a pin on the map and make a match.
- Author: Stephanie Larson
- Author: Michelle Nozzari
- Editor: J. M.
Updated Sept 17, 2020 to add link. Visit: MatchGraze.com
As previously mentioned in the September 2018 issue of the Farm Bureau newsletter, the frequency, intensity, and size of wildfires in northern California have increased. This trend is alarming given that California's fire season is expected to become longer and start earlier. The fire season started in early June this year as Sonoma County experienced smoke from Sand Fire in Yolo County. To mitigate future fire, the County of Sonoma has adopted a new hazardous vegetation abatement ordinance which mandates that parcels of 5 acres or less must maintain defensible space around all buildings/structures and remove all vegetation that poses a fire risk. As policymakers in our communities and across the state continue to explore initiatives to prevent wildfire, the agricultural community can demonstrate real impacts in reducing fire fuel through managing existing vegetation on our working landscapes - forest and rangelands. We need to educate the public on the importance of managing these valuable landscapes using a multitude of tools, especially grazing. The extent to which the public understands fire risks and accepts the adoption of all potential tools for forest and rangeland health will increase the likelihood of potential collaborative management strategies imperative to community resiliency.
Grazing is a cost-effective vegetation management alternative that works best in cases where other options are impractical and financially ineffective. Specifically, targeted grazing can be more cost-effective on landscapes that are too steep, rocky, or remote for conventional vegetation management (like mowing or chemical treatment), or in the urban-wildland interface where burning is not an option. Targeted grazing is the application of a specific kind of livestock at a determined season, duration, and intensity to accomplish defined vegetation or landscape goals. This concept has been around for decades and has taken many names, including prescribed grazing and managed herbivory. The major difference between good grazing management and targeted grazing is that targeted grazing refocuses outputs of grazing from livestock production to vegetation and landscape enhancement. The concept of a target requires that one has a clear image on which to focus and then aims something (i.e., an arrow) at the target to accomplish the desired outcome. In the case of targeted grazing, the land manager must have a clear vision of the desired plant community and landscape, and the livestock manager must have the skill to aim livestock at the target to accomplish land management goals.
As mentioned in the June 2019 Farm Bureau newsletter (Quackenbush), sheep grazing is being applied on lands throughout the county to help reduce fire danger. Targeted grazing is a very different business model than simply grazing for livestock production. Effective targeted grazing focuses on impacting target vegetation at exactly the right time for specific landscape or vegetation goals. Traditional livestock production, on the other hand, focuses on putting weight on animals or increasing reproductive success. Traditional livestock operations generate income from the sale of animals and animal products; these operations focus on body condition and the nutritional status of the animals at specific production stages. Targeted grazers generate income from vegetation management services; these operations may accept a drop in body condition or reproductive success to achieve desired impacts to low-quality forage as long as this service is paid for. Both models can reduce fire fuels; no one model is better than the other.
Last month, UC Cooperative Extension and SRJC Agriculture and Natural Resources Department offered a grazing school at Shone Farm. Landowners and targeted grazers learned how to implement targeted grazing on local working landscapes. Participants gained knowledge on how to design a grazing program on their own managed lands or if they decided not to own animals, how to use this knowledge when hiring a targeted grazer. A neighborhood grazing partnership was created at the school along with new opportunities for targeted grazers.
Additionally, UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) Sonoma/Marin, is creating a “Match.Graze” system which connects landowners, who have no animals, to targeted grazers, those that can bring their animals on property to perform vegetation management service. If your parcel (s) is/are greater than 50 acres, this system will be a great resource. While it is more cost-effective for target grazers to grazer larger parcels, those with smaller parcels in neighborhoods or communities can join together to have multiple parcels of varying sizes in the same geographic area receive vegetation management by the same grazer. If you want more information about the use of grazing, how to set resource goals for your rangelands, or help to find a grazer for your parcel, call the UCCE office at 707-565-2621 or complete this survey to help UCCE better meet your desire to manage vegetation to prevent future fires in Sonoma and Marin Counties. The survey can be found at www.ucanr.edu/rangeland.
- Student Author: Michael O’Neil
- Livestock & Range Management Advisor and SRJC Adjunct Faculty: Stephanie Larson
- Editor: Karen Giovannini
They are also required to give their impressions of what they are learning in the form of a blog. This blog was written by student Michael O'Neil. Stephanie Larson
The Rancher: A Threatened Species
The rangelands of the United States evolved with ground disturbance since the emergence of grazing animals. With the arrival of the first Spanish settlers the rancher has played a role in this process too. American livestock grazing took off in the absence of the American Bison, which had been driven nearly to extinction by hunting, and the rancher's livestock began to fill their role in the Great Plains ecosystem. However, much like the Bison, ranchers grazing their livestock on public lands have not had an easy go of it.
Homestead laws written by lawmakers in the East favored the farmer over the rancher, making it impossible to obtain a plot of land large enough to sustain a grazing operation. With no one having rights to any certain pasture, overgrazing became common as well as conflict with incoming homesteaders. These early range managers recognized the ecological problems that overstocking was creating and pleaded with congress to write legislation to organize the range to no avail. Without adequate plots of land and control on the numbers of cattle grazing in areas the failure rate was high, nearly 100% in some areas.
As the homestead era came to an end in the late 1800's new challenges were presented to the ranchers of the American west. Around this time the government began making withdrawals of public land to create timberland reserves, parks, wildlife reserves, Indian and military reservations. In 1934 the Taylor Act was passed to create a system for leasing rangelands to ranchers, however it left ranchers completely dependent on the federal government for the use of rangelands.
Recently there has been some hope for changing the minds of grazing opposed conservationists. This comes in the form of the Allan Savory Holistic Management method of grazing which has gained a lot of attention in the last 6 years. Savory's method claims that using intense rotation and high-density livestock grazing it is possible to green deserts and reverse climate change. Although the claims made by Savory are not backed by science, his methods have shown positive results. Most importantly, his claims are sure to catch the interest of anyone concerned about environmental conservation. This could lead to an increased awareness of the benefits that gazing can provide to an ecosystem. Although Savory may not be able to accomplish all that he claims with his system, his popularity may help to open people's minds to grazing as a tool for ecosystem management and hopefully foster a better relationship with environmentalists and ranchers.
Learn more about Allan Savory's Holistic Management grazing system.
/h2>- Author: Stephanie Larson
UCCE Sonoma County along with other UC colleagues, recently received a grant to identify the impact of grazing on the frequency and severity of wildfire in California. The project will ask three specific questions:
- Does grazing reduce the likelihood of fires at the landscape scale?
- Does fire severity differ between grazed and ungrazed lands?
- What are the synergies and tradeoffs of grazing management as a tool to directly reduce wildfire risk?
Our results will be used to:
- Suggest to individual land owners the potential for grazing to reduce their risk of wildfire
- Influence policy makers to reduce barriers to grazing in California.
With the reduced frequency of wildfires, woody plant cover increased and shrublands and woodlands expanded (Miller et al., 1994). Burning was reintroduced around 1945, with the primary purpose to convert bushlands to grassland and to maintain the rangelands brush-free. An average of 67,000 acres of brush was burned annually under State permit from 1945 to 1951; and from 1951 through 1952, 133,000 acres burn annually (Biswell, 1954). With environmental conservation movement in the 1960s and 70s, controlled burning again was not favored and fire suppression was the referred management tool. This allowed ecosystems to accumulate more fuels that are prone to burning on a regular interval. Management practices can greatly affect a landscape's fuel amount and distribution. Fuel load, or biomass, is one of the most influential and easily manipulated fuel variation affective fire intensity (Strand et al., 2014). Livestock grazing is one management technique that has been shown to decrease fine fuel loading and subsequent wildfire severity (Davies et al., 2010).
Fire fuel treatments are designed to alter fuel conditions so that wildfire is easier to control and less destructive (Reinhardt et al., 2008). Cattle grazing primarily alters fuel conditions by reducing the amount of herbaceous fine fuels, whereas goat and sheep grazing can potentially also reduce the shrub component. Other fuel treatments that can be used to accomplish these same objectives include herbicides, mechanical treatments such as mowing, prescribed/controlled fires, or a combination of these treatments (Nader et al., 2007). Many studies have reviewed and describe factors affecting fuel treatment costs but studies specifically on rangelands are limited. Least cost fuel treatments will vary with conditions and objectives, but grazing alternatives appear to be cost-competitive especially if the objective is reduce fire fuel loads where mowing or a prescribed burn are potential alternatives (Strand et al., 2014).
Over the years, management has played a significant role in shaping California's rangelands. On a yearly basis, grazing can reduce the amount and alter the continuity of fine fuels, potentially changing wildfire fire spread and intensity (Stand et al., 2018). With changing climate conditions, it is now more critical than ever that grazing, as a fire fuel reduction tool, be scientifically quantified in order to demonstrate its use to landowners, managers and policy makers. California provides a unique opportunity to analyze how grazing effects wildfire trends due to the presences of long-term fire and climate datasets as well as diverse conditions under which grazing takes place. California is likely to see an increasing number of extreme fire danger days, almost doubling from current numbers over the next 50 years (Yoon et al, 2015).
The research project will use data from the past 30 years of wildfires across the whole state of California, along with data on climate, vegetation type, land ownership and biophysical variables to determine if grazed areas burned less frequently and/or with less severity than non-grazed areas. In addition, we will seek to identify trade-offs and synergies between grazing wildfire management. In areas where there is a high probability of ignition and the area is grazed, is there an optimum residual dry matter (RDM) to be managed for to reduce risk? Are there barriers to reaching the optimum RDM levels? Grazing by livestock is likely the most cost effective and practical treatment to apply across large landscapes scales to manage herbaceous fuels (Davies et al., 2015). Grazing can alter fuel characteristics of an ecosystem; however, little is known about the influence of grazing on fire, in particular ignition and initial spread and how it varies by grazing management differences (Davies, et al., 2017).
This project promotes the scientific significance andstrength of the UC network through collaboration of advisors and specialist to benefit California beef cattle producers and the rangelands they graze. It will address the priority of managing rangelands for multiple ecosystem services especially documenting the “why should we” and when to graze working landscapes to reduce fire severity in California. The research project will lead to more informed lands landowners, managers, policy makers and public on the importance of managing rangelands, through grazing. Research results will address the following issues:
Reducing Wildfire Risk. Increasingly severe wildfires are impacting an array of communities, including many lower income areas such as Lake and Mariposa Counties.
Wildfires increase air pollutants such as PM, CO and O3, amplifying problems that are already more severe in less affluent, inland areas. Wildfires put firefighter's lives at risk, reduce state funds available for other needs, jeopardize infrastructure, and increase insurance and utility costs. Improved wildland management for fire has already become a critical issue, with important implications for Low-Income Communities.
Sustaining Water Supply. Concerns were raised about the water supply that serves many counties during recent years up and down the state. East Bay Municipal Utility District rerouted staff from projects on district owned land in the Mokelumne watershed to burned areas above their reservoirs to help revegetate the watershed, and decrease erosion into Pardee Reservoir, drink water supply for the East Bay. Fires in Sonoma County about Lake Sonoma could have impacted the water source for both Sonoma and Marin County residence. In addition, the severity of wild fires in Santa Barbara and Ventura caused mud slides which lead to reductions in water quality and reservoir capacity. Improved wildland management will become increasingly important for maintaining California's water supply.
Maintaining Tourism Economy. Many of the state's rural areas, especially in the Sonoma, Santa Barbara, and Ventura depend heavily on tourism for local economies. The occurrence of fires impacted the number of tourist visiting, along with the commodities grown in those counties, i.e. grapes, vegetables, etc. The 2018 Ferguson Fire closed Yosemite National Park for an unprecedented two weeks, a large impact for a heavily touristy area around Yosemite and central California Foothill communities. Improved wildland management is becoming an important issue for maintaining tourism economies across rural California.
Increasing Grazing Lands. Many state lands are not currently managed to control fine fuels. Using livestock to manage them will open opportunities for more grazing lands, potentially allowing for greater flexibility of managing herds already in the state and providing opportunities for newer ranchers. In addition, controlling brush and reseeding an area has been documented to provide up to 2,000 lbs./acre in additional forage (Biswell, 1954), providing not only access to more forage for livestock, but also decreasing brush as a fuel. Both the coast range foothills and the Sierra Foothills can benefit from reduced brush encroachment.
Citations upon Request
- Author: Stephanie Larson
- Editor: J. M.
Prescriptive Grazing as a Vegetation Management Tool
Stephanie Larson & John Gorman
Working landscape ecosystems provide benefits to the landowner and to all life forms living or passing through that land. Neighbors benefit with open viewscapes, to clean water and air, and carbon sequestration from well-maintained working landscapes – rangelands, grassland, and open space. There also a potential health benefits received from working landscape from properly managed vegetation removal to reduce the fire fuel loads. However, there are many challenges for landowners to control excessive vegetation on working landscapes, including vast roadless areas that limit access for weed control and lands of low economic value that make chemical and mechanical control impractical. These challenges favor biological control methods; such as insects and microbes for biocontrol, which can be effective but are difficult, expensive, and time consuming to develop. There is, however a readily available and under-exploited tool that has gained interest to manage vegetation – livestock grazing. Along with prescribed fire, grazing of domestic livestock may be the earliest vegetation management tool employed by humans. We suggest that the challenges of vegetation management on working landscapes may be addressed with the careful sharpening of this old tool. Prescription grazing is the application of livestock grazing at a specified season, duration and intensity to accomplish specific vegetation management goals. Controlled grazing of this type is being employed throughout California on public and private land and is proving to be a promising tool in reducing the fire fuels and unwanted, excessive vegetation. Furthermore, livestock grazing has one distinct advantage over other control methods; in the process of controlling an undesirable plant, grazing animals convert it into a saleable product.
Steps in Developing a Grazing Prescription
Formulating an effective grazing prescription requires a solid understanding of plant ecology, animal behavior, and plant-animal interactions. A grazing prescription should include specific information on the season and intensity of defoliation, the species, breed, sex, and age class of animal to use, and the stocking rate that will result in the most harm to the target plant and still maintain healthy rangeland ecosystems. A successful grazing prescription should: 1) cause significant damage to the target plant; 2) limit irreparable damage to the surrounding vegetation; 3) be consistent with livestock production goals; and, 4) be integrated with other control methods as part of an overall weed management strategy.
Selecting the Right Species
The species of livestock best suited for the specific vegetation management goals depends on both the plant species of concern and the production setting. Cattle have large rumens that are well adapted to ferment fibrous material and are classified as grass and roughage eaters. They are therefore generally superior to goats or sheep to manage fibrous herbaceous vegetation such as dormant grasses. Goats have narrow and strong mouths well designed for stripping individual leaves from woody stems and for chewing branches. Goats also have a large liver mass relative to cattle or sheep and may therefore more efficiently process plants that contain secondary compounds such as tannins or terpenes. Sheep are generally considered an excellent species to accomplish control of herbaceous weeds. Sheep possess a narrow muzzle and a relatively large rumen per unit body mass. These characteristics allow them to selectively graze and yet tolerate substantial fiber content, and results in diets generally dominated by forbs. Sheep are also small, sure-footed, and well suited for travel in rough topography which may not be easily accessible for chemical weed control.
Grazing Workshops for Working Landscapes in Sonoma & Marin Counties
Creating resiliency in the rural landscape of Sonoma and Marin Counties is critical in preparing for the next natural disaster, managing biodiversity or achieving ecosystem service goals such as carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat and viewsheds. This growing recognition of the ecological benefits livestock grazing is important to our County's resiliency. However, grazing can be difficult to landowners that have never grazed their properties before. UC Cooperative Extension will hold several workshops on prescriptive grazing techniques to address the sustainability of our working landscapes while reducing the vegetation that leads to catastrophic wild fires. Private land owners manage the majority of the open spaces in Sonoma and Marin Counties and these workshops are aimed at those private citizens and other public land owners that are interested in using grazing as a vegetation management tool. Increasing the number of agriculture land grazed will benefit both public and private open space and the residents that benefit from them. The goal of the workshops is to increase understanding, interest and acceptance of using grazing as a vegetation management tool. Workshop series include:
Series 1-Understanding the use and benefits of grazing:
- examples of properly managed grazing sites stopping and slowing wildfires
- Education on positive effects of grazing on ecology including plant and animal biodiversity
- Benefits of livestock on local community and resiliency
Series 2- Site assessments of properties interested in implementing a grazing program:
- Identifying feasible sites on property
- Site plans and proper fencing (permanent/electric/ mobile)
- Animal husbandry
- Choosing the right animals for you and your property (sheep, goats, cattle)
Series 3- Livestock Economics – assessing sustainability and profitability from grazing livestock:
- Potential marketing of livestock products and associated costs of care and processing
- Infrastructure costs and value added from grazed lands
- Leasing options – how to find the right grazer
- Applying for cost share programs – NRCS, RCD, CalFire
Sonoma and Marin County's working landscapes, properly managed with prescription grazing, could prove to be a winning solution for all parties involved. Grazing not only provides a service to land owners and managers that may not be easily achieved in other ways, but it can also provide an income stream to aspiring livestock grazers just starting their grazing businesses. These workshops will provide educational opportunities for all parties to learn the “how to” in grazing, landowners who what to graze themselves, landowners who want to hire grazes and grazers who are looking to start or increase their grazing business enterprise. Let's work together to sharpen the “old” tool of “livestock grazing” into the “new vegetation management tool” for working landscapes. For more information on grazing workshop dates and locations: http://cesonoma.ucanr.edu/Livestock_and_Range_Management/.