- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Even in northern Nevada, a desert where it rarely rains, the drought is troubling ranchers. They rely on water from the Sierra Nevada snowpack to grow grass and alfalfa for their cattle. This year, the snowpack is barely 20 percent of average, reported National Public Radio.
This presents a financial dilemma for almost every rancher in Nevada, California and Oregon as one of the worst droughts in a century maintains its grip on the West.
For the story, reporter Kirk Siegler spoke to Ken Tate, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A five-year study of Yosemite toad populations in an area fenced off from cattle has shown that exclusion from grazing doesn't help the endangered amphibian, reported Kate Campbell in AgAlert.
"The toads use water areas and the cattle use drier meadow areas, which provide better forage," said Ken Tate, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis.
The study, "Determining the Effects of Cattle Grazing Treatments on Yosemite Toads in Montane Meadows," found "no benefit of fencing to Yosemite toad populations." Researchers said their results "do not support previous studies that found a...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC Cooperative Extension range research was featured at a field day Saturday in Tehama County, reported Julie Johnson in the Corning Observer.
Josh Davy, UCCE advisor in Tehama County, reviewed test plots were 60 varieties of annual and perennial range grasses were growing. Ken Tate, UCCE specialist, and Leslie Roche, postdoctoral researcher, both in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, gave an update on their long-term grazing research projects evaluating the effects of...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC Davis Cooperative Extension watershed specialist Ken Tate and interim director of the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security at UC Davis Rob Atwill will design and conduct the study. The first samples have already been...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC Davis Cooperative Extension researchers Ken Tate and Rob Atwill responded to a story about High Sierra grazing published last month in the Sacramento Bee in the California Farm Bureau Federation's newspaper AgAlert.
The Sacramento Bee story suggested that cattle grazing in high-elevation areas of the Sierra Nevada causes water contamination. Following is an opening excerpt of Atwill and Tate's commentary. See the AgAlert link for the complete 600-word response: