- Author: Mary Burich, CLEAR Center
Are cattle a secret weapon for taking on California wildfires?
California's cattle ranchers contribute a significant amount to the region's culture, economy and food supply, but do they also inadvertently help to temper the wildfires that have been plaguing the state? And if so, is it a better alternative – environmentally speaking – to letting grasslands burn?
A new study published in the journal Sustainability delves into the topic, weighing the advantages – and disadvantages – grazing cattle bring to the table. Researchers, including scientists from University of California, Davis and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, set out to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions of cows consuming vegetation that would otherwise burn in wildfires. Then they estimated the GHG emissions that would result should that forage be untouched and therefore, consumed by fire, eventually comparing the two.
Feeling the burn
Given the severity of California's recent wildfires and the belief they will continue and even escalate in the near future, it's a discussion worth having, said Frank Mitloehner, an expert in animal agriculture and air quality from UC Davis, director of the CLEAR Center and one of the researchers who contributed to the peer-reviewed article.
“Each year from 2010 to 2020, California lost on average 89,000 acres of grassland to wildfires,” said Mitloehner, who is also a Cooperative Extension specialist. “In addition to the obvious disruption and devastation they caused, the fires spewed greenhouse gases and harmful particulate matter such as black carbon into the air and into our atmosphere. Those alone threaten climate health and human well-being.”
A fast and furious gas
Cattle are adept at eliminating herbaceous fuel as they graze. However, at the same time, their specialized digestive system produces methane that is expelled most often in the form of enteric emissions … more commonly known as belches. By way of background, methane is a potent greenhouse gas that warms the atmosphere at 25 times the rate of carbon dioxide over 100 years. But it's only in the atmosphere for 10 to 12 years after it's emitted. Following that, it's broken down into carbon dioxide and water vapor.
For that reason, Mitloehner refers to methane as a “fast and furious” gas. Furious because it warms with a vengeance and fast because it does so for only a short time, especially when compared to carbon dioxide. Furthermore, because of the biogenic carbon cycle, whereby plants extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for photosynthesis, the warming of methane and its byproducts can end entirely when it's hydrolyzed and used by plants.
How researchers calculated emissions
In order to determine if grazing, methane-emitting cattle are better for the atmosphere than burning grasslands, Mitloehner and the other researchers employed a method known as “Monte Carlo simulation,” a mathematical technique used by scientists to predict outcomes of an uncertain event.
Looking exclusively at methane emissions, they found it's better to have cows eat vegetation than to have wildfires burn it. Granted, it's only marginally better, but when one considers other advantages of animal agriculture and conversely, other disadvantages of widespread, uncontrolled fire, the conversation suddenly shifts.
“Even if cattle provided no other benefit to us, which certainly is not true, we can now make the case that they are helpful to us in yet another way,” Mitloehner said.
Friends or foes?
It goes without saying that one would be hard pressed to find much good to say about wildfires, but that doesn't hold true for animal agriculture. The industry provides jobs and supports the economy in other ways as well. Plus, it is a major source of protein-rich food that is in increasing demand as the world's population continues on a trajectory toward 10 billion people by the year 2050.
Where global warming is concerned, the industry is in the unique position of being able to reach net-zero warming, also known as climate neutrality, if it continues to aggressively chip away at its methane emissions, which Mitloehner asserts is of critical importance to the planet. “Few other sectors can reduce its warming to net zero and still be of service to society, but agriculture can because of the way methane behaves in the atmosphere,” he said.
To be clear, grazing cows are no match for wildfires. Yet, in addition to everything else the sector does for us, slowing the burn and keeping relatively more methane from entering the atmosphere are not nothing.
In addition to Mitloehner, authors of the study are Cooperative Extension advisors Sheila Barry, Devii Rao and Theresa Becchetti; Rowan Peterson, Ermias Kebreab and Minju Jung of UC Davis; and Felix Ratcliff and Kaveh Motamed of LD Ford.
This article was first published on the website of the CLEAR (Clarity and Leadership for Environmental Awareness and Research) Center at UC Davis.
/h3>/h3>/h3>/h3>/h3>- Author: Dan Macon
If you've been following our effort to demonstrate techniques for bonding livestock guardian dogs (LGDs) with cattle (either on this blog or through my @flyingmulefarm Twitter or Facebook accounts), you'll know that Sam the LGD pup got off to a great start on large cattle operation in Modoc County in 2021. But after their first significant snowfall of the year, and the realization that their heifers would begin calving shortly after the Holidays, the ranch decided that they simply didn't have the bandwidth to continue with the project. In the week before Christmas, I brought Sam back to Placer County – he spent the Holidays with my sheep and one of my mature LGDs, Bodie.
During Sam's “vacation,” I happened to visit with JC Baser, a local cattle producer who has experienced increasing problems with coyotes during his last several calving seasons. JC is on the board of our local Tahoe Cattlemen's Association, and his whole family is involved in their operation. He'd heard me talk about the project at board meetings, and called me one morning to talk in more detail.
The Baser's ranch is typical of many foothill cattle operations. They graze on leased rangeland in the winter time, and leased and owned irrigated pasture in the summer time. Perhaps atypically, however, they've created a great market for show cattle – fair steers and fancy heifers. They're also innovators when it comes to reproductive technology – utilizing artificial insemination and other techniques to continuously improve their genetics. And from the perspective of this project, they're willing to try new things!
After the first of the year, I toured the Baser's winter ranch, where they're currently calving. The following week, I worked with Garrett and Levi (JC and Michelle's sons) to set up an electro-net paddock near their barn. They put four heifers in the paddock; I added Sam. And the demonstration project was off and running in a new location!
Sam is now nearly 8 months old – in the midst of his “terrible teens” (the time period with most young LGDs seem to be puppy enough to want to play but big enough to play too roughly with livestock). As we introduced him to his new environment, he took special interest in JC and Michelle's youngest daughter (who's 5 years old). They've since reported that he continues to be fixated on her when she's nearby – and so they've limited her contact with Sam (since we want Sam to bond with cattle rather than people).
When we introduced Sam to the heifers, he barked a bit and tried to keep them away from us. I walked through the heifers and growled at Sam if he looked like he wanted to chase. Within about 10 minutes, he'd settled in. The heifers also seemed to settle – they were curious about their new fuzzy white pasture mate, but they quickly went back to grazing.
That was all 13 days ago. Yesterday, I visited the Basers and got an update on Sam's progress. They reported that for the first several days, when they arrived (and Sam knew they were there), he would herd the heifers around the paddock, nipping at their heels. On the occasions where they could observe Sam without his knowledge, however, he was content to be with his cattle. Late last week, they added an older dry cow to the mix. Sam tried to keep her separated from the heifers for about 10 minutes, but then settled back down. Today, he was excited to see me – and followed me through the paddock as I went to see the cattle. Once I was back outside the fence, however, he decided he'd rather be with the cattle than watch us – all positive signs.
The Basers also reported that Sam definitely barks at external stimuli – whether it's the rancher next door checking his cattle, or the sound of a coyote. This responsiveness is perhaps the most important tool in and LGDs tool box – in some cases, announcing their presence (through barking and scent marking) appears to deter predators.
Our next steps with Sam will be to introduce several cows with older calves at their sides. I suspect this introduction will be a two-way process – mother cows can be protective of their calves, so they may be more suspicious of the dog in their pasture. Conversely, Sam needs to get comfortable with the entire herd – and with the changes that occur (calving, weaning, etc.) in any commercial livestock setting. I'm hopeful he'll handle this new transition well, but we'll be watching closely.
For now, Sam remains inside an electro-net paddock, which keeps him with “his” cattle. Eventually, we hope that he'll be well-enough bonded with the ranch livestock that we won't need the eletro-net. We'll also work to get him trained to eat from an automatic feeder in a creep-feeding set-up – the labor of daily feeding is one of the drawbacks that many ranchers cite about using LGDs. And, like the final exam we subject our sheep-guarding dogs to, Sam will need to prove trustworthy during the calving process. These are all developments that will hopefully be natural as Sam matures. For now, however, he continues to make the progress I'd expect from an 8-month-old dog.
- Author: Faith Kearns
Watering holes can be hard to come by in the high desert of northeastern California. Pronghorn, deer, cattle, and wild horses are all visitors to the springs and ponds scattered across the often dry grasslands. The number of wild horses has jumped quickly in recent years, bringing a host of water-related challenges, and no small amount of controversy.
Laura Snell, a livestock and natural resource advisor with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, knows the controversy well. She's been monitoring frequently visited water sources in the area for a couple of years. Her research shows that at times more than 70 percent of animal visits to springs are by wild horses, with cattle making up another 20 percent.
Wild horses, descended from domestic horses, are covered under a federal law focused on coexistence with livestock and wildlife. That has meant rounding up wild horses with some regularity because they have few natural predators and their populations grow quickly. However, legal and financial challenges have stalled wild horse management over the last few years.
As a result, in one part of the Modoc National Forest known as Devil's Garden, there are now around 3,000 wild horses in an area estimated to sustain only 200-400. While cattle tend to be closely monitored and rotated to different pastures, that is not the case for wild horses. Therefore, the rise in population is challenging for both livestock and ecosystem managers; horses crossing local highways are even becoming a challenge for transportation officials.
To better understand what has been happening on the land, Snell and her collaborators with the US Forest Service and, more recently, UC Davis, hike Modoc and Lassen counties installing wildlife monitoring cameras. Snell also measures vegetation and stream bank changes several times a year. The team is looking at impacts that include trampled habitat, reduced vegetation, and decreased water quality.
But, monitoring is only one part of the job. The other is navigating the human emotions attached to wild horses. From ranchers to wild horse advocates, and the whole spectrum between, people tend to have very strong feelings about the horses.
Wild horses also have direct implications for livelihoods in this rural area. Snell says, “Next year we'll have two ranchers who are not allowed to use their permitted allotments at all – and many more that will have proportional cuts – due to the large number of wild horses. These cuts affect our local economy and relationships with the government. And the cuts to cattle allotments still don't provide respite for degraded ecosystems.”
For Snell, engaging with wild horse issues has meant learning new skills to complement her scientific and technical expertise. She recently took a facilitation course to better prepare herself to guide meetings and help groups with differing opinions work together. She says, “I'm trying my best to listen first and then to focus on the best science available.”
Snell recently partnered with colleagues at the Modoc National Forest to foster dialogue between diverse groups concerned about wild horses. “Bringing people together who are on completely different sides of the issue and seeing them talk and find common ground can be really rewarding,” says Snell.
As the group sat at the spring and talked about the ecosystem and economic impacts of wild horses, emotions began to run high under the hot afternoon sun. On the walk back to the parking area, people had time to think. They then regrouped to talk about what they learned. It was clear that it was only the first conversation in one of many that would be needed, but it did allow for some new insights and relationship-building. Snell says she can sometimes leave these events a “bit frustrated and exhausted, but also encouraged to reduce misunderstandings around the research on these horses.”
“I think it's difficult to understand the complexity and scale of the wild horse issues in the western US. It is not just about horses, it's about rural economies, wildlife habitat, and multi-use public lands.” There is still a ways to go, but Snell is glad her research is relevant and timely, and that it is of direct use in public land management decisions.
- Author: Carl E. Bell
Medusahead [Elymus (Taeniatherum) caput-medusae] is a relatively new but serious invasive grass in San Diego County. So far it is only known from infestations in the Santa Ysabel, west Julian and Palomar Mountain areas. The first San Diego Natural History Museum herbarium specimen of medusahead was collected two mileseast of the Santa Ysabel junction in 2004 (http://sdplantatlas.org/SynScanLarge.aspx?N=154694). The photo below was taken near Julian by Gil DelRosario this summer.
A mapping and prioritizing project for invasive plants in San Diego County has been developed with funding from SANDAG (San Diego Area Governments). This project included medusahead and showed it existing in small infestations in these areas. However, I mapped it this summer in a 160 acre area on a public preserve and know of infestations on two pasture areas (one 4 acres the other 9 acres) on private property near the junction of highways 79 and 76. So I’m sure there is a lot more of it around the north county area than previously thought.
What’s the big deal; another non-native Mediterranean grass?
There’s a reason it’s named for a mythical monster. (Actually, not really, the name refers to the twisting awns in the inflorescence.) Medusahead is different, especially for livestock producers. The plant has a higher than normal silica content in the stems and leaves. Because of this, the plant is hard for animals to digest and unpalatable, so they avoid eating it. Additionally the dead foliage creates a dense thatch that does not decompose readily. Medusahead seedlings are able to germinate through this thatch, but other grasses are not. Combine that with the reluctance of livestock to graze existing plants and it doesn’t take long before the whole area is medusahead.
The situation is scary, but not dire (yet). Medusahead does not produce long-lived seed. A consistent and thorough control program can eliminate or greatly reduce this weed problem. There is lots of good information on this weed from colleagues and other sources in northern CA; see the UC Weed Science Blog
(http://ucanr.edu/blogs/ucdweedscience/index.cfm) and write in medusahead in the search box.
For now, it would be helpful if everyone keeps their eyes open for this weed.
By the way, Katy Perry, What were you thinking?