December 5, 2002

12-Month Livestock-Pasture-Forage Management Planning Course Set for January

A course on 12-month livestock-pasture-forage management will be offered Tuesday through Thursday, Jan. 7-9, on the campus of Dickinson State University. The course is designed for producers and students who want to learn more about developing ranch management plans.

The course will run from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Jan. 7, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Jan. 8, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Jan. 9. Dickinson is in the Mountain Time Zone. Space is limited, so those who wish to participate are encouraged to register as soon as possible by calling (701) 483-2185.

The cost to producers is $100.88 ($45.88 registration, $35 application fee for those who have not previously been enrolled at Dickinson State University, and $20 laboratory fee). College students enrolled in the course will receive one credit from Dickinson State University; the cost of the course will be included in regular tuition and fees, but the student must pay a $20 laboratory fee. The cost of the text for the course is $25 to producers and students. Continuing Education graduate credit for the course is also available from North Dakota State University.

"Each participant in the course will develop a grassland management strategy that provides a full 12-month forage sequence for his or her own ranch," says Lee Manske, an NDSU range management researcher and one of the course instructors. "The course will present information about range ecology, livestock nutrition, and forage production to help participants understand and operate their 12-month ranch management plans."

Northern Plains beef operations must cope with low profit margins and weather extremes. To contend with these challenges, producers can implement management strategies that reduce pasture and forage costs and maintain plant health status and herbage production at higher levels than traditional management practices, Manske says. These strategies are based on three scientific premises:

• Coordinating plant stages and livestock grazing to enhance grass plant growth, stimulate beneficial soil organism activity, and increase nutrient flow in grassland and cropland ecosystems.
• Timing grazing or mechanical harvest of forages to capture the greatest quantity of crude protein, energy or other nutrients per acre and thereby reduce the cost per pound of nutrient and in turn the cost of livestock feed.
• Providing a sequence of forage and feed types to meet the changing nutrient requirements of livestock throughout the yearly production cycle and thereby maintain animal production efficiency and reduce annual feed costs.

A team of instructors for the course will lead discussions and explain basic principles and concepts of land and resource inventories, rangeland ecosystems, grass growth, effects from defoliation, livestock nutritional requirements, nutritional value curves of forage plants, grazing systems, economics of systems, production of annual forages, by-products as feed, winter rations and the development of 12-month management plans.

Other instructors are Kevin Sedivec, NDSU Extension Service range management specialist; Toby Stroh, DSU assistant professor of agriculture; and Greg Lardy, NDSU Extension Service beef specialist. The course is offered by the DSU agricultural department in cooperation with the NDSU animal and range sciences department and the NDSU Dickinson Research Extension Center.

Participants will need to prepare a complete set of maps and provide copies of aerial photos for their entire land holdings, including owned and leased land, and calculate the acreage of each parcel of land and forage type prior to the start of the course. Participants will also need pens, pencils, note paper, and a calculator for the course.

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Source: Lee Manske, (701) 483-2076, lmanske@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Editor: Tom Jirik, (701) 231-9629, tjirik@ndsuext.nodak.edu