Forage is one of the limiting factors for producers. That’s why we’ve traditionally been so concerned when weedy species began appearing in and taking over pastures and rangelands. Today, weedy species and plants we don’t typically think of as forage make up about a third of our pastures. One researcher I asked to help me gauge the size of this problem came up with an average of 38% weeds in pastures. But as one Ruby Valley, Nevada rancher pointed out to me last week, if his animals grazed those plants, he’d have more days in a pasture, which would make his whole operation more productive and profitable.
I asked economist John Morley to take a look at how much additional forage a producer could have if his cows were taught to eat weeds. He started with the 38% infestation rate. Then he looked at the sheep and goat prescribed grazing studies to find that grazers typically use 70 to 90% of the weeds in a pasture. He used the conservative 70% rate for educated cows to estimate that a producer would have 43% more forage if his/her cows were weed-eaters. (more…)
