Grazing Distribution: The Quest for the Silver Bullet

ince the beginning of the range management pro-fession, distribution of livestock on rangelands has been one of many challenges. Much of the informa-tion on different livestock distribution practices has come from anecdotal evidence and case studies. Whereas the early focus was on distributing livestock evenly across a pasture, the more recent focus has been to keep livestock out of riparian areas. We have examined the effectiveness of several different distribution practices. It has become appar-ent that the effectiveness depends upon the ranching system to which it will be applied as to whether it is both eco-logically and economically practical. For this reason, we have developed a model of an eastern Oregon ranching system to test the effect of each practice. We will discuss the model ranch and demonstrate how it is used to evaluate livestock distribution practices and show how the model can be applied to a region in terms of economic impacts and job creation.The grazing distribution practices examined included off-stream water developments with trace mineralized salt, herding, early weaning, altering the season of use, fencing, and strategic supplementation. Northeast Oregon is charac-terized by mixed conifer forests in the mountains and valleys that are mostly cropped. The mountains have numerous riparian areas associated with a mixture of dry and wet meadows (Figs. 1 and 2). Seasonal grazing is tradi tionally practiced on a combination of deeded and federal land.