The Art of Range Podcast

Lands are tied to people, and any changes in land use necessarily involve people. Understanding people and land together is the work of cultural and landscape geography. Paul Starrs is a geographer who has written some of the more interesting literature on the lifeways of range people. Tip and Paul discuss the culture of the West and challenges to ranching in a wide-ranging interview centered on Paul's opening chapter in the book "Ranching West of the 100th Meridian".

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RESOURCES MENTIONED ON THE SHOW:

Many of Paul Starrs's publications are available at his ResearchGate page, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paul_Starrs/research.

A brief biography and contact information can be found at his faculty page, https://www.unr.edu/geography/people/paul-starrs.

The 1998 book "Ranching West of the 100th Meridian" is available for purchase at most online stores or by special order from your local bookstore. His book Let the Cowboy Ride is a more robust treatment of ranching in the American West than the title would suggest. This is a readable, scholarly exploration of "the peculiar conditions that created an abiding tension between ranchers and government in the western reaches of the United States, and to understand this tumult in the context of its time then and our time now" (from the author's introduction in the book). The book is available to order through various outlets.

For those who are interested in Deep Springs College, their excellent website is https://www.deepsprings.edu/.

TRANSCRIPT

The full transcript of this episode is available at: https://bit.ly/2RnYlGX

Rangeland vegetation monitoring has always been hampered by landscape variability, site selection bias, and available time to get to remote areas. With the Rangeland Analysis Platform, range managers can get landscape-scale cover values (perennial grass, annuals, shrubs, and trees) over both space and time, with data going back to 1984. Brady Allred and Matt Jones discuss the origins of the RAP, the mechanics of the technology, and applications for land managers.

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RESOURCES DISCUSSED ON THE SHOW

Rangeland Analysis Platform. https://rangelands.app/

Working Lands for Wildlife. http://bit.ly/322b83g

Journal article "Innovation in rangeland monitoring: annual, 30 m, plant functional type percent cover maps for U.S. rangelands, 1984–2017", available in full text at http://bit.ly/32YowXK.

Journal article "Patterns of rangeland productivity and land ownership: Implications for conservation and management", available in full text at http://bit.ly/325fDKN.

1976 journal article by Eugene Maxwell: "A Remote Rangeland Analysis System", available at http://bit.ly/2phKJ4v.

Convert Google Earth KML file into shapefile for importing into the RAP. https://mygeodata.cloud/converter/kml-to-shp

TRANSCRIPT

The full transcript of this episode is available at: https://bit.ly/2N9IZmR

Perennial bunchgrass roots are the prize fighter in the wildland boxing ring with cheatgrass, and bacteria may be sitting this one out. Matt Germino, range scientist with the US Geological Survey in Idaho, describes recent research on how bunchgrass roots compete with invasive annual grasses below the soil surface. We discuss concepts of resilience and resistance, the ecological mechanisms involved in competition, monitoring measurements that are good indicators of root dominance, and eventually discuss discouraging research on Pseudomonas flavescens, the bacterium hoped to be a silver bullet against cheatgrass.

You can find more information on the research discussed here at the USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center website: https://www.usgs.gov/centers/fresc

And you can reach Matt Germino at [email protected].

Many articles on the Rangelands journal website are Open Access and do not require a paid subscription to the Society for Range Management or the journal. Check it out at https://www.journals.elsevier.com/rangelands.

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TRANSCRIPT: https://bit.ly/2OJBoeQ

Following "Cattle Free by '93" sentiment of the 80s and 90s has come growth in the middle ground, supported by both increasing recognition of the ecosystem goods and services provided by grazed rangelands as well as improvements in grazing management. Tip and Rick continue their discussion here and transition to Payment for Ecosystem Services programs that incentivize stewardship instead of non-production.

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PUBLICATIONS MENTIONED ON THE PODCAST

The book Rick co-authored, Ranching West of the 100th Meridian, is available at https://islandpress.org/books/ranching-west-100th-meridian.

Beef and Beyond: Paying for Ecosystem Services on Western US Rangelands. https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/rangelands/article/viewFile/19306/18969

Ranchers as a keystone species in a West that works. https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/rangelands/article/view/12293

Patterns of rangeland productivity and land ownership: Implications for conservation and management. https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/eap.1862

TRANSCRIPT: https://bit.ly/36rWohO

The value of large public lands is largely dependent on adjacent private lands. Charismatic megafauna that characterize the American West will, perhaps ironically, only survive if large livestock ranches remain profitable. Rick Knight, conservation biologist at Colorado State University, discusses with Tip the unequal ecological value of private lands, the rise of the radical center, and the economics of maintaining habitat through ranching.

PUBLICATIONS MENTIONED ON THE PODCAST

The book Rick co-authored, Ranching West of the 100th Meridian, is available at https://islandpress.org/books/ranching-west-100th-meridian.

Beef and Beyond: Paying for Ecosystem Services on Western US Rangelands. https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/rangelands/article/viewFile/19306/18969

Ranchers as a keystone species in a West that works. https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/rangelands/article/view/12293

Patterns of rangeland productivity and land ownership: Implications for conservation and management. https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/eap.1862

TRANSCRIPT: https://bit.ly/2l9fhmE

Epigenetics studies in beef cattle have revealed surprising long-term effects of cow nutrition on performance of offspring in muscle and fat development, calf survivability, growth, carcass characteristics, reproduction, and health. Don Llewellyn and Tip discuss research what is meant by fetal programming (the more familiar name for this branch of epigenetics)and some of the research from Nebraska and Kansas that has illuminated the relationship between the health of the mother and the subsequent health of the calf throughout its life.

LINKS

Feeding Beef Cattle II: Fetal Programming, by Don Llewellyn. http://pubs.cahnrs.wsu.edu/publications/pubs/em060e/

Fetal Programming: Cow Nutrition and its Effects on Calf Performance, from North Carolina State Univ. https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/fetal-programming-cow-nutrition-and-its-effects-on-calf-performance

Fetal Programming of Beef Cattle, by Tom Hamilton, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food. https://www.canadiancattlemen.ca/2014/01/29/fetal-programming-of-beef-cattle/

Nutrition During Gestation and Fetal Programming (scientific paper by Kimberly Vonnahme). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242680621_Nutrition_During_Gestation_and_Fetal_Programming

Feeding Beef Cattle I: The Realities of Low-Quality Forages, by Don Llewellyn. http://pubs.cahnrs.wsu.edu/publications/pubs/em053e/

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TRANSCRIPT: https://bit.ly/2kCgtPh

A common misconception about late summer and fall range grass is that low-quality forages serve only as fillers and have little value as feed. If this were universally true, wild ruminants would not be able to survive. Join Tip Hudson and Don Llewellyn for Art of Range episode #20 as they discuss how to get ruminants to digest low-quality forages. Rumen physiology, ruminant nutrition, and the fine points of proper protein supplementation for cattle on late summer/fall/winter range and pasture are all on tap.

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TRANSCRIPT: https://bit.ly/33YCsBU

LINKS

Feeding Beef Cattle I: The Realities of Low-Quality Forages, by Don Llewellyn. http://pubs.cahnrs.wsu.edu/publications/pubs/em053e/

Feeding Beef Cattle II: Fetal Programming, by Don Llewellyn. http://pubs.cahnrs.wsu.edu/publications/pubs/em060e/

(REQUEST WET CHEMISTRY, NOT NIR, WHEN YOU SUBMIT A RANGE SAMPLE FOR ANALYSIS)

Forage Analysis Interpretation, Montana State University. http://msuextension.org/publications/AgandNaturalResources/MT201609AG.pdf

Understanding Forage Test Results, Oregon State University. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ddbe/4436492e61471e1ea718426edb2f50a9f6dc.pdf

Supplementing Beef Cows

Mineral Supplementation of Beef Cows in the Pacific Northwest. https://www.extension.uidaho.edu/publishing/pdf/PNW/PNW670.pdf

Why a podcast to teach on range ecology and livestock production? Tip discusses some of the thInking behind using podcasting to counter the ”Age of Distraction” and to promote deep thinking about complex subjects.

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TRANSCRIPT

The full transcript of this episode is available at: https://bit.ly/2KjwAvg

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TRANSCRIPT

The full transcript of this episode is available at: https://bit.ly/32OcUa1

Can satellite data and drones answer questions we’re not even asking yet? Jason Karl, Univ. of Idaho researcher, believes that’s a good possibility. We may be able to make connections, associations, observations, even test hypotheses, using images of whole landscapes in tandem with ground-based measurements to better understand and manage rangelands. Join Jason and Tip as they discuss the limitations and opportunities in remotely-sensed data, how to choose good monitoring indicators and measurements, and rancher-ready tools for analyzing landscapes.

TRANSCRIPT

The full transcript of this episode is available at: https://bit.ly/2S7sLvt

Chapter on monitoring protocols: Options, approaches, implementation, benefits. https://jornada.nmsu.edu/files/bibliography/17-012.pdf

https://www.landscapetoolbox.org/