UW Extension Rangeland Management Workshop Set Near Lance Creek

How to get more out of grazing and protect grass resources is the focus of the Basics of Rangeland Management workshop Thursday, Sept. 7, at the Lance Creek School/Kremer’s Ranch northwest of Lusk.

The session is 8 a.m.-4 p.m., says Ashley Garrelts, University of Wyoming Extension educator.

“Ranchers and rangeland managers will learn skills that will allow them to improve their rangeland resource while maintaining their grazing animals,” Garrelts says. “The combination of classroom and field discussions will allow participants to learn the why and how of these skills.”

Garrelts says the morning session will cover soils, ecological site descriptions (ESDs), plant response to grazing, rangeland plant nutrition, grazing distribution and grazing response index.

The afternoon will focus in the field discussing ESDs, plant identification, rangeland monitoring, on-the-ground forage production estimates and infrastructure design.

Speakers are:

-- Garrelts is the east-central Wyoming range management educator. She works with and develops programs for women livestock producers and range managers. She also helps ranchers integrate new technologies into their operations.

-- Livestock systems Extension Educator Dallas Mount helped develop the High Plains Ranch Practicum School, a ranch management school focused on people, economics, range and forage production.

-- Derek Scasta is the extension range management specialist and is experienced in how fire and drought, stocking rate and timing of grazing influence cattle distribution; plant community composition and structure; plant succession; shrub regeneration; and production.

UW Extension and the Niobrara Conservation District sponsor the workshop. RSVPs are requested by Friday, Sept. 1. Call (307) 358-2417 or (307) 334-9957.