USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
Photo by The Nature Conservancy
A fire crew
watches over a
prescribed burn
in North Dakota.
On a sunny day last May, Craig Larson saw 110 acres of grassland on his ranch in Sheridan County go up flames. Driven by a steady breeze, the fire chewed quickly through the heavy thatch on the soil surface. The two-foot tall orange flames seemed alive as they leapt over each other. White smoke billowed into the blue sky.
But Larson didn’t despair.
It was a planned burn being done by the North Dakota Prescribed Fire Cooperative (NDPFC) – a coalition led by Audubon Dakota that provides landowners with prescribed burns to improve grasslands for cattle and wildlife and demonstrate the value of fire as a grassland management tool.
⢠Calf health
Looking at some of those items, Pederson noted it has been determined by some researchers that the relative economic weight of reproduction, growth, and product (carcass) traits is 4:2:1, meaning that reproduction is four times more important economically as product and twice as important when compared to growth of a calf.
Cow condition
Pederson presented data from the Padlock Ranch in Wyoming, which involved over 100,000 observations. The data was taken from spring-calving cows that had their body condition score rated at weaning, as well as what the pregnancy rate for those cows was the following spring. The body condition scores ranged from 3 to 6-plus. It was found that the lower scoring cows had a 75.7 percent pregnancy rate, while those cows with a body score of 6 or higher had a 95.6 pregnancy rate.
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Courtesy of The Nature Conservancy
LIGHT IT UP: A fire crew watches over a prescribed burn in North Dakota. This type of controlled system allows for burning of vegetation to improve grassland regrowth along with enhanced plant diversity. Farmer sees increased forage output after a prescribed burn.
Dec 17, 2020
Craig Larson saw 110 acres of grassland on his ranch in Sheridan County, N.D., go up flames. Driven by a steady breeze, the fire chewed quickly through the heavy thatch on the soil surface. The 2-foot-tall orange flames seemed alive as they leapt over each other. White smoke billowed into the blue sky.
On a sunny day last May, Craig Larson saw 110 acres of grassland on his ranch in Sheridan County, N.D., go up flames. Driven by a steady breeze, the fire chewed quickly through the heavy thatch on the soil surface. The 2-foot tall orange flames seemed alive as they leapt over each other. White smoke billowed into the blue sky.
But Larson didnât despair.
It was a planned burn being done by the North Dakota Prescribed Fire Cooperative â a coalition led by Audubon Dakota that provides landowners with prescribed burns to improve grasslands for cattle and wildlife and demonstrate the value of fire as a grassland management tool.