Pitchfork Ranch hosts first WYGLC event

The Wyoming Grazing Lands Coalition is officially in full swing.

The new organization held its first event in August this year at the Pitchfork Ranch in Meeteetse, Wyo. The WYGLC program was launched in May, and coordinator, Hannah Fraley facilitated the inaugural event.

Also assisting were Megan Terry, Western Lands Alliance Program Manager and Blaise Allen, Natural Resources Conservation Services rangeland management specialist.

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Guests, consisting of local ranchers and rangeland enthusiasts, were invited to a walk-through of the grazing lands on the ranch to learn about management practices and native and nonnative forage species.

First, Ranch Manager Ben Anson gave an overview of range management practices. One of the tools he implemented upon becoming ranch manager was utilizing information from the website Web Soil Survey, created by the NRCS. He mapped individual pastures and measured vegetation and productivity based on an average year’s rainfall, which is 14 inches at headquarters. With this data, he created an Excel spreadsheet, with which he can calculate how many cows he can run on a given pasture for how many days, with the goal of leaving 50% of the forage. Though Anson created the spreadsheet himself, professionals such as Allen can assist producers in creating their own similar tool.

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Anson said of his approach, “I’m kind of old school. There’s a lot of different grazing systems out there, but we’re still on take half, leave half.”

“I was always told it’s not the grass you take, it’s the grass you leave behind. We’re slightly understocked for a poor year,” he said. Last year, 2023. was an exceptionally wet year, which allowed them to stockpile forage. “Last year, we didn’t take 25%, but this year, we’ll be a lot closer to half. We have very limited soil structure here. Anything we can do to try to improve that is going to put us ahead.”

MAINTAINING CATTLE CONDITION

Beyond the conditions of the grazing lands, Anson also seeks to maintain cattle condition. “I want a cow in a body condition score of a 5.5 for 365 days out of the year. It’s pretty hard to accomplish. Coming out of winter we’ll see a lot of 5s. sometimes 4.5s. We’ve pushed back calving dates as far as we possibly can, as close to green grass as possible.” The Pitchfork Ranch calves April 15 and green grass starts growing around May 15.

The old adage, “You can’t improve a cow’s body condition score after she’s calved” due to her nutritional demands has been proven wrong by Anson, he said. “I’ve seen it work. I’ve seen them pick up half a body condition score after they’ve calved. And that’s kind of important for me to see. A lot of it has to do with green grass coming on, a lot of it has to do with our mineral program.” Anson utilizes three different products from AniPro throughout the year: Grazermate mineral in summer, FiberPlus75 after coming off the mountain in fall, and a liquid supplement leading up to calving.

Their summer country consists of Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and state lands, which reach up to 10,000 feet in elevation. Deeded land closer to home serves for winter grazing and calving. At headquarters, the elevation is roughly 6,400 feet.

“We’re fairly low input. The cows don’t usually see a drop of hay through the winter, so it’s important for us to manage those pastures to that standard,” he said. Anson manages cattle distribution throughout pastures with the use of a cake pickup in winter.

FORAGE SPECIES

Following an introduction to the ranch’s practices, NRCS Specialist Allen led a walk-through of a nearby pasture to identify forage species and discuss their traits.

The first plant discussed was the ever-pervasive cheatgrass. “One good thing about cheatgrass,” Allen said, “is it has a crude protein level of upwards of 15% right when it starts in that vegetative state. It’ll be the first to green up during the year. It’s not all bad, but once it gets its seedheads like this, nothing wants to eat it. Then, its protein level drops to 2-3%.”

Allen took the opportunity to introduce the NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives Program. He said, “EQIP offers financial incentive to spray cheatgrass. It’s an issue throughout the entire West. We pay almost 100%.” He cited a study conducted near Pinedale in which 100,000 acres of cheatgrass was sprayed, and seven years later, there is still 0% cheatgrass. Once it is eradicated, more nutritious forage can emerge.

One attendee asked about non-chemical techniques to eliminate the nonnative species. Allen replied, “I’ve been to so many of Brian Mueller’s talks. They have not found that grazing will reduce the amount of cheatgrass. They’ve tried grazing in early spring to keep the seedheads off, but they have not found they have very good control.”

Allen flagged lupine and asked Anson about cattle management in areas with high volumes of lupine. Anson said he switched calving pastures, as a formerly used pasture had enough lupine to cause crooked calf syndrome in a handful of instances.

Indian Rice Grass was compared to the “ice cream” of plants for foragers. Allen said, “It gets its name because Indians would use this a lot for their flour harvest. They would gather seed heads — it would take a lot of them — and make flour from it. It’s super palatable to livestock. They seek this out. It’ll decrease as you see grazing pressure. It has a higher crude protein content at 11.5% in early growth, dropping off to 4% later in the year. It is slower to get going but works in a lot of climates. This is super important for our livestock.”

All plants discussed on the day were cool season forage. Others included needle and thread, needleleaf sedge, western wheatgrass, Sandberg bluegrass, prairie junegrass, winterfat, bluebunch wheatgrass, smooth brome, slender wheatgrass, meadow foxtail, alfalfa, western salsify, and Japanese brome.

According to Terry, the WYGLC is “the product of an exciting partnership between Western Landowners Alliance and Wyoming Association of Conservation Districts with the goal of serving landowners by providing a variety of technical assistance resources, workshops, and field days across the state.”

Attendees were encouraged to take advantage of their local programs such as the NRCS or WYGLC for rangeland management education and resources.