Understanding Prescribed Grazing (528)

Module I: Basics - Conservation Standards and Specifications

Jon GustafsonCalifornia State Rangeland Management

Specialist

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Content• Using this self-paced presentation• Where conservation practice documentation

come from?• What is a key practice and what does it mean to

me as a conservation planner?• How do I know which specification to use?• What do I have to do in order to meet the 528

practice standard requirements?• Where can I find the basic information to

develop a 528 practice requirement sheet?

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Using this ModuleThis is the first module of a three module course. This module is intended to acclimate NRCS employees to the 528 practice and prepare them for the two subsequent modules. At the outside, it should take about two hours to complete this module and about 20 minutes to complete the test. You may request the post-test at any time via email: jon.gustafson@ca.usda.gov

To help you along, print out a copy of this presentation using the “Notes Pages” option in the print menu (the following slide shows how to select settings). There are numerous notes which accompany each slide and printing the pages will make the information readily available to you during the latter two modules of the course.

Topics in this course are color coded by the background of each slide. Primary resources for this course are the National Range and Pasture Handbook, the FOTG and the National Planning Procedures Handbook.

Questions you may have about this portion of the course may be submitted to Jon via email. If you have a question, likely someone else has it too.

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Conservation Practice StandardsConservation practice standards are the parameters of how the agency treats specific resource concerns through determined methods and concepts.

National conservation practice standards are developed by national leaders in the field of concern and these practices are released through the National Conservation Practice Standards Committee. The national technical leaders typically include agency institute specialists, national technical support specialists, and some state specialists.

State conservation practice standards are adapted to state specific conditions by state specialists and the State FOTG Committee. These revised standards augment the national requirements to the extent necessary to meet resource management variables which typically apply statewide. In order for specific elements of the national standard to be modified, most notably the purposes and criteria, a state may choose to request a variance at the national level.

Once a conservation practice standard is formalized at the state level, it becomes the technical guiding document for all activities stemming from the use of the practice. This includes the development of specifications, job sheets and site specific practice requirements.

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Conservation Practice Specifications

Conservation practice specifications are documents which provide the user (customer) with the expectations of how the practice will be implemented. These requirements are developed at the state level and must adhere to the approved state conservation practice standard.

Unlike standards, practice specifications are developed to address state-specific land use and landscape scenarios. Depending on the complexity of these two factors, the specification may range from fairly specific to somewhat general. This flexibility is necessary in ensuring that the intended effects of the practice are realized when the practice is implemented.

Conversely, it is recognized through the specification that certain conditions almost always occur under certain circumstances across the state. It is at this level of predictability that the practice specification is intended to address.

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Conservation Practice Requirements

Conservation practice requirements are the site-specific interpretation of the state conservation practice standard and the appropriate specification. The practice requirements are additional guidance for the customer as to how to meet their resource management goals.

In virtually every case, resource management goals cannot be met through the use of the specification alone as a guiding document. The practice requirement developed by the planner in conjunction with the client provide the nuts and bolts of how to move the existing condition in the desired direction.

It is critical to note here that in the case of management practices, practice requirements should never be developed without the help of the operator. Without buy-in from the operator, the proposed practice requirements are likely to not only be ill received, but also ill conceived.

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Conservation Practice Standard Development Flow

National Conservation Practice Standard

State FOTG Committee

Area FOTG Committee

State Technical Specialist

Draft State Conservation Practice Standard

National Conservation Practice SOW

Final State Conservation Practice Standard

National Conservation Practice Standards Committee

NRCS Specialists at State and Technical Support Center levels

Click once to start animation. When you see “Final State Conservation Practice Standard”, the animation has ended.

To view animation again, tap the up arrow key on your keyboard once then left mouse-click once again.

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Specification, Statement of Work, and Practice Requirement Development Flow

Final State Conservation Practice Standard

State Technical Specialist

National Conservation Practice SOW

State Conservation Practice SOW

State Conservation Practice Specification

State Practice Requirement Sheet Template

State FOTG Committee

Field Office PlannerCustomer

Site-Specific Practice Requirements

Click once to view animation, when you see “Site-Specific Practice Requirements”, the animation has ended.

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What is a “Key” Practice?• The most important practice(s) that pertain to a

specific type of management system• The practice(s) which have the greatest potential

to effect long term sustainability of the resource base

• The practice(s) which present the greatest challenges and opportunity to the planner and the customer

• Management practice(s) which by definition is required as part of an RMS according to land use

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Key practices and the plannerKey practices more than any other fold into to the iterative conservation planning process. As simple goals are met and new and more complex goals are formed, the level of information needed to develop alternative treatments increases.

Assuming that a resource concern can be treated by management alone, a key practice can be adapted to treat an obvious problem on the landscape. Whether or not the problem is obvious and whether or not the key practice can alone treat the resource concern is a matter of the factors discussed in the notes section from the previous slide.

The iterative process of conservation planning allows for the ramping up of conservation effects over time. No practices show greater potential for this than key practices since management should be adjusted over time as the working landscape changes. Eventually, these changes may modify the goals of the practice altogether.

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Key Practices and the Planner (continued)

Don’t confuse requirements of the conservation practice with intent. The intent is to improve resource conditions on the landscape, not bury the customer and the planner in paperwork.

While most of the key practices seem complex, they are generally boiled down from vast amounts of information on each subject and are in fact quite simple by comparison. Interestingly enough, most resource concerns which can be treated through management alone should be treated using a handful of core concepts, most of which can be found in the conservation practice standard. These concepts require certain questions to be answered before they can be implemented and consequently this is where the additional complexity comes in.

The trick is to ascertain just how much information you need before you and the customer can develop management alternatives which will meet their needs and protect and/or enhance the resource base. Oftentimes during the course of working with customers we later discover that a more effective solution could have been developed if only we had the necessary information.

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Purposes of the key conservation practice Prescribed Grazing (528)

• Improve or maintain desired species composition and vigor of plant communities.

• Improve or maintain quantity and quality of forage for grazing and browsing animals’ health and productivity.

• Improve or maintain surface and/or subsurface water quality and quantity.

• Improve or maintain riparian and watershed function.• Reduce accelerated soil erosion, and maintain or

improve soil condition. • Improve or maintain the quantity and quality of food

and/or cover available for wildlife.• Manage fine fuel loads to achieve desired conditions.

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“How do I know which specification to use?”

For the purposes of Prescribed Grazing, the choice of which specification to use will be dependent on two factors: the resource setting and the goals for management.

Goals for management should consider what is realistic from both ecological and logistical perspectives. Consequently, the specification selected should support proper management of the vegetation resources, not conflict with them.

The 528 specifications are arranged according to the dominant plant community and typical management objectives. Therefore, when a perennial forage plant community is being grazed, the Perennial Rangeland or Irrigated Pasture specifications should be used.

NOTE: Use of the Annual Grassland specification in a perennial forage plant community may lead to negative impacts to total annual production and plant species composition. The grazing strategies which can be used in annual systems are substantially different than those applicable to perennial systems.

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“How do I know which specification to use?” (continued)

In the case where a combination of plant communities occur within one field, select the specification which reasonably addresses those resources at risk. For example, if perennials occur either in relic stands or scattered throughout a field of mostly annuals, it is more likely that the perennials in the field will need more management care than the annuals.

In the case where perennial rangeland, annual grasslands and irrigated pasture conservation management unit (CMU) occur across an entire ranch, select the specification which deals most in alignment with the conservation and management goals. Virtually all grazing lands customers will already know that each CMU will have different management needs so be ready to explain the conceptual framework for managing for each CMU according to the goals and what is technically feasible.

Where the concepts for managing these different CMUs across the ranch come together is in the forage inventory and the grazing strategy or plan. The planner can the specifications as a backdrop for why each CMU has different grazing days and rest periods on the grazing schedule or calendar.

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528 Practice RequirementsBefore jumping to where to find information about how to fulfill the practice

standard requirements, let’s review what they are:1. Goals and Objectives clearly stated.2. Resource Inventory that identifies:

a. existing resource conditions and concernsb. ecological site or forage suitability group c. identifies opportunities to enhance resource conditionsd. location and condition of structural improvements such as fences,

water developments, etc, including seasonal availability and quality of watering sites.

3. Forage Inventory of the expected forage quality, quantity and species in each management unit(s).

4. Forage-Animal Balance developed for the grazing plan, which ensures forage produced or available meets forage demand of livestock and/or wildlife.

5. Grazing Plan developed for livestock that identifies periods of grazing and/or browsing, deferment, rest, and other treatment activities for each management unit.

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528 Practice Requirements (continued)

6. Contingency plan developed that details potential problems (i.e., severe drought, flooding, insects) and serves as a guide for adjusting the grazing prescription to ensure resource management and economic feasibility without resource degradation.

7. Monitoring plan developed with appropriate records to assess in determining whether the grazing strategy is resulting in a positive or upward trend and is meeting objectives. Identify the key areas and key plants that the manager should evaluate in making grazing management decisions.

8. A statement of how this practice may address water quality concerns.

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528 Practice Requirements (continued)

It is no accident that the first two requirements appear where they do in the list. Before moving to the next steps of planning this practice, the planner must know what the goals are and have a good understanding of the planning environment. To proceed without having either goals or an inventory will most likely result in unacceptable and/or unrealistic management alternatives.

These concepts are built into the planning process and are foundational to any good plan:

“As resources are inventoried, their interactions analyzed and alternatives formulated, objectives may need to be reviewed and modified.”

“A complete inventory is the vehicle that moves the client and planner to a position of knowledge… The planner and client work together, on-site, to develop a picture of existing conditions, trends, problems and opportunities.”

-National Planning Procedures Handbook 600.22(a) and 600.23(b)

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528 Practice Requirements (continued)

The forage inventory and forage-animal balance could both be considered to be expansion of the inventory portion of the planning process as necessary to place both planner and client in a position of knowledge.

The forage inventory provides the backdrop of what is possible and what limitations may exist while the forage-animal balance assesses the demand on the forage resources. Since both the forage inventory and the forage-animal balance apply to biological systems with numerous influencing variables, this information should be analyzed in the context of site constraints as well as seasonal changes in both forage availability and demand.

A mechanistic approach to forage productivity and availability is apt to be thwarted by the influences of weather conditions, animal behavior and management. A cyclical approach to assessing management influence upon the forage resource favors refinement of an adaptive approach. These types of assessments could be considered monitoring.

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528 Practice Requirements (continued)

The grazing plan is the culmination of all the other components of the practice requirements. The grazing plan is and should be the most flexible portion of the Prescribed Grazing practice. At the most basic level, a grazing strategy is determined based on the goals of the practice.

The four most basic and critical guiding principles or cardinal rules of grazing management include:

• Matching the proper class (or type) of animal with the grazed landscape

• Implementing a proper stocking rate (forage-animal balance)

• Grazing during the appropriate season

• Establishing appropriate livestock distribution on the operation – both in time and in space

One can quickly see how important a good inventory is to determining how to accomplish any of these aspects to any significant effect.

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528 Practice Requirements (continued)

A contingency plan is a general plan of action that the customer agrees to follow in the event that forage availability is limited. The first step in developing a contingency plan is to identify the most likely threats to normal grazing operations such as drought, fire and flood. The purpose of this requirement is to maintain the productivity of the resource base during and following emergency events.

For most emergencies where total forage loss has not occurred, the forage-animal balance should be recalculated at the time that the emergency occurs. Typical response actions include: feeding roughage, securing alternative grazing lands and reducing herd size.

The planner should consider two components of the contingency plan: direct forage losses and restricted access. Direct forage losses are those that result from forage destruction or limitations in forage production. Restricted access results in entire fields of forage being subjected to a new, and hopefully temporary, site constraint. An example of restricted access might be insufficient livestock water in some fields due to drought.

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528 Practice Requirements (continued)

A monitoring plan should provide direct feedback to the operator regarding how well their management strategy is working.

There are two main requirements to a good monitoring plan: keeping track of management and keeping track of the results of management. Grazing records address what management does to the forage environment and vegetation monitoring provides feedback regarding the impacts of that management.

Without records, we are stuck with making assumptions about what is actually occurring in the fields we monitor. This substantially weakens the value of direct monitoring.

Monitoring methods are identified and instructed by the planner, taught to the customer and implemented by the customer. Consequently, it is critical to agree to use reasonable techniques directly related to management goals and objectives.

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528 Practice Requirements (continued)

The last requirement is a statement of how water quality issues may be addressed by the practice. The requirement does not demand that the plan improve water quality to any specific target. Instead it highlights and peripheral effects that the practice and supporting practices might have on water quality.

Depending on benchmark conditions and strategies adopted, implementation of this practice may enhance water quality by:

• Reducing rate of overland flow through increasing the density of filtering vegetation and/or vegetation residue

• Reducing frequency of animal contact with surface waters

• Increasing shading riparian vegetation thereby reducing surface water temperatures.

• Reducing hydrologic connectivity between potential contaminant sites and surface waters by reducing the frequency and extent of livestock trailing.

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528 Practice Requirements summary

So in order to meet the planning requirements for Prescribed Grazing you will have to follow the conservation planning process that leads you to:

• Define goals and objectives of the practice in cooperation with the customer

• Identify problems and opportunities on the landscape

• Understand current management and infrastructure

• Quantify where and how much forage is produced on the operation

• Determine how many animals can graze the landscape while maintaining or enhancing the resource base

• Identify a grazing management strategy which addresses the goals of the practice

• Develop a strategy to deal with critical forage loss events

• Develop a straightforward monitoring plan that the operator can get behind

• Describe how the practice may affect water quality concerns.

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How do I get the info needed to complete this work?

• Goals and objectives - The customer

• Inventory – Case files, CST, FOTG Section II, soil survey, site assessment, the customer

• Forage Inventory – ESDs, Soil Survey, UCCE documents, FOTG Section II site sampling, the customer

• Forage-Animal Balance – The customer and the forage inventory

• Grazing Plan – The customer, the goals for the practice, National Range and Pasture Handbook

• Contingency Plan – The customer, the forage inventory, UCCE local resources

• Monitoring Plan – The customer, the goals for the practice, Monitoring Manual for Grassland, Shrubland and Savanna Ecosystem, and locally adopted methods

• Water Quality Effects Statement – The customer, the goals of the practice, the grazing plan for this practice and the conservation plan.

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Key Reference Materials• Soil Data Mart:

http://soildatamart.nrcs.usda.gov/County.aspx?State=CA• Ecological site descriptions:

http://esis.sc.egov.usda.gov/Welcome/pgESDWelcome.aspx

• National Range and Pasture Handbook: http://www.glti.nrcs.usda.gov/

• Monitoring Manual for Grassland, Shrubland and Savanna Ecosystems: http://usda-ars.nmsu.edu/

• UCCE resources: http://danr.ucop.edu/uccelr/uccelr.htm

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End Module ICongratulations. Take a well-deserved break. You should now have a firm backdrop for what Prescribed Grazing (528) is which you will want to have when you take Modules II and III. You may wish to retain your printed hard copy of this module for reference during the following modules.

Please request the test via email and don’t forget to make a request to take Modules II and III. jon.gustafson@ca.usda.gov