The Importance of Range and Pasture Lands

The Importance of Range and Pasture Lands

Rick Worthington
Rick Worthington
Range and pasture lands are diverse types of land where the primary vegetation produced is herbaceous plants and shrubs.

These lands provide forage for beef cattle, dairy cattle, sheep, goats, horses and other types of domestic livestock. All pretty important things where ranchers are concerned.

The latest word from the USDA is that pasture and rangeland conditions are getting worse.

Brad Rippey is a USDA meteorologist and explains.

Across the Corn Belt, rain showers are developing from Illinois eastward, maintaining extremely wet conditions and aggravating lowland flooding. In contrast, the upper Midwest remains covered by snow; Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, has a current snow depth of 7 inches.

Winter wheat is believed to be doing well beneath the snow, with 54% of Montana's crop rated in good to excellent condition on February 25.

In the West, precipitation is confined to parts of Arizona and the Pacific Northwest. Despite the recent turn toward cooler, slightly wetter weather, one-half of California's rangeland and pastures were rated in very poor to poor condition on February 25, according to USDA.

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