As producers face greater natural resource concerns in the eastern Colorado landscape, it is important to have access to tools to aid in better management and monitoring of natural resources. Producers are also seeking tools to enhance and restore rangelands, but they do not have access to practical, measurable, and standardized grazing management plans (GMPs).
GMPs can be a critical component in assisting producers maximize livestock and rangeland productivity, but adoption is lacking. Colorado Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) and AgNext have convened a multidisciplinary team who developed science-based grazing management principles for the 21st century, aimed at supporting climate resilience, improving rangeland health, biodiverse working landscapes, and efficient management to support economically sustainable ranching. This group’s innovation for sharing these principles was recognized by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation with an award of $863,000 over three years to work on the project.
Goals and objectives for this project include:
- Improved management practices on at least 10,000 acres of eastern Colorado grasslands.
- Technology management options for Lesser Prairie-Chickens to assist in either removing or not introducing additional hazards and/or barriers to movement while also providing the habitat cover requirements needed for the listed species.
- Expand technical assistance for producers to implement the best science-based GMPs that incorporate production, conservation, and economic metrics to determine progress towards their desired outcomes.
- Education for partners in grazing management application to build stronger relationships between stakeholders on working landscapes and work toward enhancing the viability of wildlife habitat, production agriculture, and land health on working lands.
This new award will provide support for using virtual fencing as a means of habitat management. As virtual fence has become more popular throughout the cattle industry, our goal is to continue to explore the efficacy of this type of fencing for different uses for producers.
Through a request for proposal (RFP) process, CCA will recruit and select producers who cumulatively represent at least 10,000 acres of working lands on the Eastern Colorado grasslands to apply the developed grazing management principles. This process will gather more information about the operation and collect the owner’s/manager’s knowledge and current application of grazing management principles.
AgNext researchers are looking forward to starting this project in January of 2025.
This project is made possible through a grant from National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, with support from Cargill and Nestlé.
Click here to learn more about CCA's partnership with AgNext.