Annual grazing plans and within year adaptations are commonly developed based on a combination of average annual precipitation and current year precipitation. Because inter- and intra-annual precipitation patterns are variable, predicting aboveground plant production on grazinglands is challenging. However, there are reports of using within year precipitation records to predict current-year, aboveground plant production. We quantified aboveground plant biomass on warm-season grass dominated upland range (sands ecological site) at the Gudmundsen Sandhills Laboratory and the Barta Brothers Ranch in the Nebraska Sandhills. Aboveground biomass by plant functional group has been estimated by clipping standing vegetation at ground level in 30 to 60 quadrats (0.25 m2) in mid-June and mid-August (peak standing crop) from 1999 through 2015. The quadrats were in 1-m2 exclosures that were moved annually within rangeland pastures grazed at moderate stocking rates (1.5 to 1.9 AUM ha2). Precipitation and temperature data were collected from on-site weather stations. Preliminary analysis suggests that May and June precipitation is a good predictor of peak standing crop in August, although April and May precipitation also is a good indicator of August plant biomass. Dependable predictions of annual plant production based on early season precipitation is a valuable tool for livestock producers on grazinglands.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.