Climate stressors, such as drought, can push rangelands towards critical thresholds that, if crossed, will lead to impaired productivity and ecosystem function. As such, innovative management will be necessary to safeguard the functionality of these ecosystems and reduce the likelihood of undesired transitions. Supplemental cattle feeding in shrub-dominated ecosystems applies organic matter and nutrients to rangeland soils in the form of manure and waste hay. Given sufficient time, adding these critical components to the soil surface may help to foster the development of healthy, functional soils on rangelands with marginal soil and vegetation quality. Further, this practice may accelerate terrestrial carbon sequestration by enhancing primary productivity. To investigate the effects of this practice, we examined soil organic matter, infiltration, CO2 burst respiration, and vegetation cover on a landscape where this practice has been implemented each spring for more than a decade. Between 80 and 100 cow-calf pairs have been fed hay daily on this landscape for 10-16 days annually in May. By comparing vegetation and soil metrics on this landscape and a nearby control area exposed to grazing, but not supplemental feeding, the study will quantify the benefits of this practice and determine if it warrants expanded application. Final results are forthcoming, but practitioners indicate that the vegetation in this area has improved since the practice was implemented. The study will also establish a carbon monitoring protocol and baseline on a much larger landscape. This to facilitate future research concerning management decisions related to terrestrial carbon sequestration. In this way, the study can use a widely-applicable methodology to both address the chronic lack of baseline data that exists at the ranch level and examine a seemingly beneficial management practice with the potential for expanded application.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.