Number and kinds of cattle trails may have a dramatic impact on relative amount of bare soil and subsequently on amount and rate of soil erosion. The objective of this study was to quantify the effect of a cell-designed, rotational grazing treatment (RG) on density and kinds of cattle trails. Density of cattle trails in the RG treatment was compared to those in heavy continuous (HC), moderate continuous (MC), and deferred rotation (DR) treatments at 4 distances from water. There were no differences among the HC, MC, and DR treatments in density of trails. Trail densities ranged from 14/km near water sources to 9/km at the far end of the pastures. This compares to the RG treatment where trail densities ranged from 164/km near the cell center to 24/km at the far end of the paddock. The effect of increasing the RG treatment from 14 to 42 paddocks was also investigated. Subdivision of paddocks increased trail densities near the center from 32/km to 57/km with no increase noted at the far ends of the paddocks. It is concluded that implementation of a cell-designed, RG system will cause a significant increase in density and number of cattle trails particularly near the cell center. This material was digitized as part of a cooperative project between the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. The Journal of Range Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact lbry-journals@email.arizona.edu for further information. Migrated from OJS platform August 2020
Scholarly peer-reviewed articles published by the Society for Range Management. Access articles on a rolling-window basis from vol. 1, 1948 up to 5 years from the current year. Formerly Journal of Range Management (JRM). More recent content is available by subscription from SRM.