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Vegetation and Soil Responses to Cattle Grazing Systems in the Texas Rolling Plains
Author
Wood, M. K.
Blackburn, W. H.
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
1984-07-01
Body

The influence of cattle grazing on selected vegetation and soil parameters were evaluated on a clay flat range site with shrub zonal, midgrass, and shortgrass communities in the Rolling Plains near Throckmorton, Texas. Measurements were made on one pasture of each treatment during 1977 following 4 to 20 years of grazing treatments. Heavy, continuous cattle grazing had more area occupied by the shortgrass community than midgrass community. Heavily grazed pastures were generally dominated by the shortgrass community, with midgrasses, depending on the degree of utilization, restricted to the shrub zonal community. Conversely, cattle exclosures had no shortgrass community, and deferred-rotation and moderately stocked continuously grazed systems had much midgrass community with the shortgrass community occupying only 30% of the area, thus increasing range productivity. Vegetation and soil parameters within the high intensity, low frequency and heavily stocked, continuously grazed pastures tended to be similar for the midgrass and shortgrass communities, but the shrub zonal community was generally different. Vegetation and soil parameters in the midgrass community of the moderately stocked, continuously grazed treatment were generally similar to shrub zonal and different from shortgrass communities. Vegetation and soil variables in the exclosures and deferred-rotation treatments were generally similar among the midgrass and shrub zonal communities; however, they differed from the shortgrass communities. 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

Language
en
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Journal Issue/Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.2307/3898699
Additional Information
Wood, M. K., & Blackburn, W. H. (1984). Vegetation and soil responses to cattle grazing systems in the Texas Rolling Plains. Journal of Range Management, 37(4), 303-308.
ISSN
0022-409X
OAI Identifier
oai:repository.arizona.edu:10150/645736
Journal Volume
37
Journal Number
4
Journal Pages
303-308
Collection
Rangeland Ecology & Management (REM)
Journal Name
Journal of Range Management
Keywords
Plains
soil
pastures
vegetation
cattle
Texas
grazing