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  • From: Mark <mpludwig@facstaff.wisc.edu>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org, midwestpermaculture@yahoogroups.com
  • Subject: [permaculture] Fwd: RE: [grazersedge] CRP vs grazing
  • Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 16:39:35 -0600


I know Laura Paine pretty well, she's very sharp and practical.
M




Jim,

You are right. The nesting cycle of an average grassland bird is about 4 to
5 weeks and the peak of the nesting season coincides with the spring flush.
So, we do get a relatively high level of nest mortality. In one of our
studies, we looked at setting aside a group of paddocks as a 'nesting
refuge' for about 6 weeks. The producers we worked with cut these paddocks
for hay after July 1. The hay was pretty low quality, but later in the
season, these paddocks had higher quality than those in their regular
rotations. This also fits in with some of the thinking on fallowing that
some graziers are doing.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, in the bigger picture, a 250 acre farm
under grass is going to provide more and higher quality habitat than a
conventional crop/alfalfa type dairy or livestock farm. So, even with
intensive grazing management and high nest mortality, you're still coming
out ahead because you have a lot more nest sites. And with the refuge,
things look really good for those meadowlarks and bobolinks!

I'd be glad to send you a packet of information. What's your address?

Kindest regards,
Laura

Laura Paine
Crops and Soils Agent
Columbia County Extension
120 West Conant Street
PO Box 567
Portage, WI 53901-0567
phone: 608/742-9682
fax: 608/742-9862
email: laura.paine@ces.uwex.edu

An EEO/Affirmative Action Employer, UW-Extension provides equal
opportunities in employment and programming, including Title IX and ADA
requirements



-----Original Message-----
From: James Ahrens [mailto:jahrens@coin.org]
Sent: Monday, November 11, 2002 10:32 AM
To: grazersedge@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [grazersedge] CRP vs grazing


Laura,
Is it possible to get a paper copy of the riparian area grazing comparison
study?
It seems to me that on my farm at least MIG can have a big impact on
ground nesting birds. If the goal is to maintain pastures in a vegetative
state and you have a livestock density of 20,000 LW/A the ground nesting
birds dont have time to complete a cycle. If you want to favor ground
nesting birds wont you have to allow the pasture to "mature" at some point
in the growing season?
Jim Ahrens
West Branch, IA

On Mon, 11 Nov 2002, Laura.Paine wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> I'm not aware of any direct comparisons of CRP and MiG, but there have
been
> several studies looking at conversion of former CRP fields into pasture.
> The results of these vary, probably more as a result of the grazing
> management practices than anything else. A study done in NY showed no
> difference in erosion, one done in Missouri showed no erosion differences,
> but increases in runoff when CRP fields were grazed or hayed, one in
Wyoming
> showed more erosion. This makes the point that this is all site specific
> and management specific, but one thing that everyone can agree on, I
think,
> is that both CRP and MiG are significantly better than crop ground, even
> no-till crop ground.
>
> Here in Wisconsin, we compared grazed vs. ungrazed/buffered riparian areas
> and found that streambanks that had well-managed grazing applied
controlled
> erosion as well as grassy buffer strips and had less erosion than
unmanaged
> streambanks that had been allowed to grow up to trees.
>
> We also found in several of our studies that more species of grassland
birds
> are attracted to the habitat structure created by grazed or harvested
> grasslands than attracted to unmanaged grasslands, including CRP fields.
>
> The take home message here is that well-managed pasture is vastly superior
> to any other cropping system in terms of conservation value. And that
areas
> set aside specifically for conservation and wildlife purposes can often be
> improved using well-managed grazing.
>
> Here's a website that has some information on grasslands and wildlife:
>
> http://www.fb-net.org/FB/workshop/CRP-wild.htm
>
> Hope that's what you were looking for, Russ!
>
> Best regards,
> Laura
>
> Laura Paine
> Crops and Soils Agent
> Columbia County Extension
> 120 West Conant Street
> PO Box 567
> Portage, WI 53901-0567
> phone: 608/742-9682
> fax: 608/742-9862
> email: laura.paine@ces.uwex.edu
>
> An EEO/Affirmative Action Employer, UW-Extension provides equal
> opportunities in employment and programming, including Title IX and ADA
> requirements
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Russ Thompson [mailto:pmfb@mwt.net]
> Sent: Friday, November 08, 2002 7:13 AM
> To: grazersedge@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [grazersedge] CRP vs grazing
>
>
>
>
> David McCartney wrote:
>
> > The information came from a grazing meeting I attended recently. One of
> the
> > speakers was the head of Michigan's NRCS. He presented a lot of brand
new
> > research data that has helped them to write new grazing standards for
the
> > state. Part of that info showed evidence that managed grazing lands had
> more
> > wildlife activity of certain species than did CRP ground.
>
> In Wisconsin studies have shown that CRP land results in
> more erosion than managed grazing land.
> Maybe Laura P could help with a reference?
>
> Russ
> Wi
>
>
>
> Since time is important, please reduce the number of lines from previous
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>
> Since time is important, please reduce the number of lines from previous
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>
>



Since time is important, please reduce the number of lines from previous
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Mark P. Ludwig
Poultry Research Lab
University of Wisconsin -Madison
608-262-1730 WK
608-846-7125 HM





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