N RANCHING
atural Resources
I came to the realization that is never going to happen, at least in the environment that my son and I work within, because with so many different climatic fac- tors to work with, you have to have the fuel load for the fi re and the proper conditions as far as rainfall, wind conditions and humidity.” Price, who with his son Sims won the National
Cattlemen’s Foundation Environmental Stewardship Award in 2013, says the key to the operation is the way they graze their livestock. “It’s a single herd pro- gram, where we’re using traditional pastures and work those cattle as the same herd through those existing pastures,” he says. “It’s worked very well for us as far as leaving the rangeland more sustainable than we had in the past. We’ve even reached the point where we do not feed our mature cattle in the wintertime because of the improved grazing conditions. It’s been very productive for us.”
Post-fi re grazing The cattle play a big role in Price’s burn programs.
Pastures targeted for a burn are grazed very lightly, or not at all, to build the fuel load. “Recently, I was going through a pasture that we burned last August and was trying to determine if we’re going to graze it this spring or not, because we had very limited rainfall this winter,” he said. “We’re going to do what we call a ‘fl ash graze’ this spring and graze it very lightly, and then move on.”
Whether or not you’re conducting prescribed burns,
Price believes the animal impact on the land is very important. “The ‘trampling and grazing effect’ during grazing stimulates the grasses,” he says, “and it is a very good tool in preparing for a burn, and of course, you have to be very careful after burning. A lot of folks make the mistake of putting too much livestock back in it too quickly after a wildfi re or prescribed burn, thus not allowing the grass plants adequate time to recover and that’s not good for the grass. It’s all a judgment call that the range manager has to make with every burn. That includes planning pre-burn and post-burn. Just because the fi re is out does not mean you are fi nished with the prescribed burn.” Price started conducting prescribed burns in the
1980s. Sims is a state-Certifi ed Burn Manager. “It’s an excellent tool,” Frank says, but the region’s habitual dryness makes it that much harder to plan and com- plete a good burn. He has used assistance from USDA’s Environmental
Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) to clear a 500-foot side strip from the north and east sides of burn pas- tures. Then, they use black lines to reduce the risk of fi re escape during the burn. “We haven’t had a fi re get away from us,” he says,
but adds that they have come close. “One of the big- gest problems with burning is putting the labor force together, and getting all of the climatic conditions on that day of the burn to actually get it done,” Price
Giving a stronger voice to Texas landowners during large wildfi re response operations, Texas Forest Service hosted a meeting in April with Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers Association and Texas A&M Agri- Life Extension. At this refresher meeting, the organizations worked on improving communications, responsiveness and mutual under- standing to be able to better work side-by-side during large wild- fi re events affecting private lands.
52 The Cattleman July 2016
thecattlemanmagazine.com
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