July 1, 2016
CapitalPress.com
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Greener
Pastures
Doug Warnock
Research
weighs
impact of
grazing
after ire
By DOUG WARNOCK
For the Capital Press
A
study conducted at the
Northern Great Basin
Experimental
Range
near Burns, Ore., provides
valuable information on the
results of grazing after ire on
sagebrush steppe rangeland.
While the grazing followed
prescribed burning, the study
provides insight into what
could result from grazing after
wildire. The study evaluated
cattle grazing impacts over four
growing seasons, after ire, on
Wyoming big sagebrush steppe
in Eastern Oregon.
Big sagebrush steppe is one
of the major vegetation types in
the intermountain region of the
Western United States.
Fire has been both a natu-
ral and prescribed disturbance
of big sagebrush communities
for many years. It temporari-
ly shifts vegetation from joint
dominance by shrub and grass
to a grass dominance.
After ire, these rangelands
typically receive a rest from
grazing to allow for plant re-
covery and regeneration. On
most public lands a minimum
of two years of rest from graz-
ing is prescribed after ire.
The management goals for
a rangeland following ire are:
(1) recovery of the ecological
processes, such as hydrologic
function, energy capture by the
plants and resource capture;
(2) recovery of the preferred
plants; (3) adequate wildlife
habitat; and (4) proitable use.
In this study, treatments ap-
plied to the sagebrush steppe
included: (1) no grazing after
burning; (2) no grazing on un-
burned land; (3) two summer
grazing applications after ire;
(4) two spring grazing applica-
tions after ire.
Information collected from
the study measured plant cano-
py cover, plant density, annual
forage yield and perennial grass
seed yield. The severity of the
burn to the plant community
was classiied as low.
Forage use in both the sum-
mer-grazed treatments and the
irst spring-grazed treatment
were close to the targeted lev-
el of 50 percent. The second
spring-grazed treatment expe-
rienced rapid plant regrowth
during the grazing, which
resulted in about 25 percent
removal of forage, or a light
grazing.
Grass seed production was
greater in the burned areas that
were not grazed. However,
there was enough seed produc-
tion in the burned and grazed
areas to support plant commu-
nity recovery after ire. The
other herbaceous responses, in-
cluding canopy cover, density,
composition and annual yield,
did not differ among grazed
and ungrazed burn treatments.
All burn treatments — grazed
and ungrazed — had greater
herbaceous cover, herbaceous
standing crop, herbaceous
annual yield and grass seed
production than the unburned
treatment by the second or third
year after ire.
Livestock grazing during
the irst several years after
burning in big sagebrush steppe
has often been considered un-
desirable in order to have good
plant recovery.
This study supports the
idea that moderate grazing
following completion of the
irst growth cycle after low se-
verity ire does not limit plant
recovery. It also suggests that
requiring two years of rest from
grazing after a ire may not be
necessary in all situations.
Doug Warnock, retired from
Washington State University
Extension, lives on a ranch in
the Touchet River Valley where
he consults and writes on
grazing management.
11
Dairy/Livestock
Commission hopes to impress consumers, ranchers
Marketing
campaign to focus
on young parents
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The Washington Beef
Commission’s new market-
ing plan stresses convincing
urban millennials that the vir-
tues of beef and the cattle in-
dustry outweigh anything bad
they’ve heard about either.
Meanwhile, a state law-
maker is meeting with cattle-
men to hear what they think
about the virtues of the beef
commission.
The commission, a state
agency, recently adopted a
one-year, $1 million budget, a
6 percent cut from the budget
that expired at the end of June.
The reduction continues
a trend toward fewer cattle
transactions and declining
commission revenue.
Cattle sellers pay a manda-
tory $1.50 per-head fee, with
$1 going to the state commis-
sion and 50 cents to the nation-
al Beef Board.
Several major cattle groups
in Washington this year sup-
ported raising the beef check-
off to $2.50, with the addi-
tional dollar going to the state
commission.
However. support from
cattlemen was far from unan-
imous. Some ranchers won-
dered how giving the beef
commission $2 million instead
of $1 million would help their
Dairy
Markets
Lee Mielke
‘Brexit’ will
impact trade,
analyst says
By LEE MIELKE
For the Capital Press
H
istory was made last
week and the fallout is
still falling.
The United Kingdom voted
to leave the European Union by
a 51.9 to 48.1 percent margin.
The “Brexit” vote prompted
Prime Minister David Camer-
on to resign.
HighGround Dairy report-
ed that the unexpected result
“caused a knee-jerk reaction in
inancial and commodity mar-
kets across the globe. In partic-
ular, market participants have
locked to the U.S. dollar, Jap-
anese yen and precious metals,
causing a sharp decline in glob-
al equity markets, foreign cur-
rencies and in kind, commodi-
ties priced in U.S. dollars.”
The impact on dairy re-
mains to be seen, but High-
Ground warned, “A stronger
U.S. dollar makes commodi-
ties priced in its denomination
more expensive to importing
countries.”
Courtesy of Washington Beef Commission
A mother shows her daughter features of a Washington Beef Commission display at the Washington
Brewers Festival on Father’s Day weekend in King County. The beef commission plans to use social
media and events to reach consumers, particularly young parents.
industry.
Legislators dropped the pro-
posal.
“I couldn’t vote for it be-
cause there was so much push-
back,” Rep. Tom Dent, R-Mo-
ses Lake, said last week. “It
was pretty clear the idea was
not well-vetted.”
Dent, a member of the
House Agriculture Committee,
has been meeting with produc-
ers to explain the beef commis-
sion’s approach to promotion
and to gauge support for in-
creasing the beef checkoff.
Dent said he believes a “ma-
jority of people are good with
the beef commission.” But he
said he hesitates to say wheth-
er a majority back raising the
checkoff fee.
“I’m really trying to listen to
people,” he said.
To balance its budget, the
commission eliminated one
position, shrinking the staff to
two full-time and two part-time
workers.
Long gone are expensive
television ads. Newspaper ad-
vertising, radio spots and in-
store coupons are largely things
of the past, too.
Instead, the commission
will continue its shift toward
social media and small events,
such as cooking demonstra-
tions and ranch tours.
The beef commission, for
example, plans to host a Christ-
mas party for consumer blog-
gers.
“It’s just a kitschy way to
build relations with bloggers,”
commission Executive Director
Patti Brumbach said. “We’re
trying to think outside the box.”
The beef commission had
a high-proile connection with
Washington State University’s
annual football game in Seattle,
but the Cougars discontinued
the event after 2014.
Brumbach said the com-
mission would have been hard-
pressed to afford continuing its
sponsorship anyway.
“We’re not looking for the
big PR stunt,” she said.
The social media campaign
will include Facebook ads and
YouTube videos targeted at
millennials born between 1980
and 2000 and who have chil-
dren.
Social media will be com-
bined with personal contact.
The commission, for example,
will hand out beef jerky and nu-
tritional information at soccer
games — attended by soccer
moms. “A theme throughout
our marketing is, How do we
get to moms and dads?” Brum-
bach said.
She said the commission’s
top goal is to build “trust” in
beef’s taste, nutrition and value,
and in the industry’s humane
treatment of animals.
For the irst time since 2013,
the beef commission will sur-
vey Seattle-Tacoma area con-
sumers to check their attitudes
toward beef and the cattle in-
dustry.
The beef commission has
set goals to nudge consumers
into having a more favorable
view of the cattle industry,
and to serve more beef to their
families.
Dent said the focus on so-
cial media makes sense.
New Washington State Dairy Ambassadors selected
TACOMA, Wash. — The
2016-2017 Washington State
Dairy Ambassador is Alicia
Smaciarz of Raymond, Wash.
She represented Lewis
County and was selected from
a ield of six inalists at the
61st annual Washington State
Dairy Ambassador Corona-
tion on June 25 at the Greater
Tacoma Convention & Trade
Center, according to a press
release from the Washing-
ton State Dairy Women, who
sponsor the ambassador pro-
gram.
Selected as equal alternate
ambassadors were Jana Pla-
german from Lynden, repre-
senting Whatcom County, and
Tiana Peterson, from Graham,
representing King and Pierce
counties.
As a representative of the
Dairy Farmers of Washington,
the state dairy ambassador
and the alternates will visit
schools, attend county fairs,
appear at Washington Inter-
scholastic Activities Associa-
tion events and speak before
the Washington state legis-
lature promoting the health
and nutrition beneits of dairy
products.
A dairy ambassador typ-
ically makes 400 public ap-
pearances during her year-
long tenure. At the end of her
From left are Lydia Johnson, Nicole Buell, Becca Bartelheimer, Alternate Ambassador Jana Plager-
man, Ambassador Alicia Smaciarz, Alternate Ambassador Tiana Peterson, Allyson Carothers and
Caitlin Meek. The contest was held June 25 in Tacoma, Wash.
reign Smaciarz and the alter-
nate ambassadors will receive
scholarships to continue their
education.
During 2015-2016, the
dairy industry was repre-
sented by Washington State
Dairy Ambassador Nicole
Buell of Marysville and Al-
ternate State Dairy Ambassa-
dors Amanda Howe of Bell-
ingham and Lydia Johnson of
Ethel.
They traveled around the
state educating students, par-
ents and others on the positive
impact and value of Washing-
ton’s dairy industry and the
importance of dairy products.
The other 2016 inalists
were:
• Snohomish County: Bec-
ca Bartelheimer.
Courtesy of the Washington State Dairy Ambassador Program
The new Washington State Dairy Ambassadors are, from left, Al-
ternate Tiana Peterson, Ambassador Alicia Smaciarz and Alternate
Jana Plagerman.
• Snohomish County: Ally-
son Carothers.
• Grays Harbor County:
Caitlin Meek.
Butter, cheese slip
Cash butter and cheese
prices weakened some the
fourth week of June Dairy
Month as traders absorbed the
May Milk Production report,
anticipated Friday afternoon’s
May Cold Storage data, and
contemplated the Brexit vote.
Block Cheddar closed Fri-
day at $1.5125 per pound, down
a quarter-cent on the week and
12 3/4-cents below a year ago.
Barrel Cheddar inished at
$1.5350, down a penny on the
week and 9 cents below a year
ago. Only two cars of block ex-
changed hands on the week at
the CME and none of barrel.
The blocks ticked up
three-quarters Monday and
gained a penny Tuesday, hitting
$1.53 per pound.
The barrels were also up
three-quarters Monday and a
penny and three-quarters on
Tuesday, closing the session
at $1.56, highest barrel price
since Nov. 11, 2015, and 3 cents
above the blocks.
FC Stone dairy broker Dave
Kurzawski cautioned in his June
24 Insider Closing Bell that “it’s
important to remember that
when key events like Brexit
happen, markets tend to over-
react.”
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