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8 CapitalPress.com August 10, 2018 USCA cattle forum to explore opportunities, challenges By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press Don Jenkins/Capital Press File A U.S. Cattlemen’s Association forum next month in Billings, Mont., will address many of the issues facing the beef industry. Alternative proteins, trade and policy issues will take center stage at the U.S. Cattle- men’s Association producer forum set for Sept. 5 and 6 at the Big Horn Resort in Bill- ings, Mont. “What’s at Stake? Your Steak” is the theme of the event aimed at giving produc- ers the chance to discuss the challenges and opportunities that will face the cattle indus- try in the years ahead. The conference will zero in on plant-based protein al- ternatives to beef and the push by companies developing those products to label and market them as beef. Industry experts will be speaking to that issue and other rising trends in the meat case and what they mean for the future of the cattle indus- try on Sept. 6. The organization’s annual meeting will start things off on Sept. 5 with business meet- ings and nominations for the USCA board of directors and officers. The organization’s com- mittee chairmen will also ad- dress USCA’s priority issues, including plant-based alter- natives, animal ID, transpor- tation and electronic logging devices for livestock haulers, the beef checkoff, interstate meat inspection and trade. Also on the agenda is a trade forecast with Sheridan McKinney of TradeWins LLC, Washington, D.C., and Terry Stewart of Stewart and Stewart Law, Washington, D.C. Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., will give an update on issues on Capitol Hill. A review of cattle mar- kets in 2018 will include per- spectives from Corbitt Wall, livestock market analyst with Feeder Flash; Justin Tupper, manager of St. Onge Sale Barn; and Allan Sents, USCA marketing and competition committee chairman. Chris Skorupa of Beartooth Fertilizer will give a presenta- tion on managing for better grass. USCA President Kenny Graner and USCA Vice Presi- dent Brooke Miller will wrap up the forum drilling down on cattlemen’s issues and liveli- hoods and the organization’s goals. For more information, call (202) 870- 1552, email lia@ wssdc.com or visit www.cat- tlemensmeeting.com. Rangeland research to map grazing patterns By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press Pairing satellite imagery with technology to track cat- tle movement on the range and field estimates of forage could give ranchers and land managers a new tool in graz- ing management. That’s the goal of research- ers at the University of Idaho College of Natural Resourc- es who just won a $661,118 matching grant for the project from USDA Natural Resourc- es Conservation Service. The three-year project, Deploying CERT (Climate Engine Rangeland Tool), will kick off in January, Jason Karl, associate professor at the college and project leader, said. University of Idaho Cody Ward puts a University of Idaho GPS collar on a cow at his ranch south of Malta, Idaho, in this April photo. Researchers are using tracking technology and rangeland observations to calibrate satel- lite imagery of grazing lands. The project will track cat- tle and measure forage on large rangeland landscapes and calibrate that information with satellite imagery in the CERT system — being devel- 32-3/100 oped by University of Idaho associate professors Crystal Kolden with the College of Natural Resources and John Abatzoglou with the Depart- ment of Geography. The research team will outfit 300 to 400 cows with GPS collars developed by Karl and deploy them on the university’s Rock Creek Ranch, private ranches and Bureau of Land Management land in southern Idaho and on the Zumwalt Prairie Preserve in northeast Oregon. “The whole idea is to see how we can do a better job at getting more timely infor- mation on how much forage is available and how much is being consumed,” Karl said. Currently, only rough es- timates or field observations are available to inform graz- ing-management decisions. The challenge on large land- scapes is observing conditions across the expanse, which can lead to inaccurate estimates of available forage, he said. The GPS data will be used to more effectively link on- the-ground observations of forage utilization with remote sensing for mapping forage availability and change devel- oped by Vincent Jason, a UI doctoral candidate. The resulting maps and forage utilization data will be built into CERT, an online tool to analyze and visualize information on how much forage the cattle consume. Satellite imagery allows for monitoring landscape changes over time but it doesn’t provide information on what caused the change. The research will use the field measurements to inform the satellite imagery and give it greater content, he said. “The (GPS) collars are the links that tie these two data sets together,” he said. The collars will give on- the-ground verification where forage is being consumed by livestock, he said. Ranchers and land manag- ers will be able to access maps of forage availability through CERT, look at how the range and forage availability are changing over the growing season and decide when it’s time to move cattle, he said. In some cases researchers will be able to distinguish livestock utilization from forage changes due to other events — such as insects and fires, which have distinctive patterns. The challenging types of events to distinguish solely from satellite imagery are forage utilization from wild horses or wildlife. “This is why the field ob- servations will always be a necessary part of a system like CERT (and) rancher input is central to the CERT project. Without those field obser- vations, the satellite forage maps have limited utility,” he said. Matthew Weaver/Capital Press Vicki Christiansen, interim chief of the U.S. Forest Service, lis- tens Aug. 2 to Colville National Forest users during a tri-county forest working group meeting in Colville, Wash. U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., listens at left. Washington group shares grazing concerns with Forest Service chief New regional USFS forester announcement expected in August By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press COLVILLE, Wash. — Forest users in northeast Washington met last week with interim chief U.S. Forest Service chief Vicki Christiansen to discuss their concerns. Chief among them was grazing on national for- est allotments. Stevens County Commis- sioner Steve Parker said the meeting was to build on the relationship between county elected officials, forest users and Colville National Forest staff. “There are some old ways of doing business that I don’t think we need to go back to,” Parker said. “This group, as well as your Colville staff, can have the freedom to make local decisions that are vetted, lawful and effective.” In addition to grazing, speakers addressed motor- ized and non-motorized rec- reation and conservation. Scott Nielsen, president of the Cattle Producers of Washington and vice presi- dent of Stevens County Cat- tlemen, said ranchers rely on the forest to graze their livestock. “For many of our area ranchers, Forest Service al- lotments are crucial to their livelihoods and their entire operation hinges on sum- mer grazing provided by the allotments,” Nielsen said. “Like the timber industry, the economic contribution from our ranches is crucial to the economy of our re- gion.” Since the last Colville National Forest plan was ap- proved in 1988, the average number of permitted animal unit months on the forest has declined from 35,000 to 29,500 per year, Nielsen said. The proposed revision to the plan includes re- gion-wide riparian manage- ment standards that would be “devastating” to ranchers, Nielsen said. The proposed standards were presented by a student in a master’s thesis that was rejected for publication in a scientific journal because of flawed science, Nielsen said. The draft of the plan cites the thesis as best available science, he said, adding that the Forest Service’s ripari- an expert says the proposed standards are not warranted and should be questioned. Nielsen cited instances where the Forest Service was listening to recreation experts to build on oppor- tunities, and suggested the agency work with people with grazing expertise. Parker also asked Chris- tiansen about the possibility of building a relationship with the Forest Service on a regional level in Portland. In the past, regional relations haven’t always been smooth, he said. “I don’t want to feel like a country bumpkin just be- cause my boots don’t fit the Portland pavement as well as they could,” he said. Christiansen hopes to have a new regional forester in place by mid-September. “I hear you about wanting to be in a relationship at the different levels of the Forest Service, and I can assure you ... the expectations of the leadership position will ar- ticulate just that,” she said. Christiansen told the group its input was helpful, and she heard their grazing and recreation concerns. She anticipates a “stabi- lized” funding environment in 2020 to help address the other interests that have got- ten shorted in addressing fire concerns, she said. “It’s only with innovation from folks like you and your community that we’re go- ing to be able to solve some of these difficult choices, trade-offs, where we put our investments and how we in- crease capacity,” she said. “You’re thinking about an economy for the place that you live and breathe, and we need to say, ‘How can we help support that?’”
