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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?’”