Pasture Walking for Solutions
A breakthrough in resource evaluation and problem solving
By Wayne Burleson  9/15/99

Have you noticed lately how the amount of information available is exploding? Just look in your mail box or try reading the tons of great new books, articles, newspapers and magazines out there, not to mention computers (Internet), TV, tapes, videos, radio, E-mail and news-groups. It's an information explosion time. I personally feel a quest for simplicity.

That's what Pasture Walking for Solutions is all about: a simple procedure to walk the land and let the land tell you what's going on and then come up with good solutions to "WHOLE" problems and then fine-tune management on a daily basis.

Get the picture

A Pasture Walk is based upon good observations of Nature's Laws or ecological principles that never change. That is, you simply walk an area (preferably several pastures) and ask yourself what  is going on with the plant's health and vigor and is there a species community change? Pay close attention to the soil surface and examine the nutrient and mineral cycle, the water cycle, and energy flow while you are looking for problem areas.

Once learned, Pasture Walking can quickly give a vivid picture of the present condition and past disturbances to the land so that changes can be made immediately. You will be able to determine right away if a pasture is reaching its full potential for its intended purpose by classifying areas in either Phase I, II or III or a combination of these three Phases. It's a fun "cowboy friendly" way to get to know what's going on over time with any piece of land.

Simply stated, when plants are stressed from too many disturbances (the key word here is - "many"), the plants and land are in Phase I. When plants are robust, healthy and reaching full potential - they are in Phase II. When plants are growing where no disturbance is occurring they are in Phase III, which is called "land idle-itis."

Phase III is a form of stagnation that occurs on either wet or dry lands. When you observe Phase III, that is no disturbance in wet areas, you may find brush increasing and a thick stagnating mat of old grasses piling up. On very dry areas, the plants in Phase III will begin to die. If you peel back the old, dead, standing gray plant material on Phase III bunch grasses, you may find a dead center usually related to a poor mineral cycle.

On a large Wyoming ranch, I conducted a Pasture Walk and found a mosaic pattern of Phase II, (healthy grasses) intermingled with Phase III ("land idle-itis"). I recommended that they increase the stock density (more hoof impact) on this pasture. The following spring, I again conducted a quick five minute Pasture Walk on the same pasture and found lots of old, stepped-on grass. I said, "Good job, guys." The manager looked at me puzzled and said, "We didn't have any animals in that unit since you were last here." 

Wow! Did I feel the pain of misdiagnosis. However, that evening we were watching some video tape of their calving operation, and guess which pasture they were in? You got it. The same pasture. Ah ha! The Pasture Walk did reveal the truth and increased my confidence in this simple process.

Identifying the real cause of the problem

Many Pasture Walks reveal that a combination of all three phases is occurring, all in the same pasture. This is a common occurrence at low stock density (low numbers of animals per acre which is not related to stocking rates) where the animals by their choice select the lush green plants and walk right by the old dry steamy plants. 

Pasture Walks often reveal that certain areas are over-grazed, yet the whole ranch is under stocked. Out of the thousands of pastures I have walked, most have some sort of livestock distribution problem.

This simple idea of classifying the health and vigor of plants into the three phases is a great way to assess how your own grazing system is working and then decide what is the best decision I can make that will take the "WHOLE" ranch in the direction I want it to go.

Profit meter

It is great to think about economics while doing your Pasture Walks. You simply ask yourself, how much money is this piece of land making me?  If it's undergoing some form of stress - land and plants in Phase I, the answer to the profit meter question is - less dollars than optimum.

Then you find areas in Phase III you begin to realize that this ground is not generating any wealth. The answer here to a Profit Meter question is: ZERO income. As you walk more pastures and find land in Phase II (reaching full potential) start looking and asking yourself, how can I get more land into this balanced productive phase II so that I can increase my bottom line. Ah Ha!  Now you're truly monitoring to solve important problems.

Pasture Walk problem solving

As you walk different areas, keep asking yourself, "What is the root cause of these problems I'm seeing." Let's say, that you find low plant vigor and spots of increasing brush or a new weed infestation area.

Now think hard. What is causing this? Ask the question WHY several times. To each answer you again ask the question, what is the root cause of this? Soon you will discover the root of the problem and that's where you want to make the changes.

Surprisingly, when I do this correctly, searching for the bigger picture, I often find people problems. Like someone saying, we are just way too busy taking care of other business, which is a form of blame talking and moving the responsibility to something or someone else. If you fix this people problem, other problems will probably also go away.

If you Pasture Walk this way, it will become worth the effort, because you are now making monitoring a problem-solving experience and not just gathering data which ends up collecting dust.

Testing solutions

This form of monitoring is a breakthrough in resource evaluation and problem solving because you are now spending more time on a good decision-making process that is leading you towards more profitable, healthier lands that may just also improve your
quality of life.

Let's say because of your Pasture Walk, you decide to increase pasture subdivision that can stockpile forage for extended wintertime grazing, save forage for early spring pastures, rest rotate those hard hit areas, change livestock distribution to graze previously un-grazable areas, and stop animals from second biting plant re-growth that depletes root growth.

Okay, you made these changes, now a wise Pasture Walker will be out there looking closely for the early warnings that these changes are not doing what your plan calls for. Now is the time to fine-tune. Don't wait years to evaluate the change, do Pasture Walking - Monitoring for Solutions - all the time.

The best thing about Pasture Walking for Solutions...Anyone Can Do IT! Once these principles are learned, you can hop out of your truck anywhere and do a Pasture Walk. It is a simple, common-sense approach to monitoring, good management and problem solving all thrown in together. Don't make things complicated, but search for simple economical solutions by thinking "Profitable Simplicity" when conducting a Pasture Walk.

The 100 year old Quirk Cattle Company, Leland and Faye Driggs, from Eureka, Mont., after attending a Pasture Walk Workshop have applied these principle on their ranch over the past three years. Leland says that he can now stand on a hill looking down at several pastures and point out the dramatic, positive changes in the grasses. Not only is his whole ranch moving towards Phase II (reaching full potential), he says that even with the current down trend in the cattle market he is more profitable, has more livestock on the ranch with a surplus of forage and the real payback is that they are feeling more relaxed and enjoy ranching more than ever before.

Pasture Walk Instructions

Materials needed:

A map of the land; Erasable colored pencils and eraser; Make up your own color code to record findings; Note pad or note book; Camera; Shovel; Water bottle, full; and Tape measure; and Your Kids!

Suggestion:

Color red areas in Phase I, green areas in Phase II, and yellow areas in Phase III. Overlap the colors for combination of phases.

1. Determine the purpose of the land. Don't skip this step. You need to be thinking about this purpose as you walk the land. This is extremely important because most pastures will have more than one purpose. Place multiple checks marks to rank which purpose applies to the area you are evaluating, including:

Livestock; Recreation; Archeology; Wildlife; Watershed; Hunting; Shelter; Bird Nesting; Timber; Fishing; Aesthetics; Other.

2. Walk several pastures. Don't drive around in your pickup truck. Get out, walk about the pasture and even crawl around carefully examining the plants and soil surface while pulling back the tall grasses. Record on your map which of the three phases or combination of phases are occurring on what portions of your pasture.

3. Search for problem areas. Look for: new weed infestations; low plant vigor stressed from what ever, record these areas in Phase I - stress from too many disturbances, or look for areas where absolutely no disturbance is occurring, record these areas in Phase III - "Land Idle-itis." Check for problems with tree and brush encroachment, riparian livestock campgrounds, shortage of litter covering the soil surface. Scout for any other factors that seem to be out of balance.

4. Take photos of the soil surface, plants and general pasture. Be sure to permanently mark the areas on the ground and on your map where these photos were taken and record dates. I find re-locatable photos will help you to remember what you were observing and it is a great way to monitor changes in pasture management.

5. Here is the important step in Pasture Walking. Spend some quality time thinking root causes. Now put your observations into a WHOLE ranch perspective. If you find some areas undergoing stress - for example, obvious wide plant spacing and no litter on the soil surface. I suggest going up on some hill top (if you have one) and set there to carefully determine the root cause of this problem that you have discovered. Then brainstorm good solutions that will fix the WHOLE problem. The best brain-storming sessions include everyone involved in your business.

6. Repeat this whole process of Pasture Walking for Solutions often. Be sure to relax and enjoy the fresh air while you're out there solving problems. Tell the other family members that you are doing some of the hardest work there is on a ranch. That is planning, evaluating, identifying problems and coming up with great new solutions that affect their bottom-line.

Aid to Classify Land into Three Phases:

Here are some helpful observations to look for when classifying plants and land into the Three Phases:

Phase I - Narrow leaves; Thin stems; Short length of seed head; Shallow roots; Short, weak root system; Low lateral leaf growth; Low quantity of forage; High quality of forage; Short plant appearance; Yellow or green leaves; Soils low in organic matter; Poor mineral cycle; Soils with bare ground; No standing litter; Low plant density; Compacted soils; Low water permeability; Dying plants - low production caused by over-grazing.*Destructive grazing.

Phase #II - Wide thick leaves; Strong thick stems; Long full seed heads; Strong thick roots; Deep thick root system; Vertical leaf growth; High quantity of forage; Very tall plant appearance; Dark green plants; Soils high in organic matter; Very good mineral cycle; Soil covered with litter; Litter on and in the soils; High plant density; Good aeration of soils; Low permeability of soil; Healthy plants - high production Caused by proper grazing. *Planned Grazing.

Phase #III- Narrow and wide leaves; Standard or thin stems; Standard length seed heads; Standard or weak root system; Old and dying root system; Vertical leaf growth; High quantity forage; Low quality forage; Tall plant appearance; Light green and gray leaves; Soils low or high in organic matter; Poor mineral cycle; Soils with moss and lichens; Old standing gray colored litter; Low plant density; Soil surface soft sometimes capped; Highly permeability of soil; Old aged plants - low production. Caused by under-grazing. *No grazing.

* Over-grazing is biting (actually a tearing off of the plants ) too many times and not allowing adequate rest for the plant to recover.

* Proper grazing is tearing the plant off and then allowing adequate rest for full recovery.

* Under-grazing is no disturbance of the plants and land, which is quite unnatural in nature.

(Wayne Burleson is a certified land management consultant and registered educator for Holistic Management working out of Absarokee, Mont. Wayne offers several Pasture Walking Clinics each year. If you would like to visit with Wayne, call him at (406) 328-6808; or write to: Range Management Services, RR #1, Box 2780, Absarokee,
MT 59001. E-mail: rutbuster@montana.net.)

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