Pastures seeded to certain cool-season perennial grasses can
reduce grazing pressure on native rangelands and keep cattle
adequately nourished. That’s according to Marshall Haferkamp, a
USDA-ARS rangeland scientist at the Fort Keogh Livestock and
Range Research Laboratory in Miles City, MT. Seeded pastures are
especially welcome during months when lush, green forage is hard
to come by. Ranchers can also use these pastures to shift
grazing pressure away from native rangelands in spring and
autumn and allow possibly fragile or recuperating sites to
recover. In the semiarid regions of eastern Montana, where the
Miles City laboratory is located, ranching on native rangelands
means relying on Mother Nature, for the most part. Haferkamp
says that April, May and June rainfall usually determine how
much forage is available in a given year for grazing cattle.
This unpredictability is one of the reasons he wanted to graze
selected cool-season grasses in spring and autumn. The grasses
not only needed to take well to the