Targeted Grazing - Conservation Grazing in Practice

Conservation Grazing in Practice

The use of conservation grazing is dependent on what type of ecosystem, habitat, and plant community are desired to be maintained or restored. Grazing is a beneficial tool used to create a grass and small shrub dominated area. Tasker and Bradstock found that grazed areas returned a lower vegetation complexity score than ungrazed, however this was mainly because tree species and shrubs produce higher complexity scores than grasses – the grazed areas were composed primarily of bunch grasses and the ungrazed were dominated by shrub species. Certain areas that have been, historically, woody forest, may be chosen to be restored back to historical conditions, thus Tasker’s and Bradstock’s study would imply that wooded areas should remain ungrazed by livestock such as cattle.

Conservation practices such as grazing need to be monitored closely. If they are not, the practice can become overused and have an opposite effect than intended. Overgrazing may cause erosion, habitat destruction, soil compaction, or reduced biodiversity (species richness).

One issue of controversy with grazing is whether conservation grazing is in fact beneficial to a grassland community and what intensity of grazing management needs to be taken. Rambo and Faeth found that the use of vertebrates for grazing of an area would increase the species richness of plants by decreasing the abundance of dominant species and increasing the richness of rarer species. The decrease in abundance may lead to a more open forest canopy and more room for other plant species to emerge.