The case for case studies: A new approach to evaluating the effectiveness of livestock protection tools

Livestock operations in California face livestock losses due to a range of carnivore species. Simultaneously, there is an increased call to reduce the use of lethal predator control methods and replace them with nonlethal methods. Livestock guardian dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are one such nonlethal livestock protection tool (LPT), yet research is still lacking on the factors and situations that impact their effectiveness. Using three case studies, we demonstrate the value of objective analyses that explicitly address the inherent differences in ranch management, environment, and surrounding land uses in examining livestock guardian dogs as an LPT. We used semi-structured questionnaire surveys of livestock operators to collect information on effectiveness, behavior, and producer satisfaction of LGDs protecting poultry (Gallus gallus domesticus), calves (Bovus taurus), and sheep (Ovis aries) on private and public land and in conjunction with a variety of other livestock protection tools. We aimed to address all aspects related to the use of LGDs as a means of informing livestock operators’ decisions on whether LGDs are an appropriate tool for a particular operation. The case studies demonstrated the complexities involved in applying LGDs as a LPT within the context of a livestock operation. In two of the three case studies, LGDs did not entirely eliminate livestock losses yet operator satisfaction remained high.

494 Walk the Talk – Teaching Is Still Teaching – Just Expanding Your Tool Box

Beef Cattle Production & Management (ANSC 406) is a Texas A&M University “Communications” course and an elective in the undergraduate Animal Science curriculum. This course (3 hr lecture, 2 hr lab) is taught in Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters. The author has taught this (or equivalent) course since 1995, and various teaching technologies have incrementally crept into the course. Prior to COVID-19 restrictions, the class was taught traditionally through in-person lecture and lab meetings, with in-class, closed-note exams, and supported with online resources. Students are assigned to groups of 4 or 5 for semester-long work on a ranch management project with peer review comprising 20% of the grade. This report summarizes student exam grades and ranch project peer evaluations through semesters Fall 2019 to Fall 2020 where the class format was (1) traditional face-to-face (TF2F), (2) initially TF2F then switched abruptly to 100% remote/online, (3) 100% remote/online for the entire semester, and (4) a blended/hybrid format, respectively. Semester-to-semester exam grades and group member peer evaluations were compared through mixed model analyses of variance. There were no differences in exam grades (P > 0.10) across these semesters with the exception of Exam 3 that deviated 3.7% (P = 0.020) from lowest to highest mean scores. Relative exam grade variability (based on CV and range) remained almost constant from closed-book to open-note format. Remote vs. F2F status did not influence (P > 0.05) group peer evaluation scores regarding Q1: “Overall level of participation” or Q4: “Willingness to work for success of your group” when group number or student were included in statistical models. Model R-square values for Q1/Q4 increased from 0.037/0.050 to 0.161/0.171, and 0.424/0.457 when group, and student were added, respectively. Individual student perceptions and experiences appear to be major drivers of learning outcomes no matter the course delivery style.

Beef Cattle Price and Production Patterns in Relation to Drought in New Mexico

Understanding the fluctuations in monthly and annual cattle prices plays a key role in supporting the sustainability of New Mexico’s (NM’s), United States (US), beef cattle industry under variable environmental conditions. The goal of this study was to provide an improved understanding of NM’s beef cattle production systems in terms of prices and production patterns and related drought impacts. The main objectives were to evaluate monthly and annual prices patterns for heifers and steers (cattle) and calves, the relationships between annual cattle prices and inventory and drought, and the effects of drought on ranch net return. Drought events were assessed using the Self-Calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index (9SC-PDSI). The generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity models and their exponential version were used to investigate the effects of drought and cattle supply on cattle prices, and the effects of drought on ranch net return. Spectral analysis and timeseries decomposition were used to identify the cycles of the annual price and numbers of cattle and calf. Coherence analysis was used to examine the relationships between inventory of cattle classes and drought. The results indicated that prices of cattle and calf usually drop in October through January and peak in April. The inventory of replacement heifers and steers were negatively related to cattle prices, while the inventory of calves was positively related to calf prices. Cattle and calf prices showed negative linear relationships with droughts. Annual cattle and calf prices showed 6- and 10-year cycles, while their inventory showed 6- and 8- year cycles, respectively. Our finding suggested that a rancher can still earn some net return when drought falls within the “Abnormally Dry” category of the US Drought Monitor. However, a rancher with a large herd or ranch size can endure drought more than a rancher with a medium herd or ranch size and reach the breakeven point. Specifically, the net return ($/head) is expected to increase (or decrease) by $62.29, $60.51, and $64.07 per head if the SC-PDSI increase (or decrease) by one unit in all large and medium ranch sizes, respectively. The effects of drought on ranch net return that we identified need further improvements using additional data. Due to NM’s location and the diversity of its rangeland, understanding the response of cattle prices to drought and beef cattle supply based on these findings can be used to help NM’s ranchers and those in other similar regions make informed ranch management decisions. These findings can also support the development of improved understanding of beef cattle production systems regionally.

2016 South Florida Beef Forage Survey Results

This publication discusses a survey used to evaluate ranch management practices to determine benchmarks in cattle production and pasture management. Written by Laura Bennett, Jonael Bosques, Sarah Bostick, Lauren Butler, Sonja Crawford, Taylor Davis, Christa Kirby, Colleen Larson, Philipe Moriel, Chris Prevatt, Brent Sellers, Maria Silveira, Aaron Stam, Bridget Stice, Joao Vendramini, and Lindsey Wiggins, and published by the UF/IFAS Agronomy Department, July 2021.

Understanding producers' perspectives on rotational grazing benefits across US Great Plains

Experimental findings on rotational grazing (RG) trials have generally differed from producer observations of RG outcomes on commercial scale ranches. Factors such as small plot size, short duration trials and relatively rigid grazing management that lacks responsiveness to the dynamic and complex social-ecological systems in grazing trials could all contribute to this disparity in outcomes. These differences call for a better understanding of producer perceptions of RG benefits. To fill this knowledge gap, we surveyed 4500 producers from the Northern and Southern Great Plains of the USA. Among the 875 respondents, 40.5% reported that they used continuous grazing (CG), 52.7% implemented RG management in an extensive manner, while 6.8% adopted management intensive grazing. Compared with CG users, adopters of RG in its extensive and intensive form reported an average annual increase of grazing season by 7.6 and 39.3 days, respectively. When controlling for producer demographics, ranch management goals and other rancher characteristics, we found soil and climate heterogeneity significantly affected the perceived relative benefits of RG vs CG strategies. Therefore, instead of focusing on whether RG outperforms CG per se, future research could focus on comparison of RG benefits under different management intensity levels and identifying soil and climate conditions where RG benefits are more noticeable.

ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CLIMATE CHANGE AND PATTERNS OF FARMERS’/PASTORALISTS’ CONFLICTS IN ZAMFARA STATE, NIGERIA

Struggle over land and scarce resources have resulted in perennial and growing violent conflicts amongst arable crop farmers and cattle herdsmen in various parts of Nigeria. This study analyses the relationship between climate change and patterns of herders-crop farmers’ conflict in Zamfara state, Nigeria. Data for this study were acquired via semi structured questionnaire and Key Informant Interview. Purposeful sampling method was used to select six communities, while 260 farmers and 67 pastoralists were chosen as sample size for the survey based on Krejcie and Morgan’s formula. Descriptive statistics such as percentages, arithmetic mean and Likert rating scale were adopted to analyze the data for the study. Results from the findings indicated that farmers and herders in Zamfara state were within active years of economic and productive age (24 to 44 years). Nearly,75% of both farmers and pastoralists in the study communities professed there is high variability in rainfall pattern and increase in temperature. Three-quarter of the respondents confirmed that the nature of the conflicts was assault involving the use of arms; whereas two-fifth of the respondents affirmed that the conflict occurs during harvest and the planting seasons. The study concluded that climate change is the bane of incessant resource use conflicts in the study area. Thus a clearly formulated government policies and implementation framework that would boost climate change information forecasting and dissemination, adaptive capacity and ranch management will salvage the conflictual relationship subsisting between farmers and herders in the study area

Grazing Into the Anthropocene or Back to the Future?

This essay examines three central components of extensive livestock production—herd composition, grazing/pasture management, and rangeland tenure. In all of these areas, fenced, and open-range forms of migratory pastoralism face a number of shared problems. Set aside the presumption that either one of these systems is technically or institutionally more advanced than the other, and it turns out that each has lessons for the other. 1. For a variety of reasons, including climate change, we can look forward to a future world with less grass, which presents a challenge for livestock producers reliant on grass feeding livestock. With little delay and minimal scientific support, East African pastoralists are already adjusting to a new woody world by diversifying the species composition of their herds to include more browsers—camels and goats. There is a potential lesson here for commercial ranchers who have traded the stability of mixed herds for the profitability of keeping sheep or cattle alone. 2. Migratory rangeland systems distribute livestock very differently than fenced, rotational systems of livestock, and pasture management. Whereas, migratory herds exploit environmental heterogeneity, fenced ranching attempts to suppress it. Emerging archaeological evidence is demonstrating that pastoralists have amplified rangeland heterogeneity for millennia; ecological research shows that this heterogeneity sustains both plant and wildlife biodiversity at the landscape scale; and new approaches to ranch management are appropriating aspects of migratory herding for use on fenced ranches. A rapprochement between the environmental sciences, ranching, and open-range migratory pastoralism has occurred and merits wider policy recognition. 3. In contemporary Africa, indigenous tenure regimes that sustain open rangelands are eroding under pressure from market penetration and state encapsulation. At the same time in the American West, there are emerging novel land tenure instruments that replicate some of the most important functional characteristics of tenure arrangements in pastoral Africa. After many false starts, it appears that some aspects of American ranching do provide an appropriate model for the preservation of the open-range migratory systems that they were once supposed to supplant. “Development” policy needs to reflect upon this inversion of roles and its implications for accommodating diversity.

Results of Beer Game Trials Played by Natural Resource Managers Versus Students: Does Age Influence Ordering Decisions?

Systems involving agriculture and natural resources (AGNR) management and representing integrations of biologic, geologic, socio-economic, and climatic characteristics are incredibly complex. AGNR managers purport using a systems-oriented mental model while many observed management and policy strategies remain linear or symptom-driven. To improve AGNR professionals’ systems thinking abilities, two programs, the King Ranch® Institute for Ranch Management at Texas A&M University-Kingsville (KRIRM) and the Honors College at South Dakota State University (SDSUHC), implemented the famous Production Distribution Simulation Game (a.k.a. the Beer Game) into their programs beginning in 2003 and 2011. A Beer Game database consisting of 10 years of trials or over 270 individual players was compared to seminal work in the literature as well as to one another. We found that AGNR managers and students performed worse than players in a seminal Beer Game study. More interestingly, we found that younger players adapted more readily to inventory surpluses by reducing the order rates and effective inventories significantly when compared to older players (p < 0.10 for retailer and distributors, and p < 0.05 for wholesales and factories). We substantiated our results to those in more recent studies of age-related decision-making and in the context of common learning disabilities. Lastly, we discuss some implications of such decision-making on 21st century AGNR problems and encourage AGNR disciplines to better integrate system dynamics-based education and collaboration in order to better prepare for such complex issues.