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Rangelands & Pastures

Rangelands and pastures occupy a substantial portion of the productive landscape in Washington state, with a diversity of production conditions from arid and semi-arid shrub steppe ecosystems to lowland pastures to higher rainfall forest-grasslands and improved irrigated pastures. In addition to the important role of providing livestock products to the market, these vast land areas are a significant source of realized and potential ecosystem services. Poor management of rangelands and pastures contributes to impaired water and air quality as well as contributing to the spread of noxious weeds. Discovering and implementing improved rangeland and pasture management practices is a key goal for CSANR.

Featured Publications

From the Field: The potential value of a decision support tool informing dynamic stocking rate decisions on rangelands in the inland Pacific Northwest. (PDF)

Hall, SA, Yorgey, GG, Hudson, TD, Neibergs, JS, Reeves, MR. 2020. From the Field: The potential value of a decision support tool informing dynamic stocking rate decisions on rangelands in the inland Pacific Northwest. Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, Washington State University. Available online at: http://csanr.wsu.edu/publications/from-the-field/.

Farmer-to-Farmer & Rancher-to-Rancher Case Studies Series

Authors include: Yorgey, G., Borrelli, K., Painter, K., Davis, H., Hall, S., Hudson, T., Neibergs, S., Reeves, M., Kruger, C., McGuire A., Finkelnburg, D., Roe, D., Brooks, E., and Kantor, S. 2016-2019. PNW Extension Publications and videos. These series explore strategies that innovative regional farmers and ranchers are using that enhance resilience to climate change and […]

Beefing Up the Palouse

Since 1985 the U.S. government has implemented the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) which pays farmers NOT to grow crops on millions of acres of highly erodable land. In addition to being a controversial program, much of this land is now coming out of CRP which puts pressure on farmers to grow crops in these areas […]

2008 Estimated Costs and Returns for a 150-head Cow-calf to Grass-finished Beef Production System in the Channelled Scablands Range Area of East-central Washington

In response to the popularity of grass-finished beef, this publication provides a production budget analysis using both ranch-owned and leased forage sources in eastern Washington to determine profitability. Funded by the William D. Ruckelshaus Center, the Beefing Up the Palouse pilot project applied a total systems approach to develop a replicable production model to help […]

Additional Publications

Healing the Land through Multi-Species Grazing

A noxious weed invasion is underway on the rangelands of the western United States that is causing significant problems in the form of ecosystem and bio-diversity damage resulting in a reduction in the carrying capacity of grazing animals. The expenditure of millions of dollars on control measures has not been successful; these measures have had […]

Browse all Rangelands Publications

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