Attending The Environmental Stewardship Tour
#bfrdpwy #aginternship #RightRisk
This week we had the opportunity to attend the 2024 Wyoming Stock Growers Association
Environmental Stewardship Tour at the S&W Livestock Ranch, located just a short drive away. The morning began with the welcome breakfast and the presentation of the Environmental Stewardship Award for outstanding stewardship practices and environmental conservation achievements. Following the morning events was the most important part of the day, the ranch tour, where the owners and operators of the ranch were able to showcase the specific practices
that won them the Stock Growers Stewardship Award. The tour began with a look to compare the former pasture set up to the current pastures, transitioning from seven total pastures to more than 52 that are broken down even smaller is a major contributor to their over all success of their Environmental and Conservation Stewardship. We then moved onto the haying operation and from there we moved onto seeing some of the range that had been sprayed and maintained for invasive plants to promote better forage for the cattle.
Seeing grazing patterns, crop and cover crop rotations, as well as experimental tree plantings and designation protected riparian areas were all highlights of the day. Seeing the different ways ranches do the same things is always interesting and brings in new ways of doing work and can get the ideas flowing not just for those on the tour but also for those who are giving the tour in some cases. Especially if the ranchers and operators are open minded and welcoming to new ideas and information.
At the end of the day everything circled back around to the same tent where the welcoming was to allow the many different people from ranchers to conservations workers to ask questions, get answers and do a little individual networking. I met several other interns from the NRCS, giving me the opportunity to engage with individuals I may be working with in the future. A couple of them will also be attending UW in the fall, like myself.
There are a couple concepts I learned at my educational event that I would implement in my own
operation. One would be breaking down larger pastures into smaller sections using electric fencing.
This would allow for ease of transition from pasture to pasture, while getting greater use out of the
existing area. Also, I would implement windrow grazing methods. Windrow grazing methods may not
have a particularly good view due to problems that have occurred with this host operation as they
tried it, but I would like to try it. concepts I would implement – breaking down larger pastures into smaller sections using electric fencing due to ease of transition from pasture to pasture and you getting greater use out of the existing area, I would also implement windrow grazing methods even though they did not have a particularly good view of it due to problems they had with it over the years they tried it. networking – met several other interns from the NRCS giving me the opportunity to engage with individual s I may be working with in the future, including a couple that will be going to UW this fall
Submitted by: Cody Lancaster
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team
