The state and the nonprofit Nature Conservancy are working to create a managed refuge of more than 12,000 acres in West Texas for lesser prairie chickens — some of which ranchers could also lease as ideal grassland for cattle grazing.
It is important to consider that the PTXD/Phi system has the highest potential for use in acidic and alkaline soils that have very low-Pi availability and that, in spite of having appropriate climatic conditions and water availability to sustain high crop productivity, it has been used only as grassland for cattle.
Paraguay has not pursued an active colonization policy in the Chaco Boreal, though the region has extensive grasslands suitable for cattle raising.
We sampled secondary pastures of different age (1 to 31 years old), established on former degraded cropland at three agro-ecosystems in the semi-arid Highveld of South Africa; old degraded croplands and primary grassland used for cattle grazing served as controls.
The vast grasslands seemed ideal for cattle, but a severe winter in 1886 87 virtually wiped out the herds.
While it would pay off in the long-term by creating richer grassland for their cattle, he says many ranchers might not want to risk hungry cattle (and financial losses) in the meantime.
Converting brush-covered hills to grassland for grazing cattle may be a recipe for landslides and soil erosion.
During the winter the flooded areas of the levels would have provided this fishing, hunting, foraging and farming community with abundant fish and wildfowl; in the summer, the drier areas provided rich, open grassland for grazing cattle and sheep, reeds, wood and timber for construction, and abundant wild animals, birds, fruit and seeds.
Fire and prairie dogs can limit shrubland encroachment and expand the more productive grasslands for the benefit of cattle ranching, and cattle and fire can reduce vegetation height that allows prairie dog colonies to expand into the grassland.
