Modified intensive-early stocking on shortgrass rangeland. Harmoney, Keith^*,1, Brethour, John¹, ¹ Kansas St. University Ag. Research Center - Hays, Hays, KS, USA

ABSTRACT- On Kansas shortgrass rangeland, intensive-early stocking (IES) using double stocking the first half of the grazing season was found to have no production advantage over continuous season-long (CS) stocking from May to October. It was hypothesized that by using IES at less than double the density, and then allowing some animals to remain on pasture season-long, that gains per acre could be increased without limiting individual animal gain potential. A comparison was made for 4 years between CS stocking of steers May to October on shortgrass native rangeland at a rate of 1.42 ha/steer, and modified IES at 0.89 ha/steer from May to July, then removing the heaviest animals and stocking at 1.42 ha/steer until October. Removal of heavy animals from the IES system occurred mid-July each year. For the animals that were on pasture during the first half of the season, average daily gains (0.82 kg/day vs. 0.74 kg/day) and total gains per animal (58.2 kg vs. 52.3 kg) were similar for both stocking strategies. Animals that remained on pasture season-long from both the CS system and the modified IES system had similar daily gains (0.67 kg/day vs. 0.64 kg/day) and individual total weight gain (100 kg vs. 95 kg) over the entire season. Total gains on a land area basis were greater for the modified IES system than for the CS system (73 kg/ha vs. 58 kg/ha). More years are required to see if animal responses remain consistent across years and if the vegetative component will remain stable.

KEY WORDS: continuous season-long stocking, intensive-early stocking, stocking strategy, animal performance