IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jresou/v9y2020i4p49-d349536.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Grazing Management, Forage Production and Soil Carbon Dynamics

Author

Listed:
  • Mark E. Ritchie

    (Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA)

Abstract

Soil carbon pools remain a target for sequestering greenhouse gases, but appropriate land management options to achieve such sequestration remain uncertain. Livestock grazing can have profound positive or negative effects on soil carbon. Different models for assessing the influences of grazing are available, but few explicitly account for different management options on soil organic carbon (SOC). Here, I link a previous simple SOC dynamic model (SNAP) to a recent model of episodic grazing and its effects on primary production. The resulting combined model, called SNAPGRAZE, assesses the potential effects of grazing management on SOC across a range of climates with only eight climate, soil, and management input variables. SNAPGRAZE predicts that, at high stocking densities relative to those sustainable under continuous grazing and at higher mean annual temperature and precipitation, short-duration, high stocking density (SDHSD) grazing schemes can enhance forage production and increase stocks of soil organic carbon. Model predictions for current SOC, given a known 50 year grazing history, agrees well with data from nine private ranches in the North American Great Plains. SNAPGRAZE may provide a framework for exploring the consequences of grazing management for forage production and soil carbon dynamics.

Suggested Citation

  • Mark E. Ritchie, 2020. "Grazing Management, Forage Production and Soil Carbon Dynamics," Resources, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-20, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jresou:v:9:y:2020:i:4:p:49-:d:349536
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/9/4/49/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/9/4/49/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John P. Ritten & W. Marshall Frasier & Christopher T. Bastian & Stephen T. Gray, 2010. "Optimal Rangeland Stocking Decisions Under Stochastic and Climate-Impacted Weather," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 92(4), pages 1242-1255.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bastian, Christopher T. & Gray, Stephen T. & Peck, Dannele E. & Ritten, John P. & Hansen, Kristiana M. & Krall, James M. & Paisley, Steven I., 2011. "The Nature of Climate Science for the Rocky Mountain West: Implications for Economists Trying to Help Agriculture Adapt," Western Economics Forum, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 10(2), pages 1-10.
    2. Hailey Wilmer & María E. Fernández-Giménez & Shayan Ghajar & Peter Leigh Taylor & Caridad Souza & Justin D. Derner, 2020. "Managing for the middle: rancher care ethics under uncertainty on Western Great Plains rangelands," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(3), pages 699-718, September.
    3. Boaitey, Albert & Goddard, Ellen & Mohapatra, Sandeep, 2019. "Environmentally friendly breeding, spatial heterogeneity and effective carbon offset design in beef cattle," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 35-45.
    4. Briner, Simon & Finger, Robert, 2012. "Bio-economic modelling of decisions under yield and price risk for suckler cow farms," 123rd Seminar, February 23-24, 2012, Dublin, Ireland 122547, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    5. Justin Derner & David Briske & Matt Reeves & Tami Brown-Brandl & Miranda Meehan & Dana Blumenthal & William Travis & David Augustine & Hailey Wilmer & Derek Scasta & John Hendrickson & Jerry Volesky &, 2018. "Vulnerability of grazing and confined livestock in the Northern Great Plains to projected mid- and late-twenty-first century climate," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 146(1), pages 19-32, January.
    6. Boaitey, Albert & Ellen, Goddard, 2016. "Optimal Livestock Management For Improved Environmental Outcomes: How Effective Are Carbon Offset Markets?," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 236010, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Robert, Marion & Thomas, Alban & Bergez, Jacques Eric, 2016. "Processes of adpatation in farm decision-making models. A review," TSE Working Papers 16-731, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    8. Meki, Manyowa N. & Osorio-Leyton, Javier & Steglich, Evelyn M. & Kiniry, Jim R. & Propato, Marco & Winchell, Mike & Rathjens, Hendrik & Angerer, Jay P. & Norfleet, Lee M., 2023. "Plant parameterization and APEXgraze model calibration and validation for US land resource region H grazing lands," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    9. Wang, Tong & Richard Teague, W. & Park, Seong C. & Bevers, Stan, 2018. "Evaluating long-term economic and ecological consequences of continuous and multi-paddock grazing - a modeling approach," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 197-207.
    10. Robert, Marion & Bergez, Jacques-Eric & Thomas, Alban, 2018. "A stochastic dynamic programming approach to analyze adaptation to climate change – Application to groundwater irrigation in India," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(3), pages 1033-1045.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jresou:v:9:y:2020:i:4:p:49-:d:349536. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.