Description

This research was conducted at two sites: a tallgrass prairie site in the central part of the state and a mixed-grass prairie site in the southwestern part of the state. The research was conducted in the earliest stages of implementation of patch burn grazing at both sites, with subsequent research being published by others for both the tallgrass prairie site (Fuhlendorf and Engle 2004; Limb et al 2011) and the mixed-grass prairie site (Limb et al 2011). At both sites, a full rotation of the patch burn grazing system had not yet been completed when the research was conducted. Cattle performance did not differ between patch burn grazing pastures and the other pastures at either site. At the tallgrass prairie site, patch-scale heterogeneity of multiple habitat variables was greater in the patch burn grazing pastures compared to the other pastures. At the mixed-grass prairie site, there were few differences in patch-scale heterogeneity when the patch burn grazing pastures were compared to the other pastures.