A Twenty-Five Year Comparison of Continuous and Rotation Grazing in the Northern Plains

Abstract

A GRAZING experiment was established at the Northern Great Plains Field Station in 1916 to determine the carrying capacity of native range. Pastures of various sizes were grazed with cattle continuously during a 150 day summer season from May 16 to October 13 at intensities that would result in degrees of use from over-grazing to undergrazing. In 1918 additional pasture was established to study a system of deferred and rotation grazing. This deferred and rotation pasture was grazed every year during the period 1918-45. The results obtained on this pasture are directly comparable with those from the continuously grazed pastures. Sarvis (1923 and 1941) describes the plan of the entire experiment and gives the results from 1916 to 1940. Rogler (1944) gives the results from 1940 to 1943. This paper presents data needed to compare results obtained on the deferred and rotation pasture with those from two of the continuously grazed pastures, one of which was grazed heavily and the other moderately.