The Effect of Climate and Different Grazing and Dusting Intensities upon the Yield of the Short-Grass Prairies in Western Kansas

Abstract

The past few seasons have been trying ones on the vegetation of central and western Kansas. Rainfall has often been as much as thirty per cent below average. This deficiency of precipitation was accompanied by low relative humidity and high temperatures which reduced the amount of soil moisture to the point of non-availability during long periods of time, for both cultivated and native plants. These adverse climatic conditions in themselves would be enough to greatly reduce plant cover and forage production. In addition, farmers for economic reasons or otherwise, did not reduce the number of livestock, which resulted in further depletion of pastures already weakened by drought. Dust, blown from cultivated fields, also played an important role in decreasing the cover of the native pastures. On numerous occasions vast areas of native vegetation were completely covered by layers or drifts of dust from adjacent farm land. The purpose of this problem was to determine the effect of climate, amount of dusting, degree of grazing, and grasshopper injury upon the quantity and quality of forage produced by various short grass pastures in west-central Kansas. Since it was impracticable to determine quantitatively the amounts of short grass cover and forage produced in large plots, this study was made on areas one meter square. The plots chosen were as nearly as possible representative of the different types of pastures studied.