Abstract:
Properly functioning riparian systems are vital to the health of watersheds and
provide an important forage and habitat resource for livestock and wildlife. Riparian
grazing management strategies that are economically feasible and achieve environmental
goals are needed by resource managers and livestock producers. The objective of this
thesis was to examine the economic impacts of providing off-stream water and salt in
pastures to influence cattle distribution between riparian and upland areas. A field test of
the project was conducted at Oregon State University's Hall Ranch in Union, Oregon
during mid July through August of 1996 and 1997. A bioeconomic nonlinear
programming model using collected data was constructed to test the economic feasibility
of the project for a 300 cow-calf operation in northeastern Oregon over sixty years. Nine
states of nature were created from historical data to account for the uncertainty of
precipitation and cattle market prices. When an environmental management objective of
restricting riparian vegetation utilization to thirty-five percent was strictly enforced,
permitted animal unit months from summer pastures on public lands were reduced from
traditional levels. This reduction resulted in a long run equilibrium herd size that was ten
percent lower than current levels. However, when the dispersion project was employed,
cattle were distributed more evenly across pastures and consumed more upland forage
before desired ripanan levels were reached. Consumption of more upland forage
allowed the long run equilibrium herd size to remain at traditional numbers. This result
combined with improved animal performance yielded positive net returns for the project.
The off-stream water and salt dispersion project has an annual expected net return of
$4,517, $7,358 and $11,054 at low, median and high cattle prices, respectively, for a 300
cow operation in northeast Oregon.
