Abstract:
Seasonal trends in forage quality and production were studied on improved
and unimproved portions of four plant communities in eastern Oregon. The range
improvements consisted of seeding and/or thinning. Improvement doubled forage
production on the lodgepole pine site (thinned but not seeded), tripled production
on the grassland and moist meadow sites (both seeded), and caused a sixfold rise in
forage production on the mixed conifer site (thinned and seeded). However, only in
the case of the grassland did range improvement lengthen the period when forage
provided adequate nutrition for growth of yearling cattle; the improved nutrition
can be attributed primarily to inclusion of a legume (alfalfa) in the seeding mixture.
On the forested sites, thinning tended to cause forage to mature earlier and thus
decline in forage quality faster than on unthinned controls.
