Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Grazing tour by bus offered August 3

Back to News Release Archive

July 13, 2007

Corning, Iowa — An air-conditioned tour bus will be taking both cattlemen and landowners on a grazing tour of
the 4,000 acre Dunn Ranch in northern Missouri. The tour will also visit grassland sites in Ringgold County, Iowa. The tour will see different grazing management methods, and particularly those methods that take wildlife habitat into consideration when planning grazing.

The bus tour is free and will be offered Friday August 3. Bus stops for pick up are in Creston, Corning, Bedford, Mt. Ayr, and Lamoni.

People wanting to join in the bus tour must register in advance. The bus limit is 45 people. Register by contacting the Corning NRCS office at 641-322-3116.

The Dunn Ranch is a huge project of The Nature Conservancy, a private conservation group that is trying to restore native grasslands to original condition using fire and grazing mammals. They are using cattle as the grazers in place of the original buffalo herds. That project is west of Eagleville, Missouri.

Sites in Ringgold County will include both private lands and publicly owned Department of Natural Resources lands that are using grazing cattle as a management tool with wildlife habitat as goal. Iowa State University is currently conducting management research on several methods of grazing. Research team leaders will be on the bus tour to outline their studies and objectives.

Watering sites for livestock is always a major consideration in grazing. At each stop, the watering methods will be outlined and addressed. Two sites in particular will be viewed on this tour. They are both pond access sites that allow cattle to drink directly from a pond, but only in a very small fenced area. Lee Faris, noted Ringgold County cattleman will show his sites. One will be a very low dollar site; the other will be a high dollar site.

The bus tour is provided by the Southern Iowa Forage and Livestock Committee with financial support from the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service. Additional assistance and speakers come from the Iowa State University Extension Service.

There is no deadline for registration, but the opportunity will end when registrations fill the available seats on the bus.

 

For more info contact:

John Klein – Corning NRCS
641-322-3116 

Back to News Release Archive