Landings : BEEF AND BIRDS

Four months ago, the pup and I could stand in this pasture and hear prairie chickens on the distant horizon booming from every direction.

- Greg Hoch

'PRAIRIE CHICKENS ARE BENEFITED BY MODERATE GRAZING OF PASTURES. THE PATHS AND SMALL AREAS OF REDUCED COVER RESULTING FROM THE ACTIVITIES OF THE CATTLE FACILITATE THE MOVEMENTS OF YOUNG BIRDS AND PROVIDE PLACES SUITABLE FOR SUNNING IN TIMES WHEN THE GRASS IS WET.' — MAURICE F. BAKER, 1953

Overhead, snipe winnowed. Singing meadowlarks topped some fence posts. Upland sandpipers landed on other fence posts, gracefully folding their wings.

In early August, we begin our late summer plant surveys. The dog walks a little ahead of me, nose to the ground, kicking up grasshoppers with each step until he looks like he's in the center of a cloud.

While fire is still a common land management tool, most prescribed fires today are much smaller than historic fires. While safer, these fires are probably less effective at brush control.

I'm a decent botanist, no more than that, and this pasture tests me more than almost any other prairie I know. I always bring a couple field guides with me because I'm pretty sure I'm going to see a plant I've never seen or haven't seen in a long time. Plants that are rare in other places are relatively common here. Other plants I find here I find almost nowhere else.

A small herd of cattle grazes a couple hundred yards north of us. The cattle, and the way they are managed, are the key to all I'm seeing and he's sniffing. Cattle primarily graze the grass. The lush, succulent regrowth of the grass attracts grasshoppers and other leaf feeding insects. Removing some of the grass would create room for a greater diversity and abundance of wildflowers. All those wildflowers attract a host of pollinating insects. This is one of the few places where the buzz of insects can drown out the sound of the ever-present prairie winds.