March 2024 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN 41 BRUCE & TRACY HASSEBROOK FAMILY 33550 475th Avenue Genoa, NE 68640 Bruce: 402-367-8222 Tracy: 402-367-8269 UPDATES AVAILABLE AT PAST SALE HIGHLIGHTS • BULLS LIKE THESE SELL! BULLS LIKE THESE SELL! SUNDAY, APRIL 7, 2024 PRODUCTION SALE 2 P.M. ALBION, NEBRASKA ALBION LIVESTOCK MARKET EIGHTH ANNUAL SALE WWW.HCFCATTLE.COM SELLING 75 YEARLING & FALL BORN CHAROLAIS & COMPOSITE BULLS 20 CHAROLAIS & RED ANGUS CROSS REPLACEMENT HEIFERS foundation of building a management plan. We can’t identify how to reduce vulnerabilities if we don’t know where the site is currently.” Mapping out a piece of land does not have to be a lengthy or detailed process. It can be as simple or as high-tech as the producer prefers. “This can be done on Google Earth or by drawing out your property on the back of a napkin,” Fogarty says. “The purpose of this is to identify mature seed sources, and then you’re buffering that seed source with a 200-yard radius. Everything after that should be intact grassland.” The buffer is 200 yards because that is how far seeds can reasonably travel from their source, and those areas are threatened by the presence of eastern red cedar seeds that may have already spread. “We have to get out in the field and make sure our maps are correct,” Fogarty says. “We need to lay eyes on mature trees and scope out the land we own to ensure our intact areas are indeed intact.” After the map is created and corrected, the next step is for producers to contemplate their future goals and the long-term vision for their property. Fogarty also encourages cattlemen at this stage to consider working with their neighbors to combat this problem. “It’s good to know if you have dispersal contamination coming from your neighbor’s property,” Fogarty says. “We do ourselves a great service when we work across property lines because we can actually manage the ecology of the problem rather than be limited based on property ownership boundaries.” The next phase the pocket guide outlines is the decision support phase. This is where landowners create a detailed plan of action to help them make management decisions at every stage on their map, including the intact areas. “If producers have intact areas on their property, the most important thing is that they need to prevent seed sources from establishing,” Fogarty says. “They need to monitor it closely and consistently. That is the easiest stage to manage.” However, the management strategy needs to evolve when the map contains contaminated areas. Fogarty’s pocket guide contains a decision flow chart allowing producers to ask questions about their own land and make the correct decisions accordingly. “The goal here is to prevent the contaminated site from becoming infested,” Fogarty said. “In the pocket guide, producers are walked through a logic framework on their options.” The third and final stage of the pocket guide is implementation. “Implementation is actually putting your plan into work,” Fogarty says. “It comes down to what landowners are comfortable with and what’s feasible for them.” The complete pocket guide is free and available at https:// www.wlfw.org/landscapes/great-plains/. ~NC~
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