Eliminating Weeds Could Put More Cows on the Pasture

By Don Comis April 28, 2010

An online weed calculator developed by an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist tells ranchers the number of additional cows they could raise if they eliminated one or two widespread exotic invasive weeds.

Rangeland ecologist Matt Rinella at the ARS Fort Keogh Livestock and Range Research Laboratory in Miles City, Mont., created a computer model that predicts weed impacts on forage production.

Data for developing the model came from 30 weed researchers working throughout the western United States. In addition to developing the calculator so that ranchers can calculate what weeds are costing them on any given site, Rinella used the data to estimate what weeds are costing ranchers in a 17-state region. He calculated that if leafy spurge were eliminated, ranchers in that entire region could graze up to 200,000 or more cows a year and save tens of millions of dollars.

To see the whole story go to: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2010/100428.htm