| Grassland Evaluation Contest Study Guide | Fifth Edition: October 2005 |
| Glossary | |
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A
agricultural land: All land devoted to crop or livestock production; e.g., farmstead, drainage and irrigation ditches, ponds, cropland, and grazing land on farms.
agricultural use: The use of any tract of land for the production of animal or vegetable life; uses include, but are not limited to, the pasturing, grazing, and watering of livestock and the cropping, cultivation, and harvesting of plants.
animal unit: A measurement of livestock numbers based on the equivalent of a mature cow (approximately 1,000 pounds live weight); roughly, one cow, 1.4 yearling cattle, one horse, one mule, five sheep, five swine, or six goats. Abbr. A.U.
annual food plot: A small area of land planted to a mixture of annual plants which produce an abundance of small seeds as supplemental food for wild animals; the crop is not harvested, but is left standing in the field.
annual plant: A plant that completes its life cycle and dies in one year or less.
association: A climax plant community identified by the combination of dominant species present.
available forage: Forage that is accessible for animal consumption. The standing dry matter yield of forage in a paddock or grazing unit. May be measured from desired grazing height.
available water: The portion of water in a soil that can be absorbed by plant roots.
B
biennial plant: A plant that requires two years to complete its life cycle.
biomass: The amount of living matter in a given unit of the environment.
border (wildlife management): A strip of herbaceous or woody vegetation, usually low-growing and more than five feet wide, established along the edges of fields, woodlands, or streams.
brush pile: A small stack of cut branches, shrubs, and other woody vegetation, which serves as protective cover for small wild animals.
browse (n): Refers to the nutritious buds or tips of branches of shrubs, vines, saplings and forbs that are selected for food by "browsing" wildlife such as deer.
bunchgrass: grasses with growth forms that are clumped or tufted, rather than single-stemmed, sod-forming.
C
carrying capacity: The maximum population that a given ecosystem can support indefinitely.
clutch: The total number of bird or reptile eggs laid in one nesting.
community: An aggregation of organisms within a specified area.
conservation: 1. The wise use of natural resources. (The criteria for "wise use" can be the original concept of conservation by Pinchot: "greatest good for greatest number in the long run.") 2. "A state of harmony between man and the land."...Aldo Leopold.
consummable forage: The average annual dry matter forage requirements for an animal unit X the number of available animal units.
continuous grazing: The grazing by domestic livestock of a specific area throughout the grazing season; not necessarily synonymous with year-long grazing.
controlled burning: The deliberate use of fire so as to restrict the burning to a predetermined area and intensity.
controlled grazing: Grazing management designed to improve utilization of forage by allocating pasture in subunits with grazing periods typically less than five days.
cool-season plant: A plant that makes its major growth during the cool portion of the year. For example, cool-season grasses grow when the soil temperature is just above 32 degrees (F) and nearly stops growth when the soil temperature is above 78 degrees (F).
cover: Vegetation or other material used by wild animals for nesting, rearing of young, resting, escape from predators, or protection from adverse weather conditions.
covey: A small flock or number of birds together, often functioning somewhat as a unit; the term is chiefly applied to partridges (including quail).
D
decreaser plant species: The plant species of original vegetation that will generally decrease in relative amount with continued overuse; commonly termed decreasers.
deferred grazing: The discontinuance of livestock grazing on a area for a specified period of time during the growing season to promote plant reproduction, establishment of new plants, or restoration of vigor by old plants.
degradation: 1. To wear down by erosion, especially through stream action. 2. To be contaminated by salts, chemicals, or other pollutants before being returned to the environment after being used by man.
density: In biology, the number of organisms per area unit at a given time.
diversity: The variety of species within a given association of organisms. Areas of high diversity are characterized by a great variety of species; usually relatively few individuals represent any one species. Areas with low diversity are characterized by few species; often relatively large numbers of individuals represent each species. Diversity enhances ecosystem stability.
dominant (ecology): A species which by its activity, behavior, or number has considerable influence or control upon the conditions of existence of associated species; a species which "controls" its habitat and food web.
dry matter forage: Vegetative material suitable for forage that has been dried to remove all moisture.
E
ecosystem: A contraction for "ecological system;" the interacting system of a biological community and its non-living environment.
edge or ecotone (wildlife): The transitional zone where one cover type ends and another begins. The junction zone may have considerable linear extent, but is narrower than the adjoining community areas themselves.
edge effect: The influence of two or more adjoining communities upon the composition and density of
populations within the bordering area.
endangered species (native): A species of native fish, wildlife or plant threatened with extinction because its habitat is threatened with destruction, drastic modification, or severe curtailment; or because of over-exploitation, disease, predation, or other factors. Its survival requires assistance.
endemic species: An organism or species that is restricted to a relatively small geographic area or to an unusual or rare type of habitat.
energy (or food) pyramid: The passage of energy as food from one trophic level to another. Since about 80 to 90 percent of the energy in each transfer is lost as waste heat, the resulting shape of the energy levels is that of a pyramid.
exotic: An organism or species that is not native to the region in which it is found.
F
forage inventory: A compilation of the carrying capacity in animal units and animal unit months for all
management units within a farm being evaluated. The carrying capacity of each management unit is the sum of carrying capacities of the pasture units it contains. The carrying capacity of each management unit is determined by dividing land area by the stocking rate (AC/AU).
forage production: The total amount of dry matter produced per unit of area on an annual basis.
forb: A herbaceous plant which is not a grass, sedge, or rush. A broadleaf flowering plant.
forest: A plant association predominantly of trees and other woody vegetation.
G
grass: A member of the botanical family Gramineae, characterized by bladelike, narrow leaves arranged on the culm or stem (jointed) in two ranks, flowers in spikelets, and seedlike fruit, e.g. wheat, oats. sorghum, fescue, big bluestem, etc.
grassland: Land on which the existing plant cover is dominated by grasses.
grazing: The eating of any kind of standing vegetation, except browse, by domestic livestock or wild animals.
grazing capacity: The maximum stocking rate possible without inducing damage to vegetation or related resources.
grazing land: Land used regularly for grazing. The term is not confined to land suitable only for grazing. Cropland and pasture used in connection with a system of farm crop rotation are usually not included.
grazing cell: A parcel of land subdivided into paddocks and grazed rotationally.
grazing period: The length of time that livestock are present on a particular paddock during a particular grazing cycle.
grazing season: The portion of the year that livestock graze, or are permitted to graze, on a given range or pasture. It is sometimes called grazing period.
grazing system: A specialization of grazing management, which defines systematically recurring periods of grazing and deferment for two or more management units.
grazing unit: An area of rangeland or pastureland, public or private that is grazed as an entity.
green browse: Herbaceous plants, which are planted specifically for grazing (or browsing) by wildlife, especially geese.
H
hayland: Land used primarily for the production of hay from long-term stands of adapted forage plants.
herb: Any flowering plant except those developing persistent woody bases and stems above ground.
herd: A group of animals, especially cattle or big game, collectively considered as a unit.
home range: The total area traversed by a wild animal engaged in feeding, breeding, loafing, and seeking refuge during its life cycle.
hybrid: An organism resulting from a cross between parents of different species, subspecies, or cultivar.
I
indicator plant: Any plant that by its presence, its frequency, or its vigor indicates any particular property of the site.
indigenous: An organism born, growing, or produced naturally in a region or country; native
intake: The mass of forage dry matter consumed by the grazing animal per day. Usually expressed as a
percent of bodyweight or pounds per day.
intensive grazing management: Grazing management where a grazing unit is subdivided into subunits
(paddocks) with grazing periods typically less than five days. Usually involves an increase in stocking rates, forage utilization, labor, and results in increased production per unit area or per animal. Preferred term is "management-intensive grazing because it is management and not necessarily grazing that is intensified.
intensive rotational grazing: Synonymous with "intensive grazing management".
interspersion (wildlife): The distribution of heterogenous cover types and plant species in a limited area. The degree to which environmental types are intermingled or interspaced on a landscape. A measurement of system unit location or relationships. It is the intermixing of units od different habitat types.
invader plant species (invaders): Plant species that were absent in undisturbed portions of the original plant community, but will invade under disturbance or continued overuse.
K
L
land use plan: A composite of information, ideas, policies, programs, and activities related to existing and potential uses of land within a given area; such describes the recommended location and intensity of development for both public and private land uses such as residential, commercial, industrial, recreational, and agricultural.
life cycle: The stages through which an organism passes during its existence.
limiting factor: A factor whose absence, deficiency, or excessive concentration exerts some restraining influence upon a population through incompatibility with species requirements or tolerance. The parameter or item in an animal's habitat that outweighs all others in limiting productivity.
livestock: Domestic animals produced or kept primarily for farm, ranch, or market purposes; livestock includes beef and dairy cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, and horses.
M
monoculture: The raising of crops of a single species, generally even-aged.
multiple use: The use of land for more than one purpose; e.g., grazing of livestock, wildlife production,
recreation, watershed, and timber production. Multiple use is not necessarily the combination of uses that will yield the highest economic return or greatest unit output.
N
natural resources: The air, land, soil, water, plants, animals, minerals, sources of energy, and other persons upon which and whom man depends for his necessities, needs, and wants.
natural revegetation: The natural re-establishment of plants; the propagation of new plants over an area by natural processes.
niche: The functional role of an organism or population in its community. Each component has a certain
function or role in the scheme of "nature".
nitrogen fixation: The conversion of elemental nitrogen to organic combinations or to forms readily usable in biological processes. The conversion is normally carried out by bacteria living symbiotically in legumes, or by free-living soil bacteria.
nitrogen-fixing plant: A plant that can assimilate and fix, with the aid of bacteria living in the root nodules, the free nitrogen of the atmosphere. Legumes with the associated rhizobium bacteria in the root nodules are the most important nitrogen-fixing plants.
nitrogen-fixing plant: A plant that can assimilate and fix, with the aid of bacteria living in the root nodules,
the free nitrogen of the atmosphere. Legumes with the associated rhizobium bacteria in the root
nodules are the most important nitrogen-fixing plants.
nutrients: Those elements or compounds essential to growth and development of living things: carbon,
oxygen, nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, etc.
O
optimum yield: The maximum sustained yield of any harvestable crop.
organism: Any living thing.
overgrazing: An intensity of grazing so heavy that it impairs future forage production and causes degradation (deterioration) through damage to plants, soil, or both.
overstocking: The placing of a number of animals on a given area that will result in overuse at the end of the planned grazing period.
P
palatability: The plant characteristics or conditions that stimulate a selective response by animals.
pan: A horizon or layer in soil that is strongly compacted, indurated, or very high in clay content.
parent material (soils): The unconsolidated, more or less chemically weathered mineral or organic matter from which the solum of soils has developed by pedogenic processes. The C horizon may or may not consist of materials similar to those from which the A and B horizons developed.
pasture: An area devoted to the production of forage, introduced or native, which is harvested by grazing. In most countries, "pasture" refers only to a planted grass sward.
pasture improvement: Any practice of grazing, burning, mowing, fertilizing, liming, seeding, scattering
droppings, contour furrowing, or other methods of management designed to improve vegetation for grazing purposes.
pasture management: The application of practices to keep pasture plants growing actively over as long a period as possible so that they will provide palatable feed of high nutritive value.
perennial plant: A plant that normally lives three or more years.
permanent pasture: Grazing land occupied by perennial pasture plants or by self-seeding plants, usually both, which remains unplowed for many years.
pesticide: Any substance or chemical applied to kill or control weeds, insects, algae, rodents, and other undesirable pests.
pH: A numerical measure of acidity or hydrogen ion activity. A pH value of 7.0 is neutral; pH values below 7.0 are acid; pH values above 7.0 are alkaline.
photosynthesis: The manufacture by plants of carbohydrates and oxygen from carbon dioxide and water in the presence of chlorophyll, using sunlight as an energy source.
plant succession: The vegetation development whereby an area becomes successively occupied by different plant communities, each of higher ecological order, progressing toward the "climax" vegetation.
pollution: The condition caused by the presence in the environment of substances of such character, and in such quantities, that the quality of the environment is impaired or rendered offensive to life.
population: A group of organisms of the same kind.
ppm (parts per million): The ratio of the number of parts of a substance in air or a liquid to one million.
prairie: A tract of level to hilly land that has a dominance of grasses and forbs, a scarcity of shrubs, and is treeless. The natural plant community consists of various mixtures of tall, mid, and short growing native species, respectively known as true prairie, mixed prairie, and shortgrass prairie.
prescribed burning: The deliberate use of fire under conditions by which the area to be burned, the intensity of heat, and the rate of spread are controlled so as to achieve predetermined, professionally recommended objectives for silviculture, wildlife management, grazing, fire-hazard reduction, etc.
primary productivity: The rate at which organic matter is stored by photosynthetic and chemosynthetic activity of producer organisms (autotrophs); e.g. grams per day.
R
residual: The amount of forage remaining after a grazing period. Expressed as mass of dry matter per acre or as height from ground level. Not synonymous with residue.
residue: Dead, decaying plant material present on the soil surface.
rest period: Then length of time between two consecutive grazing periods on a particular paddock.
riparian land: Land situated along the bank of a stream or other body of water.
roost: The place, or the support upon which, birds rest -- especially at night.
root zone: The part of the soil that is penetrated, or can be penetrated, by plant roots.
rotation grazing: A system of pasture utilization during which short periods of heavy stocking are followed by periods of rest for plant recovery during the same season.
roughage: A feed, such as hay, with high fiber content and low total digestible nutrients.
runoff (hydraulics): That portion of the precipitation on a drainage area that is discharged from the area in stream channels.
S
selective grazing: The tendency for grazing animals to graze certain plants in preference to others.
slope: The degree of deviation of a surface from the horizontal, measured in a numerical ratio, percent, or degrees. Expressed as a ratio or percentage, the first number is the vertical distance (rise), and the second is the horizontal distance (run), as 2:1 or 200 percent. Expressed in degrees, it is the angle of the slope from the horizontal plane with a 90 degree slope being vertical (maximum), and 45 degrees being a 1:1 slope.
soil: The unconsolidated mineral and organic material on the immediate surface of the earth that serves as a natural medium for the growth of plants.
soil classification: The systematic arrangement of soils into groups or categories on the basis of their
characteristics.
soil loss tolerance (T): The maximum average annual soil loss (expressed in tons per acre per year) that should be permitted on a given soil.
soil survey: A general term for the systematic examination of soils in the field and in laboratories: their
description and classification; the mapping of kinds of soil; the interpretation of soils according to their adaptability for various crops, grasses, and trees; their behavior under use or treatment for plant production or for other purposes; and their productivity under different management systems.
species (both singular and plural): A natural population or group of populations that transmit specific
characteristics from parent to offspring. They are reproductively isolated from other populations with which they might breed.
species diversity: The ratio of the number of species in a community to the number of individuals in each species. (Low diversity occurs when there are few species, but many individuals in each species.)
standing crop: 1. The total biomass of an area at a given time. 2. The quantity of a given species at a given time.
stocker: A beef animal in the period between weaning and feedlot placement.
stocking: The release of wildlife species that have been captured, or propagated in captivity, into a suitable habitat.
stocking rate: The number of animals, animal units, or total animal liveweight assigned to a grazing unit for an extended period of time. Usually expressed on a per acre basis.
succession: The progressive development of vegetation toward its highest ecological expression, the climax; the replacement of one plant community by another.
sustained yield: ;A condition in which the rate of utilization or consumption of a resource does not exceed the rate of recovery or production.
sward: Grass covered soil.
T
tillage: The operation of implements through the soil to prepare seedbeds and root beds, control unwanted vegetation, aerate the soil, and cause faster breakdown of organic matter.
transect: A cross section of an area used as a sample for recording, mapping, or studying vegetation and it use. A transect may be a series of plots, a belt, strip, or line, depending on why it is being used.
U
V
vegetation type: A plant community with distinguishable characteristics.
W
water penetration: The depth to which irrigation water or precipitation penetrates soil before the rate of downward movement becomes negligible.
watershed: The land area that drains toward a natural surface water system. (More precisely, a given point on such a system.)
wildlife: Undomesticated animals, considered collectively.
wildlife management: The technique of producing sustained annual crops of wildlife.
woodland: Any land used primarily for growing trees and shrubs, compared to open land used for grazing or other agricultural purposes.
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