Custom Sales Book - (Page 9)

Left: Steve Clubine, grassland wildlife biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation, holds a male prairie chicken while Danelle Okeson, veterinarian at Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure west of Salina, Kan., assesses the bird’s health before it is transported back to Missouri. Bottom left: Two prairie chicken hens cautiously exit a release box at Wah’Kon-Tah Prairie. Males are trapped in Kansas and relocated to Missouri in the spring, while females are trapped in the summer after they’ve nested. Below: University of Missouri master’s student Kaylan Kemink uses radio telemetry to track the movements of prairie chickens at Wah’Kon-Tah. Such monitoring allows the project managers to determine what habitat the chickens are using. creating a mosaic of habitat that the chickens require for nesting, raising their chicks and roosting at night. While prescribed ﬁre has been a tool for managing prairies for some time, the inclusion of grazing now provides an opportunity for partnering with the state’s beef industry. “Bluestem and yearlings, they just kind of go hand in hand,” says Dusty Schaaf, a cattle producer from El Dorado Springs. For the past two years, the member of Sac Osage Electric Cooperative has been the high bidder for the right to graze stocker calves on Wah’Kon-Tah. “It’s generally what makes us the most money.” Prairie grasses are warm-season species that thrive during the summer months. Fescue, the predominant pasture grass in Missouri, is a cool-season grass that grows well in spring and fall but falls off in the summer. Calves grazing prairie grasses in the summer have a higher average daily gain than those on fescue, which allows Schaaf to bring them to market sooner and at a time when demand — and price — is typically higher. Although stocking rates are lower when grazing patch-burned prairie grasses, the increase in forage value means that supplemental feeding isn’t necessary, reducing input costs for farmers, says Joe Horner, an economist with the Commercial Agriculture Program at the University of Missouri. “Producers save on labor involved with supplemental feeding, as well as the expense of installing crossfencing for rotational grazing,” he adds. Those involved with the restoration project also see potential for creating a new market and capturing a premium for beef grazed on native prairie grasses. “We already have dolphin-safe tuna and shade-grown coffee, and we’d like to ﬁnd a way to market the wildlife beneﬁt from well-managed farms,” Max says. “Consumers are becoming more conscious of not only where their food comes from but how it’s produced, and we think this is an area with possibilities.” Joe says for a number of shoppers, such “green traits” resonate more than price, and there’s a willingness to pay more for a product that meets personal beliefs about conservation. “There is a segment of consumers completely turned off by commodity beef production,” he says. “The question is how big is that segment and how much does it cost to create a marketing channel to capture the value in delivering what those consumers want?” met its life expectancy in every meaRandy Arndt, who is site manager sure,” adds Max. for The Nature Conservancy’s Dunn In the spring of 2009, the males Ranch in north-central Missouri as established a booming ground, well as Wah’Kon-Tah Prairie, says he which they again returned to this sees an opportunity for recreational past spring. Females are successfully landowners to team with cattle pronesting and hatching off young. ducers and use patch-burn grazing to Such early success has Max and his improve habitat for grassland wildlife. recovery team hopeful that the sights “It’s just one more tool that we use and sounds of booming chickens will to help manage the prairie to try to again become a spectacle that Misincrease the diversity,” he says. “Probsourians can enjoy in many regions of ably the worst thing you can do is to the state. It’s a sentiment that cattlejust leave it alone.” men Dusty Schaaf shares. While many questions remain, “It’s still got to pencil out because what is already apparent is that with 100 percent of my income is agriculwell-managed prairie available, the ture,” he says. “Whatever it takes, prairie chicken can again become a though, I’m open to it, as long as it ﬁxture on portions of Missouri’s landworks ﬁnancially.” scape. In the past two and a half years, Max’s Want to hear prairie team has relocated 240 chickens booming on prairie chickens from the lek? Go to the online Kansas to Wah’Konversion of this article at Tah, with another 60 www.ruralmissouri.org/ hens and their chicks rmfeatures.html to watch to arrive this July. So a slideshow. far, the birds’ mortality To learn more about rate has closely mirthe greater prairie chickrored that of a wild en recovery program in population. Missouri, visit www.mdc. “We ﬁgure about a mo.gov/17070 or contact 50 percent annual mor- Restoration efforts are paying Max Alleger at 660-885tality rate, so a 3-yeardividends, as this successfully 8179, ext. 247. old prairie chicken has hatched clutch attests. RURAL MISSOURI 9 http://www.ruralmissouri.org/rmfeatures.html http://www.ruralmissouri.org/rmfeatures.html http://www.mdc.mo.gov/17070 http://www.mdc.mo.gov/17070

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Custom Sales Book

Custom Sales Book
Contents
Comments
Columns
Ghosts of the Grasslands
Out of the Way Eats
Mail Bag
Best of Rural Missouri
Hearth and Home
News Briefs
What’s Old is New Again
Marketplace
Around Missouri
Missouri’s Horse
Neighbors
Look for the Dinosaur
Just4Kids

Custom Sales Book