A SPECIAL PRODUCERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ® C A L I F O R N I A Dairy & Livestock ®
A free web app allows rangeland managers to monitor vegetative cover, using historical and recent information. Speakers at a virtual rangeland summit say information on the app is updated frequently, and allows users to customize the data to their particular needs.
‘Cowboy boots have met big data’ in range monitoring ByBob Johnson
the cover of the same ground over time.” The Rangeland Analysis Platform is free to use and allows for free download of data, he said; the appmay be found at rangelands.app. The platform includes historical and recent information about various types of veg- etation on selected sites. Maestas said the information is updated frequently and offers features that let users craft their own set of questions. “Oneproduct tells you vegetative cover by type: perennials, annuals, shrubs, trees and bareground,” saidMatt Jones, a remote-sensing scientist fromtheUniversityofMontana. “We can track changes in vegetation cover over time, to see the effects of things like grazing, fires or drought,” Jones said, “or we can track the herbaceous biomass over time, from 1986 to the present.” This systemupdates data every 16 days, which Jones saidmakes it useful to track the impact of management decisions within the same season. “You can track 16-day changes, to see how your grazing management is impacting forage,” he said. “You canmonitor forage production over time; you can track average, good or poor years.” It may also soon become more practical to adapt drone photography to the task of
Technology is bringing the day ever closerwhen rancherswill be able to stitch togeth- er information gained fromhorseback and data accumulated from satellite-mounted cameras, andmany layers in between. There are already smartphone apps available that make it possible to look at grazing land on a scale that was unimaginable a few years ago. “As ranchers, you know where the cows like to hang out and where the mule deer bed down,” said Jeremy Maestas, a U.S. Department of Agriculture wildlife biologist. “But there are limits with on-the-groundmonitoring, especiallywith large rangelands.” The good news, he said, “is that technology has caught up—cowboy boots havemet big data.” Maestasmadehis remarks during the virtual CaliforniaRangelandCoalitionSummit, as researchers discussed new tools that are becoming available for rangeland analysis. He discussed the RangelandAnalysis Platform, or RAP, a recently developed app that combines decades of satellite data that has beenmade available for freewithpreviously available information fromUSDANatural Resources Conservation Service andBureau of LandManagement maps. “RAP is aweb app of vegetative cover and herbaceousmass,”Maestas said. “You can see a map of differences in the type of vegetative cover. You can also see differences in
See RANGE, Page 14
May 26, 2021 Ag Alert 13
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