Resilience of U.S. cattle and beef sectors: lessons from COVID-19. (Special Issue: COVID-19 impacts on selected commodities.)

The upheaval wrought on the U.S. beef industry by the global COVID-19 pandemic carried with it several lessons that might help improve resiliency should there be a reoccurrence. First, the futures market for fed cattle fell well before cash prices, which sent a signal to market cattle early, and those who did so benefited. Second, the decline in futures anticipated the closure of slaughter plants and provided an opportunity to purchase and store beef primals in anticipation of future scarcity. Third, the beef industry has ways of slowing or stopping the pipeline of animals destined for feed yards and can "store" these animals in background feeding facilities or on pasture or rangeland. Producers who waited to sell feeder cattle benefited from higher feeder cattle prices once the processing facilities reopened. Fourth, cow slaughter plants responded to the pandemic and subsequent scarcity of labor much better than large fed-cattle plants. Cow plants are not as sophisticated and complex as fed-cattle plants. This relative simplicity may help explain the superior performance of these plants during the crisis. Sixth, the academic work on the value of building smaller plants as a response against concentration provides mixed results-these plants require more labor per animal and can be even more susceptible to labor scarcity. Seventh, the observed increase in boxed beef prices, even as fed cattle prices fell, demonstrates the risk-mitigating impact of producer ownership of downstream activities in the value chain.

On growth patterns and mechanisms in arctic-alpine shrubs. (Special Issue: The uneven geographies of the COVID-19 pandemic.)

Arctic-alpine ecosystems are considered hot-spots of environmental change, with rapidly warming conditions causing massive alterations in vegetational structure. These changes and their environmental controls are highly complex and variable across spatial and temporal scales. Yet, despite their numerous implications for the global climate system, the underlying physiological processes and mechanisms at the individual plant scale are still little explored. Using hourly recordings of shrub stem diameter change provided by dendrometers, paired with on-site environmental conditions, enabled us to shed light on these processes. In this way, growth patterns in three widely distributed shrub species were assessed and linked to thermal and hygric conditions. We started our analysis with a close examination of one evergreen species under extreme environmental conditions, followed by a comparison of evergreen and deciduous species, and, finally, a comparative look at growth patterns across local micro-habitats. The results revealed distinct growth strategies, closely linked to species-specific water-use dynamics and cambial rhythms. Within the heterogenous alpine landscape these conditions were mainly attributed to the variation in local micro-habitats, defined by fine-scale topography and consequent variation in snow conditions and exposure. Thus, the overall growth success was mainly controlled by complex seasonal dynamics of soil moisture availability, snow conditions, and associated freeze-thaw cycles. It was therefore in many cases decoupled from governing regional climate signals. At the same time, exceedingly high summer temperatures were limiting shrub growth during the main growing season, resulting in more or less pronounced bimodal growth patterns, indicating potential growth limitation with on-going summer warming. While shrubs are currently able to maximize their growth success through a high level of adaptation to local micro-site conditions, their continued growth under rapidly changing environmental conditions is uncertain. However, our results suggest a high level of heterogeneity across spatial and temporal scales. Thus, broad-scale vegetational shifts can not be explained by a singular driver or uniform response pattern. Instead, fine-scale physiological processes and on-site near-ground environmental conditions have to be incorporated into our understanding of these changes.

Records of cancelled spring burning of semi-natural grasslands in Japan due to the COVID-19 in 2020

Since the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 is raging around the world. Some of areas in Japan have cancelled spring burning of semi-natural grasslands to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Because records of the impact of the infection on grassland management are considered important, I have documented the information found on the internet about cancelled spring burning related to COVID-19. From late February to mid-May 2020, I searched for any combination of keywords including "Hiire", "Noyaki", "Yamayaki", "Yoshiyaki" (These four words mean "burning" in Japanese.), "corona", and "cancelled" using Google and social networking sites (e.g. Twitter and Facebook) to gather information about cancelled burning due to COVID-19. As a result, I found that burning was cancelled in 18 grasslands in 14 prefectures, and carried out with restrictions in four grasslands in four prefectures in Japan. These cancellation of spring burnings of semi-natural grassland by COVID-19 could affect biodiversity of grasslands and the safe burning of the following year and beyond.

Arriving at a natural solution: Bundling credits to access rangeland carbon markets

On the Ground•Natural solutions, such as “avoided conversion of grasslands,” offer agricultural land managers a way to mitigate climate change while monetizing climate benefits.•Managers who avoid converting grasslands to other uses, such as row crops, can quantify the amount of stored carbon and sell credits, but high costs of developing carbon credit projects price many landowners out of the carbon market.•Aggregation can create economies of scale, which lower barriers of entry and allow more landowners to participate in the market.•Given the current low prices in the carbon market, aggregation is not a panacea and aggregated projects are not financially viable for many landowners.•As the demand for carbon credits continues to grow, land managers can position themselves to take advantage of carbon market opportunities should prices increase, and projects become financially viable.

Pond Water Quality for Livestock in Southwestern Iberian Rangelands

Construction of small ponds that collect and store rainwater to be used for livestock watering has been one of the most widespread adaptive solutions in Iberian rangelands to cope with water scarcity, a problem that has become particularly relevant in recent decades due to the progressive increase in livestock density on farms. However, watering ponds can also be a source of health problems due to the consumption of low-quality water by livestock. In this study, we analyzed the physico-chemical and microbiological quality of water from a set of watering ponds located in Iberian rangelands and evaluated its suitability for livestock consumption by comparing the analytical results with internationally recognized water standards for livestock. In addition, seasonal and spatial variations in pond water quality and the influence of some physical and managerial factors were assessed by multivariate statistical analysis. Results showed a high seasonality in pond water composition. The quality of pond water was sufficient to be used for livestock during the rainy season, but high bacterial pollution of fecal origin was evidenced at the end of the dry season in many ponds, with consequent risk for animal health. Dilution by rainwater and evapo-concentration processes were the main mechanisms that determined the concentrations of contaminants in pond water, while livestock density did not seem to have a significant influence. We propose some strategies, such as diversification in water supply sources and regular water quality testing, that farmers could adopt to deal with the detected water quality problems.

Changing with the range: Striving for ecosystem resilience in the age of invasive annual grasses

On the Ground•A workshop focusing on invasive annual grass management in sagebrush steppe was held on December 14 and 15, 2020•The workshop was attended by 250 participants with over 30 presenters.•This special issue of Rangelands includes papers authored by the presenters on the topics covered in the workshop.

Extension Programming in Forages: Opportunities and Challenges

Even though forage and grazing lands represent the largest land use in the United States, the number of forage faculty positions nationwide has decreased by 47% in the last 15 years, with only an estimated 2.3 forage research and Extension full-time equivalents (FTE) per state. This challenge has made partnerships with county/regional agents and Extension faculty from other states an increasingly important component of a successful Extension program. Whereas virtual/online programs existed prior to 2020, people of all ages are currently more comfortable and adept with virtual technology because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moving forward, virtual meetings and hybrid meetings will likely become more routine, making it possible to disseminate knowledge to producers locally and across the state, region, and country concurrently. This approach will enable Extension educators to be more efficient in their knowledge transfer as illustrated by programs such as the Bermudagrass Hay Summit which has seen an almost six-fold increase in attendance from 2020 to 2021 because travel is not required. Lastly, there is a largely untapped opportunity in on-farm demonstrations and research. An example of how this can positively affect adoption of new technology is the regional program Alfalfa in the South. This program combines both on-farm and experiment station research. As a result of on-farm demonstrations, producer interest in adoption of alfalfa across Alabama and Georgia has increased in the last 3 years. There are many challenges to Extension programming in forages, but there are also ample opportunities to partner with other state Extension programs, as well as with producers to disseminate forage and pasture management effectively and efficiently to the forage and livestock sectors across the United States.

Monitoring visitors in the context of increasing interest in domestic tourism due to the pandemic and its impacts on the natural landscape and agriculture

Domestic tourism in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic is gaining in importance, with more and more visitors looking for trips to the natural sites. However, natural sites are struggling to cope with the sudden influx of tourists and their interest is often at odds with the capacity of the site. Movement of visitors thus has a negative effect on the agricultural landscape. The own research focuses on ways to use motion monitoring as a tool to protect agricultural sites. The main goal of the project is the use of information and communication technologies for monitoring of the visitors in selected area, namely the design and assessment of selected technologies for monitoring movement of persons and obtaining information on the behavior and characteristics of visitors and subsequent pilot verification available technologies. Based on the data obtained, the data can be used to protect the landscape and agricultural areas as the fields, meadows and pastures with an impact on tourism and regional development.