Range Day set for Jan. 12

Nevin Price, UNWNRD Resource Technician, said he sees the event as a way to address the needs of regional rangeland managers.

“We want the Range Day to provide producers across the district with new ideas and information about how to manage their rangelands and keep them healthy in ways that they may not have thought of before or may have been considering, but wanted to hear more about,” Price said.

The schedule will begin with coffee and donuts at 8:30 a.m. and conclude following a 4:15 tour of range and ranching buildings and exhibits on campus.

Those interested in lunch should call 308-432-6190. The event is sponsored by the CSC Rangeland Management Program and the C.F. Coffee Gallery with support from the Bill and Virginia Coffee Family Foundation.

The 2016 Range Day revolved around cheatgrass management, but this year’s agenda includes more collaboration with CSC and will cover a variety of topics that producers expressed interest in last year, according to Price.

Gary Stone, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension educator with the Panhandle research and extension center in Scottsbluff, will provide an update on cheatgrass. Clint Phillips, a range management specialist for the U.S. Forest Service, will discuss timber grazing.

A 10 a.m. producer panel will consist of ranch owners and operators John Maddux, Nancy Peterson and Chip Ramsay.

Rancher Barb Cooksley will address management of eastern red cedar in a ranch operation at 11 a.m.

A CSC graduate will be announced as the winner of the CSC Range Management Program Alumni Achievement Award during lunch.

Bill Whitney, executive director of Prairie Plains Resource Institute, who recently completed a Practitioner-in-Residence at CSC sponsored by the CSC Rangeland Management Program and the C.F. Coffee Gallery with support from the Bill and Virginia Coffee Family Foundation will speak about range restoration at 12:45 p.m.

Don Day, Jr., president and meteorologist of DayWeather, Inc., will speak about current and future weather at 1:30 p.m. He will be followed at 2:15 p.m. by Sam Fuhlendorf, Regents Professor and Groendyke Chair in wildlife conservation at Oklahoma State University.

Jack Arterburn, UNL beef systems extension educator in Sheridan County, will discuss the Grass Snap app for smart phones at 3:15 p.m.

At  3:45 p.m., two CSC students, Jed Rice of Kellogg, Idaho, and Jacob Tejral of Pleasant Dale, Nebraska, will share oral presentations they plan to present at the Society of Range Management (SRM) meeting later this month in St. George, Utah.

The day will conclude with a 4:15 p.m. tour of the Coffee Agriculture Pavilion, Rangeland Lab and C.F. Coffee Gallery.