Grazing
– And Protecting the Land
Mark Dickson’s letter defended cattle grazing with some good
arguments, but he also overlooked some points. A friend, a
professor of animal husbandry, always maintained that most ranchers
could market more beef if they owned fewer cattle. In other words,
if they grazed their range less intensively, it would provide their
cattle with more feed. After all, it is the green leaf surface of
plants that manufactures forage. If insufficient leaf area is
allowed to grow, less feed
 grows to be grazed. On the other hand, to put on weight, cattle
must eat some of the leaves. Good management is knowing the best
balance. Of course, there is much more to good range management,
too much to address here.
Suffice to say, many, perhaps most ranchers overgraze their
range and are not very good stewards of the land. This is
especially true when they do not own the land
– when their herd grazes on leased government land.
But Mark Paxton’s point was that alpine meadows, particularly
the highest, like the one he described bordering a lovely little
lake, are very special places. We should treat them gently, as the
precious jewels that they are. They are simply too valuable to
damage merely to grow a few pounds of beef.
John Blake
Hollister
Grazing – And Protecting the Land
Mark Dickson’s letter defended cattle grazing with some good arguments, but he also overlooked some points. A friend, a professor of animal husbandry, always maintained that most ranchers could market more beef if they owned fewer cattle. In other words, if they grazed their range less intensively, it would provide their cattle with more feed. After all, it is the green leaf surface of plants that manufactures forage. If insufficient leaf area is allowed to grow, less feed grows to be grazed. On the other hand, to put on weight, cattle must eat some of the leaves. Good management is knowing the best balance. Of course, there is much more to good range management, too much to address here.
Suffice to say, many, perhaps most ranchers overgraze their range and are not very good stewards of the land. This is especially true when they do not own the land – when their herd grazes on leased government land.
But Mark Paxton’s point was that alpine meadows, particularly the highest, like the one he described bordering a lovely little lake, are very special places. We should treat them gently, as the precious jewels that they are. They are simply too valuable to damage merely to grow a few pounds of beef.
John Blake
Get on with the budget already
A pox upon both their houses.
Legislators of both parties and not their constituents should pay the consequences when the budget is not passed on time..
 Voters need to contact Sen. Jeff Denham and demand that he immediately sponsor legislation penalizing legislators when they fail to compromise in the public interest and pass yearly budgets when they are due.
 The needed legislation must include the following. First, legislators should not be able to adjourn until a budget is passed. Second, legislators should receive stiff monetary fines for each day the budget is late. Third, there should be an automatic provision for emergency funding until the budget is passed.
Robert Oen
Soledad
