GGMC connects ranchers to range science
There has never been a better time than now for farmers, ranchers and land managers to have direct access to useful range management resources. On Jan. 25, the Society for Range Management (SRM) launched Good Grazing Makes Cent$ (GGMC) – a program designed to provide “practical, applicable and economically feasible range management practices which can ultimately improve productivity of the land and the bottom dollar of the ranch.”
GGMC membership includes an interactive monthly newsletter, premium educational videos created by producers and land management experts across the country, as well as access to additional SRM resources, including academic journals, Rangelands and Rangeland Ecology & Management.
Dave Voth, a ranch manager and program participant, shares, “Good Grazing Makes Cent$ offers me a chance to ask questions in an interactive forum which can connect me to people in the academic world and bring it into a situation where I can use it on my own landscape.”
He continues, “I can speak to other producers who have tried unique and progressive treatments and see how I can use some of those things and what may or may not make sense on my place.”
Interactive membership
GGMC membership places range science at producers’ fingertips through access to blogs, videos and other science-based resources on a monthly basis. In addition, members will be invited to join a Facebook group which directly connects rangeland scientists and producers in an easily accessible forum. There, members can participate in live discussions with rangeland scientists and producers.
The monthly content is driven by members’ questions and queries, according to GGMC.
“Each newsletter will have ‘submit a question’ options which will be answered by our team of experts and possibly even be covered in-depth in future newsletter additions,” the GGMC website shares.
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Range Management Specialist Hayden Vandeberg says, “GGMC is a way to use information to ensure the sustainability of a ranch from one generation to the next and use small bits of information from videos to implement changes in family ranches overtime.”
Sharing information
Rancher’s Stewardship Alliance Conservation Committee Coordinator Martin Townsend shares he believes the value of GGMC is the vast number of resources available for producer use.
“I think the value of the GGMC program is really a collection of all the varying resources that are available and can be beneficial for ranch management and to grazing as the major tool in ranch management,” Townsend says. “There are very specific resources related to specific things which scatter every facet of plant and animal science. I think the value of all of this is curating all of this information down into a usable format.”
“What we are really try to do here is get producers information quick and now, so they can make the decisions they need to, to help their operation through drought, marketing or more,” said NRCS Range Management Specialist Scott Anderson.
Range managers across the West share if operations are looking to make a slight change over time, which will impact their operation for years to come, GGMC is a great place to look for range management advice.
Averi Hales is the editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.
