In Arizona and other western states, ranchers and land managers rely on thousands of miles of permanent wire fencing to manage livestock on extensive rangelands(Hayter, 1939). This type of fencing has led to improved rangeland conditions in many places by aiding in the application of grazing systems. However, wire fencing can fragment landscape connectivity, pose a risk to wildlife, is a major financial investment, and provides little to no flexibility to rapidly change pasture size, manipulate grazing distribution, or avoid areas of high use or sensitive habitat within a pasture (Holechek et al., 2011; Jakes et al., 2018). As a result, there are constraints on the use of permanent fences as a tool for managing riparian health, post-fire vegetation recovery, or improving livestock distribution. While electric fencing can be used to address some of these problems (Barnes and Howell, 2013), electric fencing can be hard to implement across large pastures and requires a significant time investment to setup and move. Virtual fence (VF) technology is an emerging precision livestock management tool used to address these limitations and increase management flexibility and adaptive capacity to respond to changing.

In Arizona and other western states, ranchers and land managers rely on thousands of miles of permanent wire fencing to manage livestock on rangelands. Patented in 1874, this type of fencing has been widely used to control the timing and distribution of livestock grazing across the landscape (Ray and Schamel 1997). When combined with modern rangeland management principles, the use of wire fencing has led to improved rangeland condition in many places by aiding in the application of grazing systems (Holecheck et al. 2011). However, permanent fencing also results in significant management limitations. Wire fencing can fragment landscape connectivity, pose a risk to wildlife, and can be a major financial investment for ranchers and land management agencies to establish and maintain (Jakes et al. 2018). Additionally, permanent fences provide little to no flexibility to rapidly change pasture size, manipulate grazing distribution, or avoid areas of high use or sensitive habitat within a pasture. As a result, there are constraints on the use of permanent fences as a tool for managing riparian health, post-fire vegetation recovery, or improving livestock distribution. Precision livestock management technologies have emerged in recent years to address these limitations and increase management flexibility and adaptive capacity to respond to changing environmental conditions as part of a larger grazing management system that balances economic and ecological outcomes (Trotter 2010; di Virgilio et al. 2018; Lima et al. 2018). Virtual fencing is one such technology.

This resource is intended to give 4-H leaders, youth, and families an overview of key terminology involved in the feeding of livestock.

4-H Livestock judging is a great program opportunity where youth can strengthen their decision-making abilities, grow communication skills, and develop sound critical thinking and articulate reasoning. Youth that excel in livestock judging cultivate an ethic of research, practice, and work hard to communicate clearly and concisely to judges and peers. Livestock judging is a competitive event centered around the visual evaluation of an animal’s physical traits and at times performance data. The goal is to compare and contrast four animals in a class against each other as well as the “ideal” animal.

If you have taken good care of your bees through the summer, and cooler Fall temperatures are now here, you have a new focus for success in the Fall. Usually, your hives are all equal strength, Varroa mite numbers are low, and the honey harvest is over so all honey supers should have been pulled off the hives as well as queen excluders. Now is the time to allow your bees to fill the two bottom brood boxes with honey and bee bread in preparation for winter survival, as well as raise fat bees that are better suited to live longer during the winter months.

Every beekeeper should make a goal to have both healthy and productive hives. The most important step to achieve this goal is lifelong learning. Research is ongoing and constantly updating the current best practices, so the successful beekeeper needs to develop connections to keep up to date with the latest and greatest discoveries, and how they affect your existing practices. Join a local beekeeping club, subscribe to a beekeeping journal, or follow your local beekeeping organization on social media.

While there are 20,000 species of bees in the world, only 7 to 10 produce honey. Most of these species are solitary bees. Of those 7 to 10 that produce honey, only a few produce more honey than they need for their colony. Apis mellifera is the most common of the domesticated species which is used around the world for honey production and pollination services. Within this species there are several races. Each race has traits that make them better suited to different situations.

Each member of the honeybee colony has specific duties they perform in the hive. The queen is mainly to lay eggs and the drones are specifically to mate with a virgin queen of another hive. The workers do all the rest of the labor needed to keep the hive functioning. Generally, inside bees are younger and outside bees are older. They can perform any of the roles needed in an emergency, but they generally follow a progression of duties. This progression can be interrupted by the queen not laying, so nurse bees would not be necessary, or as in the case of a swarm, all bees turn to foraging or making honeycomb to build a new hive. If all the young worker bees were killed, the foragers could reactivate their food glands and wax glands. If all the foragers were killed, the young bees could learn to become foragers in a short time.

For successful Spring management of your honeybee colony, there had to be successful Fall and Winter management as each affects the other. Springtime for honeybees begins much earlier than we might think it does, especially in the low desert of Arizona.