Nutrient and fiber content and in vitro digestible dry matter (IVDDM) were measured in Gambel oak (Quercus gambellii) and big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) samples collected during January from nine geographic areas distributed widely throughout the western half of Colorado, and representing three vegetation types. Coefficients of variation among areas were less than 10% in both species in dry matter content, IVDDM and most cell and cell wall components. Variation appears to be small enough to permit application of a suitably selected, constant value, which would reflect winter nutrient content, fiber content or digestibility of these species, regardless of where collected in Colorado, in surveys where winter nutritional status of big game rangelands is being estimated for management purposes.

A study was initiated in August, 1975, to examine the forage available to and diet composition of white-tailed deer on pastures of excellent and poor range condition at the Sonora Research Station near Sonora, Texas. Grass and forb standing crop and deer feeding time on these two forage classes were considerably higher on the pasture in excellent range condition than that in poor range condition. Browse standing crop and feeding time was greater from the pasture in poor range condition. The Merrill 4-pasture grazing system appeared to increase the availability and use by deer of grass regrowth. Yearly averages of crude protein and phosphorus were higher in diet samples collected from the pasture in excellent range condition. Digestible energy levels were similar between pastures when averaged over the 1-year period. Digestible energy levels in diets were, however, higher from the excellent condition pasture in every season except winter. In winter, deer fed primarily on the foliage of oak on excellent condition range; but on the pasture in poor range condition, deer used large amounts of foliage and mast from juniper and dead leaves of persimmon in addition to oak foliage. Juniper and persimmon apparently contributed to the higher digestible energy levels observed on the pasture in poor range condition during the winter season. Energy may be a major nutrient limiting deer production on the Edwards Plateau.

Some temperate grasses have the ability to produce in their inflorescence modified spikelet structures that act to reproduce the species vegetatively. These types may be either genetically fixed or an occasional expression of environmental change.

Mixing sodium carbonate into the top 100 to 150 mm of soil in three farm ponds constructed in calcareous soil in eastern Montana effectively reduced seepage losses for about 3 years following treatment. Seepage rates the first year after treatment were decreased to 20 to 40% of the pretreatment rate, but they were 60 to 100% of the pretreatment rate 4 years after treatment.

Understory standing crop biomass was studied on three culturally imposed microsites (bed, furrow, and flat) bedded slash pine (Pinus elliottii) plantations in north Florida. Biomass was clipped in the late spring of 1977 on plantations 2, 5, and 10 years old and separated into five classes: grass, forb, sedge, shrub, and litter (including standing dead). After an initial abundance following site preparation sedges and forbs dropped to relatively low levels within the first 5 years of plantations development. Grasses were the dominant live vegetation in two-year-old plantations. Shrubs became dominant by the fifth year and remained so through the 10th year. Litter, as a result of the lack of cultural treatments designed to remove accumulated dead vegetation, was the major biomass class (more than 8,000 kg/ha by the fifth year following pine establishment). Total live understory biomass increased from the second to the fifth year after which it decreased. Grass standing crop biomass was highest on the flats, lowest in furrows. Hence, forage inventories should be stratified by microsite. Prescribed burning on a properly managed cattle operation may prevent high accumulations of litter while effectively improving the availability of palatable forage. Forage may also be increased by decreasing the proportion of land occupied by the less productive microsites, namely the furrows and beds.

Livestock systems based on uncontrolled communal grazing result in inefficient utilization of native forages and low livestock production. Forage/livestock herd simulation models are adapted to Tanzania to evaluate a case of improved technology. A hay enterprise for lactating cows, not possible with uncontrolled communal grazing, was found to increase nutritional and monetary welfare of a typical village.

Microscopic study of fecal pellets from Townsend ground squirrels occupying the shrub steppe region of southcentral Washington showed that squirrels preferred to feed on bluegrass (Poa sp.) and forbs (Descurainia pinnata and Lupinus laxiflorus); phlox (Phlox longifolia) may also be a favored food item. Bluebunch wheatgrass (Agropyron spicatum), six-weeks fescue (Festuca octoflora), and lomatium (Lomatium macrocarpum) were avoided. No significant differences between diets of ground squirrels occupying grazed and ungrazed study areas or between diets of male and female or adult and subadult ground squirrels were found.

Deer and cattle grazing in spring preferred bluebunch wheatgrass plants that had been defoliated the previous fall to those that had not. Deer selected burned plants in greater proportion than grazed plants. Fall grazing by cattle affected the distribution of deer. Deer displayed preference for the fall grazed field after green growth exceeded the height of stubble.

The transfer of data from field sheets to computer files always involves the risk of errors being made in plant symbols or other identifying codes. If a master list of symbols or codes is incorporated into the software programs used for data entry on CRT computer terminals the risk of making errors can be substantially reduced. This is done by utilizing the highly time efficient binary search to compare each entered symbol or code with the master list. Detection of errors before the data are transferred to computer files saves much time which would otherwise be spent in retrieving and correcting files.

The germination of seeds of beardless and bluebunch wheatgrasses was investigated over a wide range of constant and alternating temperatures. Seeds of 'Whitmar' beardless wheatgrass, a collection from Nevada, and numbered accessions of bluebunch wheatgrass were used. Seeds of 'Whitmar' beardless wheatgrass germinated at 87% of the 55 temperature regimes tested with a mean germination of 52%. Germination at 42% of the temperature regimes was optimum [defined as not significantly (P = 0.01) different from maximum], with a mean of 84%. Freshly harvested seeds of the Nevada source of bluebunch wheatgrass germinated at 78% of the temperature regimes with a mean of 40%. Comparable figures for fully ripened seeds 5 months after harvest were 84% with a mean of 62%. The germination response of 1-month old bluebunch wheatgrass seeds indicated that germination could occur at the high seedbed temperatures encountered in a late summer moisture event. The temperature-germination profiles for the numbered accessions of bluebunch wheatgrass had the same general pattern as the Nevada source. Generally, seeds were highly germinable at a number of temperatures. Optimum germination of all the sources of seed occurred at 37 temperature regimes at least once and always occurred at 15 temperatures ranging from an alternating 5/15 degrees C through a constant 25 degrees C. This range of germination temperatures is much wider than that exhibited by squirreltail and Sandberg bluebunch. The bluebunch wheatgrass material has the inherent potential to germinate and to be highly germinable at a wide range of temperatures.