By James Rogers
Today is a great day to be in the office — as I sit here, writing this column, I’m watching it rain! This rain is our first significant moisture event since half an inch fell in early April. Up to this point, it has been a dry year. A rainy day is also a good time to do a bit of reflection on the past, present and future of forages and grazing management.
Terminology is a good place to start. Several years ago, at a national meeting of grazing lands scientists, forage and grazing land scientists from across the country noted that they were using different terms to describe animal grazing and grazing lands. This discussion eventually led to a publication titled "An international terminology for grazing lands and grazing animals."
In this publication, there are definitions for many common grazing terms such as stocking rate, animal unit, forage, preference and rest period. Since this is international terminology, there are also uncommon terms that are defined, like transhumance systems, grazing station and veld. By using defined terminology, communication and clarity among grazing land scientists have improved and have moved forward.