Noble Foundation Workshop Focuses On Winter Pasture, Grazing Technologies

Mar 27, 2015

The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation will host a Spring Grazing Workshop from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday, April 7, at the Noble Foundation Pasture Demonstration Farm in Ardmore, Oklahoma.

This workshop, which is open to the public, will demonstrate applicable grazing technologies such as Batt Latch and forage mass estimation. Attendees will also learn about the new forage and grazing research projects being done at the Noble Foundation.

Small grain winter pasture is high quality forage often grazed by stocker cattle through the spring. Technologies available today provide more efficient means to manage stocking rates. “We want to show producers the technologies available that will allow them to make management decisions from a computer,” said James Rogers, Ph.D., Noble Foundation assistant professor. “We also want to give them more information on soil health, one of the most pressing topics in production agriculture today.”

Agricultural economists from Oklahoma State University will discuss the forage insurance program and how it works. Noble Foundation soils and crops consultants will discuss soil health, rainfall and soil runoff, and minimizing urea volatility losses.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.