A Guide to Evaluate and Diagnose Range Management Programs in Extensive Cattle Ranches

A Guide to Evaluate and Diagnose Range Management Programs in Extensive Cattle Ranches

Commonly, range managers and ranchers apply range management principles and practices without a guide, conventional protocol, or a reference frame. This happens because knowledge in education and even in extension or consultant programs is obtained over time in a diversity of ways and, in turn, transmitted or applied in a diversity of methods, according to the experience, academic degree, or organization sense of the rancher himself, or his technician. Existing range management knowledge should be organized and applied in a systematic and conventional way. Medical science provides a good example of systematic management. Patients are “inventoried”, evaluated, diagnosed and treated in this sequence. Their health status is evaluated and classified. Treatment is established to attain objectives and goals. Therapeutic actions are placed on a daily based calendar to attain the referred objectives and goals in a time horizon. The same manner, range management knowledge should be “packaged” in a range management program, as well as the remainder 7 proposed programs (administration, reproduct-ion, health, nutrition, infrastructure, wildlife, and intensive forage production) to inventory, evaluate, diagnose or even to certify all ranch operation plan (Vásquez et al. 2006). According to this idea, a guide based on 50 indicators is proposed to inventory, evaluate, diagnose and classify a specific range management program. The “Los Ángeles” cattle ranch, in northern México, is the reference ranch.