Part 5: Setting Realistic Objectives and Goals

The Potential of Your Land to Produce Different Kinds and Amounts of Vegetation

The potential of your land to produce different kinds and amounts of vegetation requires classification and inventory of your land’s capability.

By identifying land capability, you are better able to assess livestock production resources your land could potentially produce, including both living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) and their interactions:

• Living resources include:
• Forage
• Desired plant community composition
• Adequate ground cover
• Wildlife habitat
• Non-living resources include:
• Watershed dynamics/hydrology
• Soil
• Water quality and quantity

Familiarity with two important rangeland concepts is beneficial when determining land capability and management objectives. Plant communities are a group of plants residing together at some point in time. An ecological site description is a rangeland vegetation and soil survey method developed by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

Let’s now look at each of these designations in more detail.