Managing the Great Pasture

A note from A Kansas Farm Mom:  I have some amazing friends who can write and speak much better than I.  Mr. Daryl Donohue shared these comments on his Facebook page the other day and I asked if I could share it with you.  Lessons for both the consumers and ranchers can be found in his words. 

I feel compelled to comment on the subject of prescribed burning for Native Grasslands.

Mother Nature burned whenever she felt like it. She managed the "Great Pasture" as she saw fit and the ecosystem evolved and thrived. Before Europeans arrived, The Native Americans emulated Mother Nature and burned as they had observed the buffalo thriving on the new green grass each year. They were the first cattlemen and learned that an annual burning benefitted not only their meat supply, but their supply of fruits and vegetables, and medicinal plants as well.

We, as livestock producers, continue with this ritual to help keep the rapidly disappearing Native Grasslands healthy and viable for the benefit of food production in the form of beef. Now, understand that the grassland that is left is usually on rocky soil and hills that are NOT suitable for farming, nor gardening. The thin layer of soil that the grass holds is there because of that grass. Erosion by wind and water is a major factor of why this land needs to be kept in grass.

Fire is a major component that we use to keep this Eco-system in balance.
It is NATURAL.
It is cost-effective.
And it is the best tool that the land manager has as far as healthy grass.
Fire is needed to scarify, or open, seed coats for germination on the many forbes, legumes, and grasses comprising the system's mix. Wintertime freezing is the other method.
Fire helps control invasive species such as brush, Multi-Flora rose, blackberries, and the scourge- Red Cedar trees.

Fire is a good thing as long as it is used correctly and with respect.

We have seen the results of the wildfire in Western Kansas and the damage wrought because of the high winds carrying it. Fire can cost a lot in loss of livestock, facilities, fences, homes, peace of mind, and unfortunately, human life.

One can never be too careful when doing a burn.
You sure don't decide to burn and have a dinner date set at 6:30 and expect to make it.
Fire is the main priority of the day and you don't leave until it is out.
Fire is not a toy.
It does have a hypnotic quality that causes common sense to exit stage left in some cases.
Fire has a tendency to sneak around and get loose if left to its own devices.

Fortunately, we have Rural Fire Districts in our counties on which we can rely for help. However, they are made up of unpaid volunteers who leave their responsibilities when they are called out. These heroes put their lives on the line when fighting an escaped fire. They protect lives of people and livestock, as well as homes, etc from destruction. A lot of times they seldom get a thank you. They come because of the ethic of being a part of community. This can be severely strained due to negligence of the party that lit the fire. Especially, if it is a repeat offense. This costs the volunteer in time lost, threat to safety, fatigue, and well-being. It also costs the fire district fuel, repairs, possible equipment destruction, and loss of manpower due to injury, or members deciding not to volunteer anymore. It costs in the loss of family time of the firefighters.

In our county alone, Rural Fire has responded to over 50 fire calls in March and April, to date, because of burning with the high winds, or sudden changes in wind direction.

Is this all due to negligence? No, it is not.

There are times when the best figured fires can get loose due to a burning rodent running across a black line. Or, sparks kicking up when the wind switches. Cow pies are common culprits as they will smolder. Either way, one must do their due diligence and have a degree of "What can go wrong?"when conducting a prescribed burn. One must also consider the people around them before lighting off.

In closing, we as agricultural producers must strive to do our best in working to keep our privilege of prescribed burning. The saying of "One rotten apple spoils the whole barrel" comes into play more than ever when dealing with Fire. When you have a public who doesn't understand why we burn, and all they see is destruction and cost of resources, it makes it harder for us to do our job of providing affordable food.

Remember,
Safety First.
Ask for help.
Take your time and plan well.
And call Central Dispatch before you start.
Thanks for listening.

Volunteers Across the State Made Us #KSPROUD

Another guest post from one of my friends, Alan Black who traveled two hours to help with the Anderson Creek Fire.  Unlike Dylan who was there are Day 1, things were more controlled and Alan and his crew were there to watch hot spots and let the guys who had been fighting for days get a much needed break.  I was impressed with his view of things.  Alan is also a Volunteer Firefighter who left behind his family to help out as best he could.

On Thursday afternoon March 24th, we got a call that Butler County Task Force 3 was putting together trucks and personnel to mobilize to Medicine Lodge. Saturday morning around 4 a.m, my partner and I left El Dorado for the 2 hour trip down there to relieve our Friday crew.

It's amazing what goes through your mind on your way to a disaster of that scale.
What's it going to look like?
How does a small community handle an influx of that many people and vehicles?
We arrived around 6:20 a.m and prepared for our 12 hour shift on our truck.

Fire trucks, tankers and semi's lined the streets in front of the command post as day shift and night shift strolled in and out of the building with night shift telling the day shift to have a safe and productive day.

The command post room was filled to the gills for the daily briefing on containment and safety concerning the use of the Blackhawks for water drops on that day and Division assignments.

We strolled down to the church for breakfast and to grab a sack lunch for the day's work, being told "Take as much as you need.  We have plenty for you all."

As we proceeded the 20 miles west to Sun City, we were finally getting a bird's eye view of the fire stricken area. Road graders had been used to clear road ditches of all grass and trees to try and stop the fire to no avail.  It still jumped the highway.

We ventured south of Sun City over to the Gyp mine where they had a flare up the day before. My partner and I met up with a Gorham Fire District truck and we toured the area where we would watching hot spots.

One thing that stood out was you couldn't tell that none of these fire fighters had never met or even worked together before. We were all there for one common goal and that was fire containment and structure protection.

Later in the day, we got our first chance to watch the Blackhawks drop water on hot spots in the valleys in our division. It was very interesting to watch considering we never see anything like that in Kansas.

As we looked around, it was blackened ground as far as the eyes could see.  Fences and power lines burnt and laid on the ground. We had the chance to meet up with some of the local fire fighters working on their trucks from a rough 48-60 hour fire fight, and with local ranchers as we traveled their properties checking out fire lines.

The message was always the same "we greatly appreciate everything you guys are doing for us and the communities around us" and one rancher even offered up his bunk house for fire fighters to stay in.

As our shift wrapped up, we did a quick debriefing and headed back to the church for supper with another chance to visit with more locals. Despite everything that that community had been through everybody seemed to be up beat and positive, all grateful for all of us being there. One thing I mentioned in a previous post on Barber County 2016 fire was that the fire fighters are truly the blessed and thankful ones. The hospitality and the amount of food that they kept out for us and the 2 bunk stations was absolutely phenomenal.

Sitting in the church you couldn't help but noticed the stage full of donations to the community and all the extra stuff that was donated for the fire fighters who ended up staying the night in the area.

All we hear about in America anymore is how bad it is, but being part of this fire and seeing everything it just reaffirmed that rural America is still alive and kicking where neighbors help neighbors and everybody was working together for the same cause and fire departments come from all across the state of Kansas from border to border to this small community.

Here are a couple of fun pictures Alan caught driving out to the fire that we just had to share.  ;) -KFM