Livestock Production & Ranch Management Projects
Our land is a working laboratory where scientists and managers work together to address issues important to wildlife management, rangeland health, and ranch productivity. We ensure that ranching and wildlife management work together to conserve healthy rangelands.
Livestock Monitoring
We strive to develop better tools and strategies that inform decisions by monitoring the ranching enterprise. This includes participating in the development and deployment of production record systems, inventory management systems, and grazing intensity tracking. These data are foundational to measuring progress and evaluating the outcomes of management ‘experiments’ to inform future management decisions.
Livestock Production Improvement
A key to the sustainability of ranching enterprises is discovering opportunities and developing strategies for improving livestock productivity in conjunction with land and wildlife stewardship objectives. A critical element of ranch productivity is the development of grazing management strategies and their impacts on land, wildlife, and livestock production. We have set aside the Coloraditas Grazing Research and Demonstration Area, an 18,000-acre unit of San Antonio Viejo, as the ‘laboratory’ for developing adaptive grazing strategies and understanding how they can promote livestock production, rangeland condition and resilience, and wildlife habitat and populations. What we learn here informs our grazing management across the ranching enterprise.
Cattle Health Management
We aim to improve productivity by continuously improving animal well-being and discovering the nature of disease challenges endemic to our region that limit improvement. By studying livestock and wildlife diseases, we can develop management strategies that promote livestock production through improved animal health and secure the long-term stability of wildlife resources.
Asset Management
Ranching is an asset management enterprise, and we are developing approaches to improve decision-making for managing the portfolio of assets of ranching businesses. By viewing the cow herd as a portfolio of producing assets, we aim to develop ‘cow portfolio management’ strategies that promote long-term viability and resilience in production systems. Because asset management businesses are typically capital intensive, we also develop tools and models to better address capital deployment decisions for ranch managers.
Ranching
See How Research Informs Our Ranching Operation
We strive to operate an efficient, sustainable production system where healthy rangelands support livestock production and wildlife populations, maximizing the long-term value of a South Texas ranch.
