That way, the plants in the first field have a chance to rest after grazing, to grow seeds, and to store energy to live through the winter. When the cattle have grazed half the grass in the second field, they may be moved to a third field. Ranchers also try to make the cattle graze the grass evenly. They lay out fences, water and salt blocks so cattle will move around and use the whole pasture. B. Range managers look at the kinds of plants that are growing to find out how healthy the range is.
Healthy range is in good or excellent condition.
If the range is grazed too much, good range plants will die out, and other plants take over. To find the range condition, range managers first examine the soil to see what kinds of plants could grow on the range. Then they count the kinds of plants present in small plot frames all over the range. They may also put metal cages that look like wire tents out on the range to keep the cattle from grazing the grass beneath the cages. Then they can measure how much grass has grown that year.