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In southern Phillips County, about a dozen ranchers are participating in the Conservancy's Matador Grassbank. The program, now in its fourth year, allows ranchers to graze their cattle on the Conservancy's 60,000-acre Matador Ranch in exchange for conservation practices on their home ranches. The program now in its fourth year, is an incentive-based approach to protecting native prairie habitat.
Participating ranchers agree to such conservation practices as weed prevention, no plowing of native prairie during the lease period, and habitat protection for prairie dogs or sage grouse. The ranchers also develop grazing plans and agree to good stewardship through Montana's Undaunted Stewardship program. In exchange, they receive reductions in their grazing fees.
In 2005, the program resulted in:
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24,500 acres of sage grouse habitat protected on private lands
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3,300 acres of prairie dog habitat protected
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70,000 acres of native range on private land protected from sod-busting
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281,000 acres participating in the weed prevention area
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70,600 acres of private land certified for sustainable range management through the Undaunted Stewardship Program -
50 acres of cropland planted back to native perennial grass |
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Grasslands at the Matador
© Rick & Susie Graetz |
Grazing program
In addition to encouraging grassland and wildlife health on surrounding ranches, the grazing program at the Matador is designed with the primary goal of producing a vegetation mosaic favorable to grassland birds, while also providing for rangeland health, riparian recovery, and biodiversity of native flora and fauna. We manage the cattle in large herds which move from pasture to pasture an average of once every 20 days, and we rotate both the season and intensity of grazing use between years. The Matador's bison-mimicking system of grazing has been examined and applauded by leading range scientists from Montana and Utah State Universities. In 2004, the state range scientist for Montana State University proclaimed this the best grazing program he's seen implemented for the health of the land and native wildlife.
Weed prevention
Ranchers participating in the Matador grassbank have committed to strict weed control. These ranchers are part of MSU's Weed Prevention Area program, which means they take aggressive action to prevent weed invasion and weed establishment in prioritized weed-free rangelands and critical zones where weeds are advancing. The goal is a 1 million-acre noxious weed-free zone in southern Phillips County, Montana. |
