grass cast

Each spring, ranchers face the same challenge of trying to guess how much grass will be available for their livestock to graze during the summer. Ranchers make this determination relying on boots-on-the-ground observations of rangeland conditions. But now in the Northern Great Plains, ranchers have a new forecasting tool to help them with this important decision: “Grass-Cast.”

Every spring, ranchers face the same difficult challenge—trying to guess how much grass will be available for livestock to graze during the upcoming summer. In May, a new Grassland Productivity Forecast or “Grass-Cast” has published its first forecast to help producers in the northern Great Plains reduce this economically important source of uncertainty.