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Show Ranchers Use Planes To Spread Fertilizer Utah and other western ranch operators are taking to the air to fertilize sparsely grazed western west-ern rangeland. Aerial application of nitrogenous nitro-genous fertilizer to obtain additional addi-tional livestock use of lightly grazed rangeland was highly recommended at a recent Western West-ern Range Fertilization Conference Confer-ence held at Redding, Calif., by Dr. Dixie Smith, Wyoming University Uni-versity Agronomist. "A significant increase in for-afge for-afge utilization on aerially fertilized fer-tilized areas has been shown in experimental studies conducted in the Big Horn mountains of Wyoming in 1956 and 1957." he said. The Big Horn treated areas were fertlized at the rate of 67.5 pounds of nitrogen per acre. Dr. Smith pointed out that one of the most taxing management prablems facing the rancher today to-day was the maintenance of the uniform' use of rangeland. "Each year vast amounts of usable forage for-age remain untouched by grazing graz-ing animals." Increased forage production also results from aerial fertilization, fertiliza-tion, the agronomist reported. "Forage production on our fertilized fer-tilized experimental plots averaged aver-aged 1899 pounds of oven dry forage; that on unfertilized plots only 1419 pounds. This amounts to an increase of almost 800 pounds per acre, a substantial increase." in-crease." Forage production figures quoted quot-ed by Dr. Smith were based on an experiment conducted at Big Horn during the past year. The Big Horn study plots are located at approximately 9000 feet where the average annual precipitation is about 25 inches. "The use of aerial broadcast fertilizers by private ranch operators op-erators or federally administered lands may wel become as generally gen-erally established as the spraying spray-ing of big sagebrush, if adequate economic data is supplied." He is now in the process of organizing a controlled grazing study for this purpose. The Western Range Fertiliza- tion Conference, sponsored by the National Plant Food Institute and the California Fertilizer Association, As-sociation, was attended by some 300 persons directly interested in range improvement and western west-ern agriculture. |