Improving range management will be the focus of the annual Upper Niobrara White Natural Resources District Range Day in January in Chadron. The Jan. 16 event will take place at the Scottsbluff Room in the Chadron State College Student Center.

The district for the last couple of years has hosted a Range Day, with the purpose of bringing in various speakers to provide information for landowners, says the district’s general manager, Pat O'Brien. "We usually get well over 100 participants in the event, which is free to attend."

Topics this year will include optimizing rangeland resources and managing cheatgrass. Sessions also will cover winter grazing and late calving, as well as multi-species grazing, drought planning, and weather updates and forecasts.

The event is funded and supported in part by the CSC Rangeland Management Program and C.F. Coffee Gallery with support from Bill and Virginia Coffee Family Foundation, as well as numerous other local agribusiness and agency sponsors.

In the past, the program has also covered rangeland fire management, red cedar management, grazing in the Pine Ridge, range restoration and weather patterns.

"The idea to start hosting a range day developed through a request for information on management of cheatgrass," says Nevin Price, district resource technician. "The initial Range Day was planned by the NRD and did have strong emphasis on cheatgrass management; however, we also touched on several other topics."

As the event has evolved with assistance from CSC professor Ron Bolze and the college's popular range management department as part of the planning committee, Price says the C.F. Coffee Foundation now provides grant funding to help cover expenses to bring in speakers for the event, and additional local sponsors help cover costs as well.

With the new Coffee Family Foundation Range Complex and Agriculture Pavilion located on a hill overlooking the CSC campus at Chadron and more than 140 students in the CSC range management program, the college is home to the second-largest such program in the country.

"The Range Day is a great education opportunity for producers and students in the area, providing them with knowledge and insight into management concepts that they may not have thought about before, or that they may have been considering, but wanted more information before trying," Price says. "We also use the Range Day as an opportunity for CSC students to practice giving their Society for Range Management presentations before going to national competition."

You can learn more by contacting the district office at 308-432-6190.