 Hi, I'm Miranda Meehan, NDSU Extension, Livestock Environmental Storage of Specialist. Hi, I'm Kevin Sadebeck, I'm the Extension Rangeland Management Specialist with NDSU, and today we'll be talking about grazing resources and readiness related to the last couple blizzards we've had. The first question we're going to ask you is, what is the impact of the storm on our grazing resources? Yeah, so our grasses start their growth and development based off of our average air temperature. In North Dakota we're cool season dominant and so once our average air temperature meets or exceeds 32 degrees Fahrenheit for five consecutive days we start accumulating those growing those growing degree days that go toward that development of that grass. So what's happened with the storm is we did start accumulating growing degree days in late March, but things have stalled out. We're seeing that when we look at the average daily mean air temperatures, but also our county agents are seeing that on the ground looking as they're monitoring grazing readiness. Things have stalled the last three weeks due to the storm events. Kevin, and when we talk about grazing readiness, we know that grazing readiness for our introduced species is that three leaf stage and for our native species that three and a half leaf stage and there's some impacts if we graze our plant species before that. Can you talk about those impacts in terms of potential losses of porch production? So when we talk about grazing readiness we're really trying to look at that time when the grass needs to store carbohydrates and get ready for when grazing pressure can actually occur and so as we go through that those growing degree days and moisture, heat plays a role in that. What we're going to find this year is through the blizzard and the co-weathers we're going to see a delay in heat and so we're going to see this delay in growth and so if we go out too early before we reach that three to three and a half leaf stage, we give up about anywhere from one third to two thirds biomass depending on when you're going out. We're seeing producers already out to pasture now in late April and that will have the most greatest negative impact is going out in that April, early May. So the rule of thumb is the longer you can wait in May the greater your return will be in terms of porch production later in the season. We know because of the muddy conditions and a lot of the lots associated with the storm events people are wanting to get those animals out of there due to health concerns. So if they need to do this what how can they mitigate those impacts of porch production on their grazing resources? So the debate comes to should I spread my animals out everywhere or should I focus my negative impact on one pasture? And my rule of thumb is minimize the impact to the area as a whole. So put them in one area know that you're going to have this negative impact on that resource but you'll minimize the impact to smaller areas and you'll give that area the greatest amount of recovery because it's so it'll come back remember our grasses are very resilient so if you're going to if you have to go out to pasture pick an area minimize the impact across the landscape and then give that rest the rest of the year. Are there any types of grazing resources we should consider using before other grazing resources to minimize potential impacts to porch production? So let's focus on where we're going to start use your exotic grasses. So if you have a crested wheat grass field or a smooth brome grass field or even a pasture that's heavily invested in and fested with the Kentucky bluegrass focus those areas are where you want to start your grazing this spring. In fact crested wheat grass will probably be ready to be grazed in about two weeks normally be about a week but with the cold weather it'll be about two weeks so start there delay turn out on native range as long as you can to get that positive return in terms of porch production on that resource. If you have concerns or need help looking at grazing readiness and assessing that in your area reach out to your local NDSU extension agent.