Education
Prescribed burning provides many advantages to beef cattle ranchers; chiefly, burning clears a pasture of undesirable growth, weeds, and plant debris, and the grass that follows a burn is rich in nutrients and crude protein. But as with most things, there are some downsides to annual prescribed burning. K.C. Olson, a professor in the Department of Animal Science and Industry at Kansas State University, believes that by moving some prescribed burning from spring to late summer, producers can reduce many of the downsides... retain many of the current benefits... and greatly reduce the impact of what is arguably the "supervillain" among noxious weeds in Kansas rangelands. And he's been accumulating research results to back this up.