I once overheard ranchers in a Texas drought making plans to go to San An- 

 tonio the next day to buy some cattle because they thought it would soon 

 rain. This is the viewpoint, mentioned earlier, which destroys ranges — 

 where the focus is only on conditions of livestock, weather and markets; 

 not range conditions. 



To achieve your goals you will have to always anticipate drought the 

 next year, and act promptly when the degree of range use for the time of 

 year indicates that you will exceed a full or proper degree of use by the 

 end of the grazing season. 



Be prepared by having no more breeding animals than can readily be car- 

 ried through a drought, by having deferred pastures, and reserves of native 

 hay, preferably harvested in wet years from normally under-utilized parts 

 of native pastures. 



Finally, I must say how glad I am, and how noteworthy it is, that you 

 are actually having a Governor' s conference on rangelands alone — with a 

 list of speakers to approach problems from all angles, but more importantly, 

 with speakers and men present who have great influence on what will happen 

 to rangelands. 



Dr. E. J. Dyksterhuis , Texas A & M University, who presented this speech at 

 the Governor's Conference on Montana Rangeland, began his range career under 

 the title Range Examiner with the U.S. Forest Service. In the 10 years with 

 the USES he worked in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and the Ozarks. Dr. Dykster- 

 huis became Senior Ranger and later administered grazing on the Carson Nat- 

 ional Forest out of Taos, New Mexico. 



He obtained a PHD in Ecology from the University of Nebraska. Then 

 spent the next 20 years as a Regional Range Conservationist with the U. S. 

 Soil Conservation Service in the prairies and plains. 



Dr. Dyksterhuis then accepted a professorship at Texas A & M University 

 where he was given the title Professor Emeritus in Rangeland Ecology in 1970. 

 Since then he has been Consultant to the U.S. Department of State on natural 

 forage world-wide. 



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