Estimating climate change effects on grazing management and beef cattle production in the Pacific Northwest

J. Shannon Neibergs (), Tipton D. Hudson, Chad E. Kruger and Kaelin Hamel-Rieken
Additional contact information
J. Shannon Neibergs: Washington State University
Tipton D. Hudson: Extension, Washington State University
Chad E. Kruger: Washington State University
Kaelin Hamel-Rieken: Washington State University

Climatic Change, 2018, vol. 146, issue 1, No 2, 5-17

Abstract: Abstract Climate change studies consistently conclude that the Pacific Northwest (PNW) will increase in temperature with the greatest change occurring as hotter summer temperatures, precipitation becomes more uncertain with projections for wetter winters and drier summers, a decline in snowpack and an increase in wildfire risk. These impacts on rangeland and pastures affect forage growth and the timing of forage availability for grazing, affecting stocking rates, turn-out dates, and end of grazing gather dates. The magnitude of projected climate change will be dynamic year to year which adds significant challenges to implementing effective grazing management plans. The PNW has about 1.3 million head of beef cows that are the primary grazing resource users. Cow-calf producers’ production costs will increase to offset climate change impacts, but PNW cattle producers have an economic comparative advantage to other regions more negatively impacted by climate change such as the Southwest. The PNW is projected to have lower drought risk and the PNW’s extensive irrigation system can produce feedstuffs to offset drought-reduced grazing resources.

Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10584-017-2014-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:climat:v:146:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1007_s10584-017-2014-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10584

DOI: 10.1007/s10584-017-2014-0

Access Statistics for this article

Climatic Change is currently edited by M. Oppenheimer and G. Yohe

More articles in Climatic Change from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().