Pasture condition scores in the northeast United States

Assessment and monitoring tools are needed to determine the condition of grazing lands in the northeast. The Pasture Condition Score System has been developed by the NRCS for use as a monitoring and management tool on grazing lands. This system has not been evaluated systematically on a large scale and information is needed on its usefulness as a monitoring tool. The system was used to evaluate pastures on 14 farms across the northeast in 2001 as part of a long-term effort on documenting plant species diversity on grazing lands of the Northeast. Pasture condition score ranged from 22 to 46 with an average of 33. Scores for the "erosion" indictor were the least variable and the average erosion score tended to be high suggesting that erosion was not a problem in the pastures surveyed. Scores for the indicator "percent legume" had the lowest average rating of all the indicators. The relatively low rating for legume content across all pastures suggests that producers should focus management on establishing and maintaining legumes. Pasture condition score was negatively related to plant species richness. This may indicate that focusing strictly on increasing the number of species in a pasture without regard to the species composition may not be wise. This preliminary study indicates that the Pasture Condition Score system may be useful in providing an objective estimate of the relative management status of pastures in our diversity surveys.