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Custom Soil Resource Report <br /> Vegetative Productivity <br /> This folder contains a collection of tabular reports that present vegetative productivity <br /> data. The reports (tables) include all selected map units and components for each <br /> map unit.Vegetative productivity includes estimates of potential vegetative production <br /> for a variety of land uses, including cropland, forestland, hayland, pastureland, <br /> horticulture and rangeland. In the underlying database, some states maintain crop <br /> yield data by individual map unit component. Other states maintain the data at the <br /> map unit level.Attributes are included for both, although only one or the other is likely <br /> to contain data for any given geographic area. For other land uses, productivity data <br /> is shown only at the map unit component level. Examples include potential crop yields <br /> under irrigated and nonirrigated conditions, forest productivity, forest site index, and <br /> total rangeland production under of normal, favorable and unfavorable conditions. <br /> Rangeland Productivity and Plant Composition <br /> In areas that have similar climate and topography, differences in the kind and amount <br /> of rangeland or forest understory vegetation are closely related to the kind of soil. <br /> Effective management is based on the relationship between the soils and vegetation <br /> and water. <br /> This table shows, for each soil that supports vegetation suitable for grazing, the <br /> ecological site; the total annual production of vegetation in favorable, normal, and <br /> unfavorable years; the characteristic vegetation; and the average percentage of each <br /> species. An explanation of the column headings in the table follows. <br /> An ecological site is the product of all the environmental factors responsible for its <br /> development. It has characteristic soils that have developed over time throughout the <br /> soil development process;a characteristic hydrology, particularly infiltration and runoff <br /> that has developed over time; and a characteristic plant community(kind and amount <br /> of vegetation). The hydrology of the site is influenced by development of the soil and <br /> plant community. The vegetation, soils, and hydrology are all interrelated. Each is <br /> influenced by the others and influences the development of the others. The plant <br /> community on an ecological site is typified by an association of species that differs <br /> from that of other ecological sites in the kind and/or proportion of species or in total <br /> production. Descriptions of ecological sites are provided in the Field Office Technical <br /> Guide, which is available in local offices of the Natural Resources Conservation <br /> Service (NRCS). <br /> Total dry-weight production is the amount of vegetation that can be expected to grow <br /> annually in a well managed area that is supporting the potential natural plant <br /> community. It includes all vegetation,whether or not it is palatable to grazing animals. <br /> It includes the current year's growth of leaves,twigs,and fruits of woody plants. It does <br /> not include the increase in stem diameter of trees and shrubs.It is expressed in pounds <br /> per acre of air-dry vegetation for favorable, normal, and unfavorable years. In a <br /> favorable year,the amount and distribution of precipitation and the temperatures make <br /> growing conditions substantially better than average. In a normal year, growing <br /> conditions are about average. In an unfavorable year, growing conditions are well <br /> below average, generally because of low available soil moisture. Yields are adjusted <br /> to a common percent of air-dry moisture content. <br /> 57 <br />