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Irrigated Pasture Tvae - 1987. The irrigated pasture represents lands intermediate between the <br />• remnant sagebrush types (generally a former pinyon-juniper woodland site) and the more intensively <br />managed irrigated hayland type. Depending on the objectives of the land manager or the level of <br />management applied, lands that may be adapted to hayland production or lands that are only slightly <br />more adapted than the sagebrush type for pasture production are included. <br />As anticipated, total vegetative cover was high at 72 percent (Table 2.04.10-5) with litter averaging 23 <br />percent, for an average total ground cover of 95 percent. Bare ground averaged only flue percent. Total <br />vegetation and litter combined would most Ilkely have approached 100 percent If not for the affects of <br />grazing pressure in the pastures. Consistent with the management and use of these lands, perennial <br />graminoids dominated at 43 percent of the vegetative cover while perennial (orbs accounted for Hearty all <br />of the remaining vegetative cover (29 percent). The only other morphological class represented was <br />annual fortis at a low 0.3 percent cover. Of all species encountered in cover sampling, Kentucky <br />bluegrass (Poa oratensis) had the highest cover and second highest frequency at 21 percent and 87 <br />percent, respectively. Buckhorn plantain followed closely with the second highest cover (14 percent) and <br />highest frequency (93 percent). Other important species were orchardgrass (Dactvlis glomerata) at 9 <br />percent cover (67 percent frequency), white Dutch clover (Trifolium repens) at 9 percent cover (80 <br />percent frequency), timothy (Phleum pratense) at 3 percent cover (60 percent frequency), dandelion <br />• (Taraxacum officinale) at 3 percent cover (53 percent frequency) and red clover (Trifolium pratense) at 2 <br />percent cover (47 percent frequency). A summary of the individual transect data is presented in Peabody <br />Appendix 10-2 (Table 2-1 ). <br />Total annual production for the type was estimated at 2,822.6 pounds/acre (Table 2.04.10-6). Indicative <br />of the highly variable nature of the type, production estimates from the sample plots ranged from 230 <br />pounds/acre to 8,994 pounds/acre. This large variation was due to the amount and timing of irrigation <br />water application, the amount of supplemental water received which was incidental to the regularly <br />applied amount, and the intensity and duration of grazing prior to the placement of range cages. As an <br />example, sample 2 was dominated by Kentucky bluegrass and buckhorn plantain (Peabody Appendix <br />10-2, Table 2-2). Both require supplemental water to be present and survive in the arid Nucla area and <br />both are dominant in irrigated pasture in the study area. However, a history of heavy continuous grazing <br />and poor irrigation water application by <br />(REVISED 8/15/00) 2.04.10 - 25 <br />