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• Irrigated Pasture Tvae - 1987. The irrigated pasture represents lands intermediate between <br />the remnant sagebrush types (generally a former pinyon juniper woodland site) and the more <br />intensively managed irrigated hayland type. Depending on the objectives of the land manager <br />or the level of management applied, lands that may be adapted to hayland production or lands <br />that are only slightly more adapted than the sagebrush type for pasture production are <br />included. <br />As anticipated, total vegetative cover was high at 72 percent (Table 2.04.10-5) with litter <br />averaging 23 percent, for an average total ground cover of 95 percent. Bare ground averaged <br />only five percent. Total vegetation and litter combined would most likely have approached 100 <br />percent if not for the affects of grazing pressure in the pastures. Consistent with the <br />management and use of these lands, perennial graminoids dominated at 43 percent of the <br />vegetative cover while perennial forbs accounted for nearly all of the remaining vegetative <br />cover (29 percent). The only other morphological class represented was annual forbs at a low <br />0.3 percent cover. Of all species encountered in cover sampling, Kentucky bluegrass (Poo <br />~ratensis) had the highest cover and second highest frequency at 21 percent and 87 percent, <br />respectively. Buckhorn plantain followed closely with the second highest cover (14 percent) <br />and highest frequency (93 percent). Other important species were orchardgrass (Dactvlis <br />glomerata) at 9 percent cover (67 percent frequency), white Dutch clover (Trifolium repens) at <br />9 percent cover (80 percent frequency), timothy (Phleum oratense) at 3 percent cover (60 <br />percent frequency), dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) at 3 percent cover (53 percent frequency) <br />and red clover (Trifolium oratense) at 2 percent cover (47 percent frequency). A summary of <br />the individual transect data is presented in Peabody Appendix 10-2 (Table 2-1 ). <br />Total annual production for the type was estimated at 2,822.6 poundslacre (Table 2.04.10-6). <br />Indicative of the highly variable nature of the type, production estimates from the sample plots <br />ranged from 230 pounds/acre to 8,994 poundslacre. This large variation was due to the <br />amount and timing of irrigation water application, the amount of supplemental water received <br />which was incidental to the regularly applied amount, and the intensity and duration of grazing <br />prior to the placement of range cages. As an example, sample 2 was dominated by Kentucky <br />bluegrass and buckhorn plantain (Peabody Appendix 10-2, Table 2-2). Both require <br />supplemental water to be present and survive in the arid Nucla area and both are dominant in <br />• (REVISED 9/99) 2.04.10 - 28 <br />