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Section 779.19 (a) Continued. <br />• indicate that on natural plant communities, realtively minor <br />changes in cover might be expected from one year to the next. <br />Production <br />As found in Table 41, Comparison of Available Cover and Production <br />Data on Energy Mines No. 1 and 2, there is considerably more <br />variation in forage production than in cover. For example, on the <br />meadow site, production ranged from 1362 pounds in 1975 to 3037 <br />pounds in 1979, while the big sagebrush type ranged from 2475 <br />pounds in 1976 to 1199 pounds in 1979. <br />On a yearly basis, production for all of the sites combined averaged <br />1021 pounds in 1975; 1256 pounds in 1976 and 1764 pounds in 1979. <br />These figures seem to indicate the commonly observed assumption <br />that greater variation can be expected from one year to the next <br />. for forage production than for plant cover. The correlation <br />between annual precipitation and forage production has been widely <br />documented (Stoddard and Smith 1955). Therefore, as would be <br />expected, forage production was greatest in 1979 which received the <br />most winter and spring precipitation. <br />According to the yearly production figures, the carrying capacity <br />in animal unit months (AVM's), assuming 1000 pounds of air dry <br />forage per AUM at 50 percent utilization, would be: 0.5 AUM's per <br />acre for 1975; 0.6 AUM`s per acre for 1976; and 0.9 AUM's per acre <br />for 1979. Comparison of these figures with those contained in <br />Section 779.22 on Table 42, Forage Production, Percent Vegetative <br />Cover and Carrying Capacity by Range Site, the forage production <br />corresponds closely to the ranges obtained by the SCS. During <br />unfavorable years the SCS reports 0.5 AUM's per acre; during <br />normal years 0.7 AUM's per acre and during favorable years 1.0 <br />AUM's per acre. <br />r 1 <br />LJ <br />779-127 <br />