Pasture assessments are a great way to start planning in advance for a successful grazing season.  Assessments help producers decide if their pasture needs to be rejuvenated and if so, what the best way to rejuvenate it is. Overall pasture assessments look at things like plant population, plant density, plant vigour, ground cover and soil damage.  They provide producers with the information they need to make decisions on grazing management, timing of grazing, cross fencing and pasture fertility.  

"The thought behind a pasture assessment is actually getting out on the land and looking at it. Looking at it in a way you can score it, looking at it in a way you can write something down," explains Grant Lastiwka, pasture specialist with Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development.  "You can keep track over time if you pastures are improving, or not improving and how your grazing management for the year  might be changed on some of this landscape so that they are going to be more productive." He says this will make them healthier and more productive over the long term which is really important.

Lastiwka says a pasture assessment is something you can do several times throughout the year but in different ways.  "You can go out there and have a look at it in light of making a decision of when to put grazing animals out or you can look at it with the stand point of what condition is it in and how you can manage it differently," he explains. "But looking at it at this time of year, in the early spring, is more of an opportunity to start in planning for the summer season."  

Lastiwka says the best way to rejuvenate your pastures is to give them biological rest.  He says this gives plants time to recover vigour that was lost from either overwintering or overgrazing in the previous year. "So in the presence of good growing conditions and good sunlight to feed those plants and moisture, so those plants have the ability to grow and deepen their root systems so they can build up a plant mass, you have the forage the animals can eat."  

One of the tools you can use to do a quick pasture assessments is The Alberta Tame Pasture Scorecard, and another good tool is The Sustainable Resource Development Health Assessment.  

You can access both forms from the Government of Alberta's website.