Article
Ungulate damage to safflower in Utah
The Journal of Wildlife Management
(2013)
Abstract
In Utah, farmers are concerned that ungulates are damaging safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) fields. We examined elk (Cervus elaphus) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) damage to safflower production in San Juan County, Utah during 2009 and 2010. We collected data on damaged safflower plants within 28 fields, totaling 1,581 ha (13 fields totaling 963 ha during 2009; 15 fields totaling 618 ha during 2010). We compared 3 methods to assess yield losses: ungulate-proof exclosures, adjacent plant compensation method, and counting the number of damaged plants in 50-m transects (safflower count method). Exclosures were of limited use because they could not be erected until farmers stopped cultivating their fields. Hence, this method did not account for ungulate damage to young plants. The adjacent plant compensation method assessed yields within 1 m of a randomly selected damaged plant to account for any compensatory growth of neighboring plants, but this method proved inaccurate because ungulate herbivory was concentrated so that a browsed plant was often surrounded by other browsed plants so no compensatory growth by surrounding plants occurred.
Disciplines
Publication Date
2013
DOI
DOI: 10.1002/jwmg.448
Citation Information
Michael Conover. "Ungulate damage to safflower in Utah" The Journal of Wildlife Management Vol. 77 Iss. 2 (2013) p. 282 - 289 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/michael-conover/85/