ABSTRACT
Ranges provide nearly all of the nutrients consumed by 267 million head of cattle, 17 million sheep, 29 million goats, around 4 million alpacas and llamas, and an unknown number of wildlife. The improvements were achieved through better nutrition and animal husbandry, both of which are within the competency of a qualified range manager in Latin America. Nutrition is a word that probably conjures up humans or animals. The plants' role is thus two-fold; first to feed them and second to feed man and his animals. Plant succession or the ability of one community of plants to replace another is an ecological phenomenon of great importance to range management. A spinoff was that practices that increased forage production also conserved soil and water and this was old-fashioned range management. Jones and Sanderland have calculated that zero gains per animal that can be expected when stocking rate is double that required for optimum gains.
