Grassland Studies series begins Aug. 28

The 23rd annual fall seminar series offered by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Center for Grassland Studies will include 12 lectures on topics related to grasslands, including what drives profits, fitting perennial grasses to agro-ecosystems, structural heterogeneity of vegetation in the Sandhills, managing an integrated cow/calf system, and ecology and management of rangeland.

The seminars are 3 to 4 p.m. most Mondays during the fall semester at the East Union, 1705 Arbor Drive. The first lecture is scheduled for Aug. 28 and the last is Dec. 4. There will be no lectures Sept. 4, Oct. 16 and Oct. 23. The seminars are free and open to the public and can be taken for academic credit.

The series features David Briske, this year’s Frank and Margaret Leu Distinguished Lecturer, on Nov. 6. Briske is a professor at Texas A&M, researcher and editor of the journal Rangeland Ecology and Management.

“David Briske is a world-renowned range plant physiologist who has seminal publications on managing defoliation of range and pasture plants, comparisons of grazing strategies/systems and rangeland evaluation,” said Walt Schacht, professor of agronomy and horticulture at Nebraska. “We are privileged to have someone of his background and expertise to visit with us about managing range and pasture for livestock production at a time when the Center for Grassland Studies and IANR are growing our programs in integrated beef production systems.”

The schedule, which is available online, is subject to revision. Any changes will be noted on the seminar website.

Each seminar is recorded and uploaded to the website a few days after the presentation. For more information, contact the Center for Grassland Studies at 402-472-4101 or grassland@unl.edu.