Author William E. Simpson explaining ruminant vs. non-ruminant grazing to BLM District Manager Elizabeth Burghard
Wild Horses are not ruminants. Horses don’t digest the native seeds like ruminants and instead, most of the seeds horses eat are reseeded intact onto the landscape via their dung.
It’s no surprise that cattle ranchers are promoting livestock grazing as a solution to wildfire. More cheap grazing on public lands benefits their revenue models.
And this rebuttal to the article published in Farm Progress promoting the concept of using invasive species ruminant livestock (cattle, sheep, goats) is not to condemn wildfire grazing by ruminant livestock — if used in the proper areas.
