Cattle Grazing Distribution Patterns Related to Topography Across Diverse Rangeland Ecosystems of North America

Raynor, Edward J.; Gersie, S.P.; Stephenson, Mitchell B.; Clark, Patrick E.; Spiegal, Sheri; Boughton, Raoul K.; Bailey, Derek W.; Cibils, Andrés F.; Smith, B. E.; Derner, Justin D.; Estell, Richard E.; Nielson, Ryan M.; Augustine, David J.

doi:10.1016/j.rama.2020.12.002

Cited by 36 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Bare soil patches appeared around the entrance pass, exit pass, and valley (relatively flat) due to heavy grazing pressure and trampling. The grazing distributions of these goats and cattle in semiarid rangelands of North America both showed preference for flat and lowland areas [39].…”

Section: Assessing the Gimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The relatively high GIs were mainly distributed in the entrance pass, exit pass, and valley, and GI decreased with greater distance from these areas (Figure 2). GI varied in accordance with the movements of livestock and the spatial distribution of available forage resource, topography, and thermal conditions [35][36][37][38][39]. High GIs are often found around the water points or surrounding of settlements, resulting in overgrazing and degeneration of grasslands [32,51].…”

Section: Assessing the Gimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Controlled experiments usually lack the long evolutionary history of plant-livestock interactions, which changes the physiognomy of the grasslands [34] and leads to the grassland community adapted to and tolerant to grazing [18]. GI is difficult to obtain by direct observation on a landscape scale, because the spatial distribution of GI is uneven, affected by forage resource, topography, and thermal conditions [35][36][37][38][39]. GPS tracking of free-grazing animals [31,32], and remote sensing of vegetation [40], can help us to obtain multi-scale spatiotemporal data, and determine the spatial interaction between vegetation and grazing animals, and the influence long-term grazing on natural grasslands.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vegetation Response to Goats Grazing Intensity in Semiarid Hilly Grassland of the Loess Plateau, Lanzhou, China

et al. 2021

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Quantitatively estimating the grazing intensity (GI) effects on vegetation in semiarid hilly grassland of the Loess Plateau can help to develop safe utilization levels for natural grasslands, which is a necessity of maintaining livestock production and sustainable development of grasslands. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), field vegetation data, and 181 days (one goat per day) of GPS tracking were combined to quantify the spatial pattern of GI, and its effects on the vegetation community structure. The spatial distribution of GI was uneven, with a mean value of 0.50 goats/ha, and 95% of the study area had less than 1.30 goats/ha. The areas with utilization rates of rangeland (July) lower than 45% and 20% made up about 95% and 60% of the study area, respectively. Grazing significantly reduced monthly aboveground biomass, but the grazing effects on plant growth rate were complex across the different plant growth stages. Grazing impaired plant growth in general, but the intermediate GI appeared to facilitate plant growth rate at the end of the growing seasons. Grazing had minimal relationship with vegetation community structure characteristics, though Importance Value of forbs increased with increasing GI. Flexibility in the number of goats and conservatively defining utilization rate, according to the inter-annual variation of utilization biomass, would be beneficial to achieve ecologically healthy and economically sustainable GI.

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Section: Assessing the Gimentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Assessing the Gimentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vegetation Response to Goats Grazing Intensity in Semiarid Hilly Grassland of the Loess Plateau, Lanzhou, China

et al. 2021

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“…GPS technology has been used in beef cattle production systems to study animal movement and selection on extensive heterogeneous landscapes. This has given researchers and livestock managers valuable insight into the influence of forage quality, fire, topography, animal genetics, and management practices on livestock grazing distribution ( Bailey et al, 2008 , 2015 ; Zengeya et al, 2013 ; Augustine and Derner, 2014 ; Stephenson et al, 2017 ; Raynor et al, 2021 ). For example, GPS data from seven research stations across the United States demonstrated that topography alone could be used to predict grazing locations, with cattle utilizing lowland areas 120% more intensively than associated uplands.…”

Section: Extensive Precision Operationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

ASAS–NANP Symposium: Mathematical Modeling in Animal Nutrition: Opportunities and challenges of confined and extensive precision livestock production

Menendez

Brennan

Gaillard

et al. 2022

Journal of Animal Science

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Modern animal scientists, industry, and managers have never faced a more complex world. Precision livestock technologies have altered management in confined operations to meet production, environmental, and consumer goals. Applications of precision technologies have been limited in extensive systems such as rangelands due to lack of infrastructure, electrical power, communication, and durability. However, advancements in technology have helped to overcome many of these challenges. Investment in precision technologies is growing within the livestock sector, requiring the need to assess opportunities and challenges associated with implementation to enhance livestock production systems. In this review, precision livestock farming and digital livestock farming are explained in the context of a logical and iterative five-step process to successfully integrate precision livestock measurement and management tools, emphasizing the need for precision system models (PSM). This five-step process acts as a guide to realize anticipated benefits from precision technologies and avoid unintended consequences. Consequently, the synthesis of precision livestock and modeling examples and key case studies help highlight past challenges and current opportunities within confined and extensive systems. Successfully developing PSM requires appropriate model(s) selection that aligns with desired management goals and precision technology capabilities. Therefore, it is imperative to consider the entire system to ensure that precision technology integration achieves desired goals, while remaining economically and managerially sustainable. Achieving long-term success using precision technology requires the next generation of animal scientists to obtain additional skills to keep up with the rapid pace of technology innovation. Building workforce capacity and synergistic relationships between research, industry, and managers will be critical. As the process of precision technology adoption continues in, more challenging and harsh, extensive systems it is likely that confined operations will benefit from required advances in precision technology and PSM, ultimately strengthening the benefits from precision technology to achieve short-and long-term goals.

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“…Monitoring forage availability and vegetative utilization is time consuming. Sampling methods such clipping small plots to determine biomass availability and measurement of stubble heights to determine forage utilization provide quantitative data, but they are time consuming and estimates often lack precision because grazing use within extensive rangeland systems is often highly heterogenous based on topography, distance from water, and other variables (Raynor et al, 2021). Qualitative visual estimates for forage availability and utilization require skill and experience to provide accurate information, and these techniques still require time to travel and observe pasture conditions.…”

Section: Freedom From Thirst Hunger and Malnutritionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Opportunities to monitor animal welfare using the five freedoms with precision livestock management on rangelands

et al. 2022

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Advances in technology have led to precision livestock management, a developing research field. Precision livestock management has potential to improve sustainable meat production through continuous, real-time tracking which can help livestock managers remotely monitor and enhance animal welfare in extensive rangeland systems. The combination of global positioning systems (GPS) and accessible data transmission gives livestock managers the ability to locate animals in arduous weather, track animal patterns throughout the grazing season, and improve handling practices. Accelerometers fitted to ear tags or collars have the potential to identify behavioral changes through variation in the intensity of movement that can occur during grazing, the onset of disease, parturition or responses to other environmental and management stressors. The ability to remotely detect disease, parturition, or effects of stress, combined with appropriate algorithms and data analysis, can be used to notify livestock managers and expedite response times to bolster animal welfare and productivity. The “Five Freedoms” were developed to help guide the evaluation and impact of management practices on animal welfare. These freedoms and welfare concerns differ between intensive (i.e., feed lot) and extensive (i.e., rangeland) systems. The provisions of the Five Freedoms can be used as a conceptual framework to demonstrate how precision livestock management can be used to improve the welfare of livestock grazing on extensive rangeland systems.

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Cattle Grazing Distribution Patterns Related to Topography Across Diverse Rangeland Ecosystems of North America

Cited by 36 publications

References 49 publications

Vegetation Response to Goats Grazing Intensity in Semiarid Hilly Grassland of the Loess Plateau, Lanzhou, China

Vegetation Response to Goats Grazing Intensity in Semiarid Hilly Grassland of the Loess Plateau, Lanzhou, China

ASAS–NANP Symposium: Mathematical Modeling in Animal Nutrition: Opportunities and challenges of confined and extensive precision livestock production

Opportunities to monitor animal welfare using the five freedoms with precision livestock management on rangelands

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