Grazing Systems Management: Achieving Management Goals by Balancing Livestock Grazing with Time and Space

Abstract

Working rangelands are public or privately owned open space lands that are managed with livestock grazing and rancher stewardship. Their management contributes to the production of a variety of ecosystem services, including: food, clean water, weed control, wildlife habitat, fire fuel reduction, carbon sequestration, pollination, aesthetic views, cultural heritage, recreational and educational opportunities, and open space conservation.Achieving MAnAgeMent goAls by bAlAncing livestock grAzing with tiMe And spAce T he earliest grazing systems date back to the domestication of livestock. Nomadic herdsmen moved livestock from one range site to another, probably following the patterns of forage quality and quantity and the availability of water. Grazing systems became more structured, employing fencing and developed water, over 500 years ago in Europe, when human population pressures demanded greater productivity from agricultural land.Early ranchers in North America herded or turned livestock loose across open range. Without fences and with natural sources of water found only in limited locations, livestock moved from one site to the next based on the availability of forage and water. The invention of barbed wire in the late 1800s led to better control of livestock and the development of grazing systems in North America. Specialized grazing systems, such as rotation of grazing between pastures, were first conceptualized before the turn of the twentieth century (Smith 1895) and became a focus of range researchers and managers Photo: Lawrence FordPhoto: rrunaway/Flickr

Back to Nature With Fenceless Farms—Technology Opportunities to Reconnect People and Food

“…The most intensive livestock production systems result in boundaries and fences that contain large numbers of individual animals in very small areas (Barry et al, 2015;Lomax et al, 2019). The most intensive production systems occur in fully contained housing where the livestock production results from fully controlled environmental conditions.…”

“…In some cases, these goals might require certain areas to not have access to livestock. These broad drivers define the role of the fence and need to be translated into technological solutions for fenceless farming systems (Barry et al, 2015;Jakes et al, 2018). Broadly speaking the fence characteristics can be defined by a combination of a permanency and permeability factor.…”

“…The combination of on animal sensors coupled with edge computing modules that can add further data will provide the foundation for the customised individual animal management decision. Practical constraints for animal sensors such as power management and communication will require the edge computing capability to provide a layer of support in coordinating the individual animal monitoring (Alonso et al, 2019;Yang et al, 2020;Bergier et al, 2021). The monitoring systems will have embedded algorithms that can track a range of factors and use movement linked to behaviour as proxies for physiological state (Williams et al, 2017(Williams et al, , 2020Fogarty et al, 2020a,b).…”