Adaptive grazing approaches such as holistic management (HM) involve decision-making based on explicit goal-setting and careful monitoring, often characterized by native pastures and high-intensity but short-duration rotational grazing. Science is divided on the utility of such practices: experimental scientists see no benefits from the constituent practices in controlled experiments, while management-oriented agricultural scientists report benefits at the farm scale. To date, producer experience and perceptions have been neglected or dismissed, but also under-tested in appropriate ways. Social sciences have an important role to play in understanding and resolving the schism around adaptive grazing strategies, including the potential utility of such management for climate adaptation and the validity of producer perceptions as evidence in doing so. Moreover, however, it is valuable yet still uncommon to design research to produce paired data across research paradigms. This presentation will include: (1) a brief primer on social research principles and how evidence acquired using such methods should be assessed and used; (2) a case study of Australian ranchers, to explore the value of understanding the producer perspective on landscape and grazing practices, particularly in the face of climate change; and (3) suggest ways that shared case studies across biophysical and social sciences can improve overall understanding of farm-scale management and its outcomes. The Australian case study involved 25 ranchers, stratified across grazing practices (stocking intensity and rotation regime), was undertaken using photo-based landscape elicitation methods but also field ecology and farm-gate economics, in the final years of a decade-long drought, locally called the 'big dry'. Integrative insights contributed to policy engagement in Australia, and the recent incentivization of water and fencing infrastructure associated with adaptive grazing practices, but also inspired further research questions now underway, adding integrative case studies in Canada and the Falkland Islands.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.