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Strategic grazing management improved the spatial distribution of utilization on a complex, mountainous Colorado ranch-using shorter grazing periods, higher stocking density, and smaller paddocks than the extensive management practiced previously on the ranch and currently on many ranches. Cattle regularly grazed steep mountainsides and plants often considered unpalatable, without damaging riparian areas, at moderate overall utilization. Monitoring from 1997-2011 showed increased plant and litter cover, and decreased bare ground, while the stocking rate averaged about 50% higher than under previous seasonlong grazing. This supports recent experimental evidence that multiple-paddock grazing can improve grazing distribution and thus grazing capacity. Distribution of grazing animals can become more even by creating smaller paddocks that collectively include areas that were previously neglected or ignored. Rather than stock all small paddocks simultaneously for a long time, it is far simpler to amalgamate stock into one large herd that moves from one small paddock to the next in a cycle that covers the entire ranch. There are ecological benefits to smoothing out the extremes of overgrazing and under-utilization that occur in large, conservatively stocked paddocks, and production benefits from the increased amount of forage made accessible to livestock by using many smaller paddocks. Collectively, grazing studies and on-the-ground experience provide evidence for widely applicable guidelines for ecological process-based management to achieve ecological and economic goals by manipulating grazing intensity, distribution across time and space, the diversity of plants available to grazing animals, and animals' selection thereof. Effective management of these grazing parameters depends primarily on four sets of variables: (1) stocking rate, both for a grazing period and for the grazing season or year; (2) timing, frequency, and duration of grazing and recovery periods; (3) spatial distribution of grazing; and (4) diversity of plants available and selection of those plants by grazing animals.