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Grasslands cover about 60% of Uruguay and are the main forage for cattle and sheep production. This ecosystem and the other natural resources of livestock systems show great variability in their conservation status and little information is available. The Ecosystem Integrity Index (EII) is an indicator that assesses the state of a specific ecosystem under agricultural use, with reference to an optimal state that should be established for the ecoregion. Its application involves a qualitative and quantitative visual assessment, it has a scale of points (from 0 to 5) that includes four aspects: vegetation structure, species diversity, soil erosion and condition of watercourses and riparian zones. We carried out the EII in 12 ranches distributed throughout Uruguay, as part of the Grass Management Project of the Institute Plan Agropecuario, in the spring and summer of 2021 and 2022, years with below-average rainfall. A total of 10,808 hectares were studied. The EII showed different starting situations among the ranches. Within ranches, the EII showed differences between plots, and plots also showed differences in index composition. The EII was able to assess the conservation status of livestock systems in a simple way. The results made it possible to objectively characterise, target and localise restoration and conservation activities and make them more effective. It is planned to repeat the indicator at the end of the project to compare the ranchers' assessments.