Get reliable rangeland science

In the western United States, extensive rangeland livestock grazing systems rely on the diversity of rangeland plant communities to provide vegetation structure and forage nutritive value. With an increased interest in enteric methane production from range land livestock across production systems, managers and policy makers need accurate and actionable information about how forage nutritive value influences enteric methane production from native rangelands. Currently, efforts to quantify and mitigate enteric methane from grazing livestock have not accounted for the spatially and temporally dynamic nature of rangeland forage resources used in extensive rangeland production systems. We clipped rangeland forage biomass at the US Sheep Experiment Station in Dubois, Idaho, USA at monthly intervals from sample points along a biodiversity gradient to quantify the nutrient value (crude protein, fiber, and organic matter). We will then estimate methane produced from each rangeland forage sample using an in vitro incubation system to simulate ruminant digestion. Using a combination of mixed-effect models and ordinations, we will determine the relationship between nutritive value and enteric methane potential. Understanding this relationship can help livestock managers make grazing decisions to mitigate enteric methane production when possible.