Get reliable rangeland science

The provisioning of ecosystem services (Food & Fiber, Water, Carbon, Biodiversity, Wildlife) by rangelands used for livestock production is critical for social and ecological sustainability globally. Adaptive management through adjustments to grazing intensity, timing, and duration are of increasing interest to optimize multiple ecosystem services with increasing pressures from climate change and other environmental stressors. Yet, there is a need for more empirical grazing research at ranch-scales that quantifies management impacts on the suite of ecosystem services. In 2023, we established a ranch-scale experiment (943 ha) in a semi-arid sagebrush steppe rangeland in Wyoming, USA with grazing treatments stratified by ecological sites. Specifically, we established pairs of pastures (ranging in size from 39 to 149 ha) on five soil types: Saline Loamy, Clayey, Loamy, Sandy, and Shallow Loamy soils. Grazing was in the summer. Treatments included 5 Prescriptive (PR) herds grazed continuously for 11 weeks (ranging in size from 10 to 31 cow-calf pairs depending on pasture size; 100 cow-calf pairs total) and 1 Adaptive (AD) herd (100 cow-calf pairs) rotating through 5 pastures every 0.5 to 3 weeks based on adaptive decision making relative to animal behaviour, forage utilization, and weather. Grazing treatments had the same planned system-level stocking rate (meaning a similar number of cow-calf pairs for similar total treatment areas) but were managed with a different stock density--with the higher density in the AD treatment with potentially different duration. We concurrently sampled multiple ecosystem services at the pasture scale including soil moisture and carbon, forage biomass and quality, wildlife habitat and populations (native rodents, predators, ungulates, and birds), cattle (movement and productivity), and CO2 fluxes. We present data from the 2023 and 2024 seasons for the suite of ecosystem services with implications for the refinement of adaptive grazing management and intensification in semi-arid sagebrush steppe.