Innovation in grazing management enabled by virtual fence and prescribed fire to improve rangeland profitability and stewardship

Commodities

Practices

Modern grazing management strategies are needed to support broad ecological functions while also remaining economically viable for producers. Agricultural lands are increasingly expected to provide a wide range of goods and services that extend beyond food production. This is especially true for grazing lands. Society looks to grazing lands to support wildlife, maintain healthy soils, regulate water quantity and quality and offer recreational opportunities. However, traditional grazing management strategies, such as season-long grazing and twice-over rotational grazing, were designed to maximize livestock production and have a limited ability to support broad suites of ecological services. Because these are the most employed grazing strategies in the Northern Great Plains, there is tremendous opportunity to improve grazing management and rangeland resources in this region.

Rangeland research has demonstrated that non-traditional grazing strategies that generate variation in grazing pressure can deliver on both production and conservation goals, offering a win-win solution for rangeland agriculture and conservation. For example, patch-burn grazing (PBG) integrates prescribed burning and grazing management to create spatial variation in grazing pressure and has been shown to consistently increase livestock performance and improve the quality of wildlife habitat. Virtual fence technology offers an unprecedented opportunity to manipulate grazing pressure and implement modern grazing strategies designed to support a broad suite of ecological goods and services.

This project will evaluate the profitability and conservation value of three grazing management strategies implemented with virtual fence technology and prescribed burning. The overarching goal of this work is to identify profitable grazing management strategies that improve the ecological integrity of the land, support abundant wildlife, and can serve as a model for working lands conservation in the Northern Great Plains. To achieve this, we will compare the following metrics across grazing strategies: 1) grassland bird communities - breeding birds have distinctively different habitat requirements across species and serve as excellent indicators of habitat quality; 2) plant community composition and structure - native plant abundance, density, height, and species composition represent important elements of wildlife habitat and ecological integrity; 3) livestock production - calf weight gains will be used to measure the profitability of grazing strategies. Specific grazing management strategies included, and the rationale for their inclusion in this project are as follows:

Twice-over rotational grazing with virtual fence (control)
In twice-over rotational grazing cattle are rotated through four virtual fence paddocks early in the growing season and again later in the season. Grazing pressure is consistent among paddocks. This strategy is designed to increase grazing efficiency by capturing forage regrowth stimulated by the first grazing period. Twice-over rotational grazing is one of the most applied grazing strategies in the Northern Great Plains and is commonly recommended by natural resource agencies and organizations. It is included in this project as a control.

Patch-burn grazing (PBG)
Patch-burn grazing is designed to create spatial variation in grazing pressure by burning only a portion ("patch") of a pasture each year. Cattle are attracted to recently burned areas, grazing them intensively while leaving unburned patches to rest and recover. This process mimics historical fire-grazing interactions and produces a shifting mosaic of vegetation structure across the landscape. Compared to traditional grazing strategies, patch-burn grazing increases forage quality and livestock gains, enhances native plant communities, and supports wildlife. It is included in this project as a 'research-backed' conservation grazing strategy.

High-intensity, short-duration grazing (HISD)
In high-intensity, short-duration grazing cattle are concentrated at a high stock density for brief grazing periods before animals are rotated to the next grazing cell using virtual fence technology. This strategy applies heavy, short-term grazing periods followed by long rest periods to achieve uniform forage utilization and promote vigorous plant recovery. It mimics intense and rapid grazing periods historically created by large and mobile herds of herbivores. Virtual fence greatly expands the practical ability to implement this grazing strategy. We include it in this project to explore its potential to achieve production and conservation outcomes.

Figure 1 _ Solutions and Objectives