Location: Rangeland Resources & Systems Research
Project Number: 3012-21500-001-043-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Dec 1, 2025
End Date: Jul 31, 2026
Objective:
Objective 1 - Assess rangeland vegetation across the Great Plains for rancher decision-making using remote sensing to estimate quantity and quality of forage biomass at core experimental sites and >60 individual ranches.
Approach:
The Cooperator and ARS will collaborate in using remote sensing of rangeland vegetation for livestock forage quantity and quality at core experimental sites and >60 individual ranches in the Great Plains. Near real-time knowledge of both the amount available (quantity) and crude protein content (quality) of rangeland biomass is needed for ranchers to optimize livestock production by employing adaptive grazing management to more efficiently match animal demand with available forage. Collection of field data from ongoing experiments is needed at core sites for improvement of algorithms to validate remotely-sensed estimates of both biomass quantity and quality. These experiments at core sites leverage existing collaborations among ARS scientists at multiple locations, including Michigan State University, Texas A&M University, University of Wyoming and >60 individual ranchers across the Great Plains. Staff with the Cooperator will collect field data on rangeland biomass quantity and quality, and remote sensing staff with the Cooperator will use this data to improve and extend algorithms and decision-support tools for remotely-sensed estimates of biomass quantity and quality for ranchers across the Great Plains.