Unravelling the influence of adaptive grazing management with multiple paddocks on cattle production in semiarid rangeland

Authors: Derner, Justin; Augustine, David; Porensky, Lauren; Ma, Liwang; Hoover, David; RITTEN, JOHN - Colorado State University; Wilmer, Hailey; KEARNEY, SEAN - Thunder Basin Grasslands Prairie Ecological Association; MURPH, RACHEL - Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS, USDA); KOEPPEL, SARA - Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS, USDA); HARTUNG, JOHN - Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS, USDA); MAGNUSON, STEPHANIE - Us Forest Service (FS); ADLER, STEVEN - Us Forest Service (FS); BARBER, CASEY - Us Forest Service (FS); POLLART, MATT - Department Of Natural Resources; TURNER, RACHEL - Department Of Natural Resources; SCHULZ, TERRI - The Nature Conservancy; TOOMBS, TED - Environmental Defense Fund; LAVALLEE, JOCELYN - Environmental Defense Fund; DWYER, ANGELA - Bird Conservancy Of The Rockies; OVERLIN, ANNIE - Colorado State University; ANDERSON, STEVE - Crow Valley Livestock Cooperative; BOWMAN, DANA - Crow Valley Livestock Cooperative; LAWRENCE, ANDY - Crow Valley Livestock Cooperative; WAHLERT, JEFF - Crow Valley Livestock Cooperative

Submitted to: Rangeland Ecology and Management
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/24/2026
Publication Date: 4/24/2026
Citation: Derner, J.D., Augustine, D.J., Porensky, L.M., Ma, L., Hoover, D.L., Ritten, J.P., Wilmer, H.N., Kearney, S.P., Murph, R., Koeppel, S., Hartung, J., Magnuson, S., Adler, S., Barber, C., Pollart, M., Turner, R., Schulz, T., Toombs, T., Lavallee, J., Dwyer, A., Overlin, A., Anderson, S., Bowman, D., Lawrence, A., Wahlert, J. 2026. Unravelling the influence of adaptive grazing management with multiple paddocks on cattle production in semiarid rangeland. Rangeland Ecology and Management. 107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2026.03.004.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2026.03.004

Interpretive Summary: For livestock grazing, ranchers apply adaptive grazing management to achieve their ranch-scale production, economic, and ecological objectives. One approach is the use of multiple paddocks with livestock rotationally grazed for short grazing periods (days to weeks) followed by a longer (months) non-grazed time for vegetation regrowth. A ten year collaborative project between scientists and managers, including several ranchers, in the shortgrass prairie of the western Great Plains showcased that livestock production (both grazing season weight gains of individual steers and beef production per acre), was lower with adaptive grazing with multiple paddocks compared to season-long grazing where steers remained in the same pasture for the full grazing season. Differences in weight gains were not observed in two drought years nor the one year with excessive precipitation. This suggests that grazing management practices by ranchers more influence on weight gains of livestock in this rangeland system when forage quantity is moderate, and the effects of management are reduced when forage quantity is very low or very high.

Technical Abstract: Ranchers apply adaptive grazing management to achieve production, economic, and ecological objectives in rangeland ecosystems. Adaptive, multi-paddock (AMP) grazing often involves a form of rotational grazing at high stocking densities with short grazing periods (days to weeks) followed by a longer (months) non-grazed time for vegetation regrowth. Despite positive ecological benefits resulting from AMP, livestock production and resultant economic returns are reduced in semiarid rangelands, prompting this investigation into the conditions associated with differences in livestock weight gains under different grazing strategies in these rangelands. We used data from the decadal (2014-2023) Collaborative Adaptive Rangeland Management (CARM) experiment in the semiarid shortgrass steppe of the western Great Plains. For all six years (2014-2019) when CARM experienced the highest stock density (10-fold greater than TRM), CARM steers had lower grazing season weight gains and beef production than TRM steers. When CARM stock density was reduced 50% (still 5-fold greater than TRM) in 2020-2023, weight gains and beef production were lower in CARM than TRM in the year with near normal precipitation (2021), but no differences were observed between CARM and TRM when forage was limiting in two drought years (2020 and 2022) nor when forage production was extraordinarily high (2023). Our findings indicate grazing management practices have the strongest influence on weight gains when forage quantity is moderate, and the effects of management are reduced when forage quantity is very low or very high. This ten-year experiment provides additional evidence that in semiarid rangeland ecosystems, adaptive rotational grazing practices can be associated with a tradeoff between livestock production and the provisioning of other ecosystem services such as grassland bird habitat. Alternative management strategies may be needed for ranchers to minimize this tradeoff.