Do regenerative grazing management practices improve vegetation and soil health in grazed rangelands? Preliminary insights from a space-for-time study in the Great Barrier Reef catchments, Australia

Article

Bartley, Rebecca, Abbott, Brett N., Ghahramani, Afshin, Ali, Aram, Kerr, Rod, Roth, Christian H. and Kinsey-Henderson, Anne. 2022. "Do regenerative grazing management practices improve vegetation and soil health in grazed rangelands? Preliminary insights from a space-for-time study in the Great Barrier Reef catchments, Australia." The Rangeland Journal. 44 (4), pp. 221-246. https://doi.org/10.1071/RJ22047
Article Title

Do regenerative grazing management practices improve vegetation and soil health in grazed rangelands? Preliminary insights from a space-for-time study in the Great Barrier Reef catchments, Australia

ERA Journal ID3312
Article CategoryArticle
AuthorsBartley, Rebecca, Abbott, Brett N., Ghahramani, Afshin, Ali, Aram, Kerr, Rod, Roth, Christian H. and Kinsey-Henderson, Anne
Journal TitleThe Rangeland Journal
Journal Citation44 (4), pp. 221-246
Number of Pages26
Year2022
PublisherCSIRO Publishing
Place of PublicationAustralia
ISSN1036-9872
1834-7541
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1071/RJ22047
Web Address (URL)https://www.publish.csiro.au/RJ/RJ22047
AbstractRegenerative grazing, which generally involves some form of rotational grazing with strategic rest, is increasingly seen as a profitable management approach that will accelerate landscape recovery. However, there is limited quantitative evidence supporting the benefits of this approach in northern Australia. This space-for-time study collected vegetation and soil data from a range of properties in the Burdekin catchment in Queensland that have implemented regenerative grazing strategies for between 5 and 20 years. Data were also collected at adjacent control sites that did not undergo regenerative grazing, but where more traditional continuous set-stocking grazing approaches were applied. Coincident data were also collected from several sites where grazing had been excluded for similar to 30 years. Data suggested that improvements in vegetation, soil and land condition can be obtained from implementing regenerative grazing principles, although it is likely to take at least 3-5 years, and up to 15-20 years for statistically significant improvements to be measurable at a site, particularly for areas that are moving from a degraded baseline condition. Vegetation attributes such as plant biomass and basal area and litter incorporation all appeared to be better surrogates than percentage ground cover for representing improved landscape condition and soil health. Sites that maintained remotely sensed percentage ground cover at or above the minimally disturbed reference benchmark levels for > 10 years, as well as having statistically higher biomass, basal area and litter, had significant increases in total nitrogen (TN) and soil organic carbon (SOC) relative to the local control site. Although there are indications that regenerative grazing can lead to improvements in land condition, this study does not enable us to conclude whether regenerative grazing will accelerate improvements compared with other best-practice grazing land management (GLM) approaches, and further research on the social and economic dimensions of regenerative grazing is needed.
KeywordsBurdekin; cattle grazing, grazing land management; land condition; pasture; regenerative agriculture; restoration; soil organic carbon; water quality
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020410601. Land capability and soil productivity
Byline AffiliationsCommonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia
University of Southern Queensland
NQ Dry Tropics, Australia
SeeSide Dialogue, Australia
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