Extensive livestock production systems produce most livestock-related greenhouse gas emissions and in particular methane emissions. The study investigates the influence of rangeland composition and ecological status on the nutritional quality and methanogenic potential of the rangeland. The results of the study will assist plant breeders, rangeland managers and livestock managers to select specific grass species and to develop defoliation programs that will improve livestock production in a sustainable manner.

Estimation of herbaceous biomass is important in range management, ecological monitoring and restoration. Traditional methods involve repetitive vegetation clipping in the field so we developed a more efficient, less destructive method. The photographic estimation technique is reliable, uses basic equipment and can be implemented by practitioners for accurately measuring herbaceous biomass.

Mapping the ecological characteristics of grass species is essential for scientific management of grasslands. Traditional field-survey methods are costly or even impossible owing to poor accessibility. This study demonstrated that the hyperspectral database method provides great potential to predict the ecological characteristics of grass species in alpine grasslands.

Leucaena is a perennial fodder crop that can significantly increase beef production on substantial parts of the world’s grazing lands. We used a new method to survey leucaena cultivations across Australia’s prime leucaena-growing region, and found far less leucaena present than suggested by recently published estimates. This new method presents a number of potential benefits for the beef industry and other stakeholders in leucaena adoption.

Plateau pikas create disturbances in the plants of alpine meadow. This study investigated the response of leaf traits to plateau pika disturbances and found that the disturbance intensities of plateau pika alter the leaf traits of three plants; these three plants exhibited different adaptations to the different disturbance intensities of plateau pika, which enabled the alpine meadow to improve or degrade.

White horehound (Marrubium vulgare L.), is a troublesome weed of arid zones, particularly in cropping and grazing areas. Present study investigated the effects of temperature, light, osmotic potential, salinity, pH, and seeding depth on seed germination and seedling emergence of white horehound. Seeds germinated over a wide range of temperatures. Burial depth study shows that nil seedling emergence was occurred at 4-cm burial depth. Effective management of white horehound should consider targeting surface located seeds.

Apparent distance travelled by an animal calculated from GPS coordinates may be incorrect and selecting an optimum sample interval is critical. Factors affecting optimal interval include accuracy of the fixes and tortuosity of the path taken. This paper considers the optimum interval for free ranging cattle in eastern Australia, and probable error at varied sample intervals. Distances walked by cattle appeared to increase with increasing paddock size, however further study is needed.

A household survey was distributed to Inner Mongolian herders across five ecosystems to collect information on financial and production decisions in 2009 and 2014. Economic enterprise budgets that consider farm-level profit goals in conjunction with ecosystem and grassland outcomes were estimated to help direct herder management decisions. Herders in the meadow steppe, desert steppe and typical steppe ecosystems had the largest fluctuation in profit and stocking rates over the 5 years in addition to the largest reported external weather shocks.