Grazing by sheep and cattle has reduced productivity and increased soil erosion and loss of perennial grasses in the native grasslands of southern Australia. Large-scale grazing experiments produce reliable information on interactions between plant and livestock needed to identify the best management for farmers to use to improve their grasslands. This special edition of Animal Production Science provides recommendations to help farmers improve production and environmental benefits of native pastures.

Grazing systems represent complex interactions between animals, pastures, soils, climate and management. This paper describes the process used to characterise the potential productivity of variable native pastures, and the development of flexible systems. Incorporating spatial variability into the design, and flexibility into the management of grazing experiments, should lead to results that are better aligned with commercial grazing practices.

There are competing views on whether grazing management, from continuous to high intensity rotational grazing, can significantly change farm profitability and sustainability. It is unknown if changes to grazing management changes pasture mass and composition and in turn stored soil water. This study shows that the underlying landscape and climate dominates the changes to soil moisture and no grazing management effects could be detected in the measured soil moisture.

The appropriate intensity of grazing management to improve pasture production and to sustain native species composition is still debated. This study found increasing the intensity of grazing management resulted in higher herbage mass, growth and ground cover of pastures, while landscape position largely influenced pasture composition. Increasing the intensity of grazing management may help limit the degradation of pastures.

Greater knowledge of the diet selection of animals managed within grazing systems is essential to enhance animal performance. The diet selection and performance of sheep grazing a native pasture was assessed and a major driver of selection – the green : dead ratio (or greenness) of herbage – was identified. Monitoring the greenness of a pasture may provide a management trigger to enhance the production of animals within a rotational grazing system, in particular during periods of higher requirements.

The intensity of grazing management required for optimal animal production in native grasslands of south-eastern Australia has been debated. This paper describes how the intensity of grazing management influenced lamb production per head and per hectare. While continuous grazing had higher production per head than 4- and 20-paddock rotational grazing, more ewes were run in the 20-paddock system to maintain similar production per hectare to continuous grazing.

Assessments of grazing systems are often constrained by management decisions and seasonal conditions, which can lead to conflicting results when comparing systems. This paper used post-experimental modelling to gain a better understanding of the influence climate and management decisions can have over a long-term period. In understanding the impact of these management decisions and climate influences, strategies can be developed to improve management of the system.

Changing grazing practices in the high rainfall zone of southern Australia have seen a shift towards more intensive rotational grazing systems. This paper assessed the long-term financial implications of investing in additional fencing and water infrastructure required for higher intensity grazing rotations in native pasture systems. Profitability was primarily driven by stocking rate, however the infrastructure cost associated with high levels of paddock subdivision also reduced profitability.

The present paper synthesises the outcomes of a grazing-system study investigating the intensity of grazing management. Increasing the intensity of grazing management resulted in higher lamb production per hectare, but had lower whole-farm profitability due to higher infrastructure costs. The farming-system approach successfully integrated field research with modelling to help develop a full understanding of the impact of this management system.