Designing grazing systems that enhance the health of New Zealand high-country grasslands

More sustainable pastoral livestock production systems are required to face the challenge of reconciling agricultural production and environmental impact. Although the need for more holistic approaches, such as systems thinking and design theory, is acknowledged, systemic research applying those theories to create healthier systems remains underexplored. A multiple steps holistic approach involving modelling, geographic information systems, and decision-making analysis was used to design, assess, and contrast alternative scenarios that represent distinct grazing management to the current grazing management of a high-country station in New Zealand used as a case study to enhance grassland health. Three alternative scenarios were created, and five main parameters used to assess grassland health were obtained from the evaluation of the designed scenarios. From all the parameters, soil erosion control and increased production were ranked as the most and least important, respectively, to be considered in the design process. A multi-criteria evaluation defined that the best-compromise scenario to enhance grassland health is the scenario with lower soil erosion, as a result of applying adaptive and flexible management at the paddock level, the lower total emission of greenhouse gases (only sheep herd grazing), and greater profitability (due to production costs reduction, as cattle were removed from the station), compared to the ‘status quo’. Our design methodology produced a variety of alternatives that enhanced the health of grasslands in different parameters while still maintaining or increasing profitability. The use of multi-criteria evaluation facilitated the decision of the most contextualised and best-compromise scenario for New Zealand high country grasslands.