Soil productivity, as well as water and air quality, is better maintained under the permanent vegetative over of well managed grazing lands than virtually any other land use system.
Well managed lands are important for food and fiber, water quantity and quality, wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities, sustainable agriculture and rural life and mitigation of global climate change.
These ecosystems, like forest ecosystems, are vulnerable to rapid changes in climate, particularly shifts in temperature and moisture regimes.
Every state has grazing lands, but the amounts and kinds of land, the kind of uses and the products and values produced on them vary from State to State. Grazing land constitutes the single largest watershed cover type in the United States and contributes significantly to the quality and quantity of water available for all of the many uses of the land.
Grazing lands make up 45% of non-federal rural land in the United States. USDA, and Inter-Agency Work Group on Range Production have been highlighted the benefits the lands:
*Low fuel expenditure per pound of livestock weight gain
*Reduction or elimination of need for commercial fertilization
*The production of red meat and fiber for export with improved balance of trade
Grazing land in United States
