Interpretive Summary: Engineering resilient grazing systems to improve adaptation to climate change and helping to mitigate its adverse effects

By: José C.B. Dubeux, Jr. (University of Florida)

Climate change has increased the frequency of extreme weather events and raised global temperature. Grazing systems need to increase their resilience to adapt to these changes. Enhancing forage species functional diversity and species richness in space and time is an alternative to improve resilience. Furthermore, diverse systems have potential to mitigate some of the adverse effects of climate change by curbing emissions from livestock and from the production of N industrial fertilizer by using N-fixing legumes. There are successful stories around the globe across different latitudes. Developing the next-generation grazing systems will be key to promote sustainable livestock systems in the Anthropocene.