Deploying CERT: Integrating satellite and field measures for improved grazinglandmanagement at ranch scales

 Monitoring of forage availability, utilization, and residual biomass across the growing season is the primary basis for making livestock management decisions in grazingland systems. However, field measures of vegetation are often unreliable at estimating available forage and actual livestock use at the ranch scale due to heterogeneous patterns of vegetation and grazing impacts. Remote sensing estimates of vegetation biomass across the growing season exist but have yet to be paired with data on livestock locations to evaluate potential for quantifying grazing intensity. Integration of field and remote‐sensing measures for monitoring forage availability, utilization, and residual biomass will help ranchers manage at ranch scales. Our objective is to develop a system for assessing grazing impacts at ranch scales that integrates plot‐based field utilization measurements with remotely‐sensed quantification of grazing intensity. Specifically, we will expand and validate existing remote sensing maps of forage biomass and change in biomass in northeast Oregon and southern Idaho, evaluate and improve a suite of field methods for estimating utilization and residual biomass, and use field‐collected data paired with livestock GPS‐collar data to validate the remote sensing biomass change maps as an index of grazing intensity. These results will be built into the Climate Engine Rangeland Tool (CERT), an online tool to analyze and visualize forage availability, utilization, and grazing intensity. We will work with private ranchers to integrate the CERT system into their ranch‐specific management.