Educating Livestock Producers and Monitoring the Ecological Health of Grazing Spaces

Authors

• Morgan MathisonSlee, Department of Community Sustainability, Michigan State UniversityFollow
• Matt R. Raven, Department of Community Sustainability, Michigan State UniversityFollow
• Crista Derry, AgBioResearch Lake City Research Center, Michigan State UniversityFollow

Volume

64

Issue

2

Abstract

Addressing the climate catastrophe requires a systems approach with a focus on regenerating agricultural landscapes. To address these complex problems, we offered a monitoring training focused on a systems approach to livestock stewardship using the Savory Institute's Ecological Outcomes Verification protocol to monitor ecosystem health. The training encouraged producers to use systems-based management practices to promote ecological regeneration. We found that despite producers not adopting the monitoring protocol, there were increases in the ecological health of their farms. We suggest Extension professionals consider teaching similar ecological monitoring protocols to benefit producers and support claims about regenerative agriculture.

Authors’ Contribution Statement

MR designed and hosted the educational events, assisted in conducting monitoring, and provided feedback on the analyses and edited the manuscript. CD assisted with the educational events and monitoring, and offered feedback and editing on the manuscript. MM assisted with the educational events, conducted monitoring, analyzed the data, drafted and edited the manuscript, and served as the corresponding author.

Data Availability

No datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

MathisonSlee, M., Raven, M., & Derry, C. (2026). Educating Livestock Producers and Monitoring the Ecological Health of Grazing Spaces. Journal of Extension, 64(2), Article 22. https://doi.org/10.66752/1077-5315.8955