The US Roundtable for Sustainable Beef is setting its target of 385 million acres managed under written grazing management plans by 2050.

To fully understand where the industry stood toward the goal, USRSB tapped Farm Journal’s Trust In Food to gather insights that uncover where working lands stand in their grazing management planning journey and the barriers that stand between ranchers and adoption of written grazing management plans.   

The partnership released its report, State of Grazing Management, which illuminates the benefits that written grazing management tracking provides for ranchers in building operational and environmental resilience. The report aims to provide a tool for quantifying the positive progress that beef cattle ranchers are making so that a pathway will emerge for ensuring sustainability in the beef value chain through securing economic and environmental value simultaneously.

"Improved grazing is key to a successful and sustainable ranching operation,” Mike Williams, USRSB 2024/2025 chair, said. “A grazing management plan is a critical tool that helps producers maximize forage production while strengthening the ecosystem in which they operate."

The study found that ranchers who report managing their resources under a written grazing management plan capture their entire acreage within the plan and utilize it in making operational decisions on their farms to benefit productivity and profitability.

USRSB’s goal of 385 million acres under written grazing management plans is 11% fulfilled. The study found that 44 million acres would qualify now as managing under a written grazing management plan, representing 10% of all US ranchers and 11% of USRSB’s target acreage.

Grazing management is currently diverse. A total of 372 million acres, 40% of US ranchers, are managed under grazing management plans that are undocumented. A total of 66% of written grazing management plans utilize pen/paper, and 7% use a farm management software or app to track grazing management.

Stewardship is driving the need and desire for grazing planning. Ranchers who regularly face natural resource stress are more likely to have a grazing management plan than ranchers who are less likely to face similar stressors, indicating that they are using GMP to steward resources for their land. Additionally, 60% report that having a plan is the right thing to do for overall land and legacy stewardship. Conversely, few respondents had a plan because it was a requirement or a condition of lease agreements, indicating that requirements may not be a significant driver.

Producers without a formal, written plan are more diversified. This group is less focused on cattle as core revenue drivers, may be structured around row crops or a more diversified income, are less comfortable with technology and less proactive in running their livestock operations and are less motivated by resource management.

“Interestingly, this report uncovered that ranches managed under a written grazing management plan are more likely to also have succession plans in place, which gives us some insights into the generational resilience of the beef supply chain as a whole and indicates that a leading indicator of change overall could possibly be written plans,” said Amy Skoczlas Cole, president of Trust In Food. “This is critical information as our industry faces a widening gulf between farm and table and also a tipping point for generational transfer of working lands. We were proud to be part of bringing this data and insights to an industry that is focused on building that resilience through work from leaders USRSB and their member companies.”

“We have an incredible opportunity ahead of us, to work with farmers and ranchers across the US, to put their plans to paper and support efforts for them to optimize their management strategies and build resilience in not only their businesses but in the land they manage and in their communities,”  said Samantha Werth, executive director of USRSB. “Ultimately, reaching our goal of 385 million acres under written grazing management plans supports industry-wide commitment to continuous improvement while also helping to build a more resilient beef supply chain.”

Source: US Roundtable for Sustainable Beef