Rotational grazing management for conservation bison herds provides nutritional welfare benefits through forage quality diversity while supporting prairie ecosystem restoration.
Rotational grazing management for conservation bison serves both individual welfare and ecosystem welfare simultaneously. Bison in rotational systems with high-quality, rested forage have better nutritional status than those on depleted continuous-grazed pastures — a direct welfare benefit. The prairie restoration that bison grazing enables creates habitat conditions supporting the rich biodiversity of native prairie ecosystems — an ecosystem welfare benefit extending to hundreds of species. The natural foraging behavior that rotational management approximates — moving to fresh, high-quality forage — fulfills behavioral needs that fixed-range continuous grazing cannot. Good bison management is thus simultaneously individual welfare, behavioral welfare, and ecosystem welfare.