Johnson et al. (2025) Utilization Data

Data on grazing utilization from 2022 at the Central Grasslands research Extension Center. Briefly, To assess grazing intensity after the grazing season, we established 1.5-m2 exclosures within each 8-ha sub-patch to compare aboveground biomass in grazed and ungrazed areas. In patch-burn and season-long pastures, each 16-ha unit had eight exclosures, totaling 32 per pasture. Heterogeneity-based rotational pastures had 10 exclosures per sub-patch, resulting in 80 per pasture. Exclosures were placed on loamy ecological sites, at least 20 m from plant community transects (USDA-NRCS 2021). This placement ensured that the plant communities inside and outside the exclosure were similar to those found on the veg?etation transects, while minimizing the influence of high cattle traffic as cattle travelled to exclosures to rub on them or eat near them. After cattle removal, we collected 0.25-m2 samples of annual production (i.e., vegeta?tion that had grown that year) both inside and outside each exclosure. Clipped vegetation was dried at 60° C for at least 48 hours until reaching a constant weight. Cattle utilization was calculated as the difference between average biomass inside and outside each exclo?sure. Percent utilization at the sub-patch level was calculated by dividing total utilization by total standing crop biomass and multiplying by 100, accounting for natural variation in biomass production.