Time2Graze

More than 90% of methane emissions from ruminants come from grazing or mixed production systems and a vast majority of such emissions occur in Global South countries. Low milk and beef yields per animal in such geographies lead to methane emissions intensities that are 2-6 times higher than in the Global North. There are severe limitations to reduce methane emissions through dietary manipulation cost-effectively on grazing conditions. However, there is a large potential to attain substantial reductions in methane emissions per kilogram of protein produced by applying sustainable grazing management practices. The grazing management decision-making process of farmers, ranchers and pastoralists is based on matching their herd's requirements (demand) with their farm or grazing area's amount of available pasture (supply).

However, timely and accurate information on pasture availability is not available nowadays and direct estimations are extremely time consuming or unaffordable. Recent advances of proof-of-concept research are combining diverse types of satellite data to estimate pasture biomass weekly with good enough accuracy. This could enable the construction of a public data system able to provide geographically explicit (10m resolution) and near real-time (5-7 days) information of pasture biomass for the decision-making of different users. Nutritive value estimations based on satellite data are being explored too with some early success. The biomass data needs to be available to target users (livestock producers and their advisors or employees) as actionable information to improve their decision-making process.

Given that both production systems and the people in charge of them are highly heterogeneous across the globe, such information needs to be tailored to their needs and preferences. There is a wide experience in the technology industry related to the design of DSSs using a 'user experience design' approach: an iterative process that enhances the usability and future rate of adoption of tools by involving the users in the design and development process. For this purpose, it is important to engage and empower local public and private organization's that represent such target users in each country. These actors will also be determinant for building technical capacity locally for the sustainability and expansion of the improved grazing tools developed.