MatchGraze.com Connects Livestock with Grazing Opportunities

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

There is no question that the internet and mobile technology has made us more connected than ever. In the same way it’s used to connect consumers with services or goods, it can be used to connect landowners with people who have grazing animals like cattle, sheep, and goats. Stephanie Larson is a livestock range management advisor for the University of California Cooperative Extension. She has been instrumental in launching matchgraze.com to connect livestock and rangeland.

Larson… “It was a result of the need for increased grazing opportunities for, you know, all the grazers and landowners who were hoping to get grazing animals there to reduce the vegetation from a fire perspective.”

Larson’s area of California is vulnerable to wildfires, so many landowners are seeking livestock to reduce vegetation. She got the idea from a group in South Dakota who was using a similar service for farmers who wanted livestock for soil health.

Larson… “ If you're a cattle grazer, or you go in and put in a profile about the type of grazers that you have: if it's cattle, where are you located, which counties that you are willing to go to. And then I, as a landowner, can go and look at that site and then seek out grazers in my county. Or I can put land up there and then hopefully, then grazers are looking at that.”

Larson says sometimes grazers are paid to provide the vegetation removal service. Other times the grazers pay the landowner to rent the pasture or it’s just community members helping others free of charge. Learn more at matchgraze.com.