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More sustainable pastoral livestock production systems are required to face the challenge of reconciling agricultural production and environmental impact. Although the need for more holistic approaches, such as systems thinking and design theory, is acknowledged, systemic research applying those theories to create healthier systems remains underexplored. A multiple steps holistic approach involving modelling, geographic information systems, and decision-making analysis was used to design, assess, and contrast alternative scenarios that represent distinct grazing management to the current grazing management of a high-country station in New Zealand used as a case study to enhance grassland health. Three alternative scenarios were created, and five main parameters used to assess grassland health were obtained from the evaluation of the designed scenarios. From all the parameters, soil erosion control and increased production were ranked as the most and least important, respectively, to be considered in the design process. A multi-criteria evaluation defined that the best-compromise scenario to enhance grassland health is the scenario with lower soil erosion, as a result of applying adaptive and flexible management at the paddock level, the lower total emission of greenhouse gases (only sheep herd grazing), and greater profitability (due to production costs reduction, as cattle were removed from the station), compared to the ‘status quo’. Our design methodology produced a variety of alternatives that enhanced the health of grasslands in different parameters while still maintaining or increasing profitability. The use of multi-criteria evaluation facilitated the decision of the most contextualised and best-compromise scenario for New Zealand high country grasslands.

With a view to increasing rangeland pasture legume abundance, the herbage biomass and seedling recruitment of four New Zealand naturalized annual clover species (haresfoot clover Trifolium arvenseL., suckling clover T. dubiumSibth, cluster clover T. glomeratumL., and striated clover T. striatumL.) were measured in relation to spring grazing deferment versus continuous grazing and low versus high superphosphate fertilizer application (5 vs. 9 kg P ·ha–1) at a midaltitude (700-m) hill site. Naturalized species were dominant over periodically sown white (T. repensL.) and subterranean clover (T. subterraneumL.), contributing > 90% to sward legume composition. Rainfall in spring–early summer varied greatly between years, driving the large variation in sward legume content (28% in the moist first year; 2% in the very dry second year). Grazing deferment in spring did not influence autumn seedling recruitment or the following spring herbage biomass of naturalized species. However, autumn recruitment of naturalized clovers was greater under low fertilizer (563 seedlings ·m–2) compared with high fertilizer application (271 seedlings ·m–2) in the second year of the study, suggesting a niche for these species under conditions of low soil P and S. Management efforts should focus on strategies to enhance naturalized species spread within NZ rangeland.