A Pilot Study to Estimate Forage Mass from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in a Semi-Arid Rangeland

Perspectives on the Special Issue for Applications of Remote Sensing for Livestock and Grazingland Management

The use of geospatial sciences and technologies for the management of grazinglands has fostered a plethora of applications related to ecology, wildlife, vegetation science, forage productivity and quality, and animal husbandry. Some of the earliest use of remote sensing dates to the proliferation of aerial photography in the 1930s. Today, remote sensing using satellite imagery, global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), and internet-connected devices and sensors allow for real- and near real-time modeling and observation of grazingland resources. In this special issue of Remote Sensing, we introduce nine original publications focusing on varying aspects of grazingland management, such as animal health and telemetry, climate change, soil moisture, herbaceous biomass, and vegetation phenology. The work in this issue spans a diverse range of scale from satellite to unmanned aerial systems imagery, as well as ground-based measurements from mounted cameras, telemetry devices, and datalogging devices. Remote sensing-based technologies continue to evolve, allowing us to address critical issues facing grazingland management such as climate change, restoration, forage abundance and quality, and animal behavior, production, and welfare.