Permanent grassland accounts for more than 30% of agricultural land in the EU. In some regions, it is the dominant form of land use and forms the basis of economically important dairy farming. In other regions, grassland is scattered throughout a landscape otherwise used for arable farming, and livestock farming tends to be extensive. The diversity of grassland is closely linked to the activity of grazing animals. Even before the Neolithic Revolution, wild herbivores created closely interlinked landscape mosaics of open land and forest structures. With the domestication of roughage-eating farm animals, grassland expanded further. Through their movement and grazing behaviour, grazing animals increase the small-scale heterogeneity of the habitat structures of pastureland and thus promote biodiversity. 

Grazing dairy cows and beef cattle is fundamentally animal-friendly and valued by society. It promotes the welfare and health of the animals. Grazing also promotes the diversity and numerous ecosystem functions of grassland, e.g. the provision of biomass or fodder, biodiversity, biological pest control and protection against soil erosion. Modern livestock systems are highly specialised and intensified, however. In recent decades, the importance of grassland for milk and meat production has declined. Today, high-yielding dairy cows in particular are mainly kept in stalls and fed with fodder from arable land. This intensifies competition for the use of arable land and increases the risk of further intensification of land use and the associated additional environmental impact. Stable housing naturally has important economic advantages. Controlled feeding with silage and supplementary feed enables consistently high milk yields to be achieved. Grazing is not a matter of course. Proper and efficient pasture use can currently only be achieved through time-consuming and costly management and fencing. Conventional pasture fences are rigid systems. They are difficult to use for optimal pasture use – with short grazing times and quick rotations between pasture areas. The lack of technological innovation in smart farming in pasture management over many years means that grazing is currently uncompetitive and unattractive for farmers. This development carries the risk of further loss of species and structural diversity in grassland, which is an important refuge for numerous animal and plant species in the agricultural landscape in Europe.