A global demand for meat and a national demand for economic prosperity motivated the government of Kazakhstan to expand the utilization of the country's vast rangeland resources to enhance livestock production, as a strategy to promote the country' economic growth and to alleviate rural poverty. However, baseline information of livestock carrying capacity and current state of stocking rate is lacking, severely hindering the implementation of the country's economic development strategies. This research effort integrates field-based method and remote sensing techniques to quantify stocking rates in the Aqmola oblast, Kazakhstan, considering environmental factors as well as management options. A total of 80,292 km2 of land is required to sustainably graze the current reported numbers of livestock (cattle, horses, sheep, and goats) for the 860,940 (animal unit equivalent-AUE) reported on September 1, 2019 in Aqmola oblast. The estimated total rangeland area of the Aqmola oblast is 236,965 km2. There is the opportunity to increase livestock by 3-fold based on grazing period of 210 day if only beef cattle are grazing all rangelands in the Akmola oblast. This assumes all resources, equipment, labor, and skills to manage the livestock, grow hay for winter feed and barley for winter supplemental feed are grown within the Akmola oblast are available. Furthermore, the oblast is not in an extended drought sequence and adequate water is available to meet livestock needs. The results showed a significant temporal variations in stocking rate due to climate variability, indicating that management must be specially optimized to local ranch operations, status of vegetation and annual variation in weather.
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