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The purpose of this paper was to assess the impact of grazing methods on the indicators of vegetation and soil cover of pastures located in the semi-desert zone in the West of Kazakhstan. The experiment was carried out on 3 pastures with different grazing methods, and a reference plot with no grazing served as a control variant. Transects measuring 100*50 m were laid on pastures, where all regime observations of herbage indicators were carried out. Soil samples were taken in layers of 0-10, 10-20, and 20-30 cm with 3-fold repetition. The lowest indicators of yield (0.38 t/ha), projective coverage (45%), species composition (12 pieces), and herbage height (22 cm) were established on pastures with intensive grazing. Intensive grazing also reduced the quality of the soil, where a low content (0.83 percent) and reserves of humus (34.19 t/ha) and phosphorus (0.65 mg/100g) were found, and the soil compacted to 1.38 g/cm 3 , its structure decreased to 53.15%, the soil degraded to the 3rd degree and became moderately solonetzic. High values of vegetation and soil cover indicators were obtained on pastures with rotational grazing. In the rotational grazing variant, the yield difference compared to the control variant amounted to 0.41 t/ha, and the yield of feed units (0.07 t/ha), digestible protein (0.011 t/ha), and exchange energy (1.08 GJ/ha) had increased. A higher content of available phosphorus (0.95 mg/100g of soil), agronomically valuable structural aggregates (67.55%), a looser density (1.24 g/cm 3 ), and weak salinity were found in the soil cover of rotational grazing pastures.

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