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Grasslands offer many environmental and economic advantages that put them at the heart of 17 future sustainable ruminant production systems. This study aimed to quantify and map the dry 18 matter yield (DMY) and nitrogen yield (NY) of French grasslands resulting from cutting and 19 grazing practices, based on the existing diversity of grassland vegetation, management, soil 20 and climate conditions, using a research version of the STICS crop model called PâturSTICS. 21 This model simulates daily dry matter (DM), nitrogen (N) and water fluxes involved in the 22 functioning of grasslands and crops in response to management and environmental conditions. 23 It was improved to represent deposition of animal waste on grassland soils during grazing and 24 to simulate DM production and N content of grasses and legumes more accurately. 25Simulations were performed for locations across France on a high-resolution grid composed 26 of pedoclimatic units (PCU) obtained by combining the spatial resolutions of climate and soil. 27The main grassland types and associated management types were determined for each PCU 28 and then simulated over 30 years . Using the simulated values, predictive 29 metamodels of annual grassland DMY and NY were developed from easily accessible 30 explanatory variables using a random forest approach. Annual model predictions were 31 aggregated and averaged at the PCU scale, then compared to regional observations. Predicted 32 DMY agreed with available observations, except in semi-mountainous and mountainous 33 regions, where PâturSTICS tended to overpredict DMY, probably because it ignores effects of 34 *Manuscript Click here to view linked References Version postprint

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