The management of grazing on our rangelands is a complex task that most landholders undertake on the basis of their experience. Science has made many contributions to the understanding of grazing, but currently offers few recommendations on managing pastures other than generalities, such as that one should not 'overgraze'. The dilemma is that the landholder must balance the competing demands of the livestock and of the health of the pasture, which essentially represent trade-offs between the present and the future. The optimum strategy for any one time is difficult to discern, partly because of these long and short-term trade-offs, but also because of interactions with economic outcomes and sociological factors, and the confusing effect of rainfall variability. When variability is high the lessons learnt from last year, or the year before that, are unlikely to be applicable to the current year. With this combination of complexity and variability, it is perhaps not surprising that research on this topic has so far led to much knowledge about grazing management, but apparently little practical scientific advice. Nevertheless, I perceive that this might be about to change. Climate variability is now being accepted as a major driving force in rangeland management and explicitly addressed. And the complexity of the landscape, the production system, the ecosystem and people's economic overlay, is at least being encompassed, if not understood, through the power of the computer. The ability of the advanced decision support systems to combine information from a whole range of sources, such as land system maps, models of biological processes and expert experience, into aids to decision making, is indeed awesome. The recognition of the importance of social values in determining the best grazing system and that landholders themselves have an important part to play in developing best systems, is also a valuable advance in methodology. It is this new world of grazing management that has, in part, been captured in this special issue on grazing management. An Editor is limited in scope by the papers that are offered and by those that can be prepared within the deadlines imposed by publication. There were many more papers than those presented here that were outlined in abstract, but did not reach the deadline. It is hoped that the Journal will be able to publish some of these in future. Each will have its value, although not with the collective force arising from the synergy of the special issue.
