The Grazing Game
Where players hypothetically experience the challenge of balancing livestock farming with landscape resilience.
Photo: Gus Armstrong
Designed for both farmers and the general public, players must reach the end of a grazing season financially ‘in the black’, without degrading their landscape. Juggling livestock numbers with available pasture, variable rainfall cards and financial challenges (including fluctuating cattle prices and unexpected farm costs!), players navigate scenarios one by one around the table sharing their decision making and questions with the rest of the group.
With both an easy and complex version available, The Grazing Game can be tailored to all types of audiences. It helps the general public understand the complexities of grazing management decisions faced by farmers; and for farmers it creates a playful and hypothetical space to experiment with new knowledge about managing for resilient landscapes away from the context and pressures of their own farm.
The Grazing Game was first devised and presented in 2019 by Imogen and Dr Judi Earl as part of their collaboration on ‘An Artist, a Farmer and a Scientist Walk Into a Bar…’ by The Kandos School of Cultural Adaptation. The Game was further developed in 2022 by Judi and Imogen in collaboration with Dr Christopher Moore, Associate Professor of Communications and Media at the University of Wollongong.
