Within a day, grazing decisions such as ‘when’ to begin, ‘which’ frequency and ‘how’ to distribute grazing events determine ruminants’ diurnal grazing pattern. Ruminants can have between three and five daily grazing events. The major grazing events occur in the early morning and late afternoon/early evening; the later grazing event is the longest and most significant in terms of herbage intake. This review first attempts to answer ‘why does this happen?’ and then to examine evidence for managing this pattern to improve animal production. Due to photosynthesis and transpiration during the day, herbage accumulates DM, sugars and essential fatty acids, which dilute fibre and protein contents and facilitate herbage particle breakdown during ingestion. Diurnal fluctuations in light intensity stimulate circadian release of neuropetides and hormones, providing the cue to start grazing and modulating ingestive-digestive behaviours that interact with the diurnal fluctuation in herbage feeding value. Grazing decisions depend on grazing environments, the current state of the animal, and on past and anticipated states of the animal. The dusk grazing event seems to be an adaptative feeding strategy to maximise daily energy acquisition, providing a steady release of nutrients over night. Hunger deceives ruminants and makes them graze at dawn, when herbage presents the lowest feeding value. Hunger, however, can be used to concentrate and intensify grazing events. Strategic management of these interactions emerges as the tool to alter the frequency, intensity and temporal distribution of diurnal grazing events, and thereby to increase and modulate nutrient supply to and productivity of grazing ruminants.

Pastoral livestock-production systems are under increasing environmental, social and consumer pressures to reduce environmental impacts and to enhance biodiversity and animal welfare. At the same time, farmers face the challenge of managing grazing, which is intimately linked with profitability. Recent advances in understanding grazing patterns and nutritional ecology may help alleviate such pressures. For instance, by managing grazing to (1) manipulate links between ingestive–digestive decisions and temporal patterns of nutrient excretion, (2) provide phytochemically diverse diets at appropriate temporal (the menu) and spatial (the table) scales and (3) influence the behaviour of animals (the diners) on the basis of their specific ‘personalities’ and needs, to overcome or enhance animal differences, thereby enhancing their and farm productivity and welfare, as well as our health. Under pastoral systems, synergies between animals’ and farmers’ grazing decisions have the potential to offer greater benefits to the animal, the environment and the farm than does simple and parsimonious grazing management based on a single component of the system. In the present review, we look at grazing and its management through an alternate lens, drawing ideas and hypotheses to stimulate thinking, dialogue and discussions that we anticipate will evolve into innovative research programs and grazing strategies. To do so, we combined experimental and observational studies from a wide range of disciplines with simulation-modelling exercises. We envisage a more holistic approach to manage grazing based on recent advances in the understanding of the nutritional ecology of grazing animals, and propose management practices that may enable pastoral livestock-production systems to evolve continually as complex creative systems.