Abstract
•Cattle increased grazing on south-facing slopes during a better forage-quality year and grazed more on north-facing slopes during a poor-quality forage year.•During a poor-quality forage year, cattle increased daily grazing times except when winter storms prevailed.•Targeted grazing in a year with substantial rainfall before the end of the grazing season resulted in weight gain for cattle with no added protein supplements.•Increased grazing time in a year with poor forage quality resulted in increased weight loss, suggesting that the energy contained in forage did not compensate for the extra energy required to acquire it.•Satellite Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) imagery can assist in predicting when protein supplements should be used in a targeted grazing project.