Pre-emptive management requires that we have indicators for the functioning of rangelands that tell us whether a system is irreversibly degraded, whether it is in a ‘healthy’ state, or whether it is approaching a tipping point. In the latter case, we may still adopt the current management to a sustainable one. We believe that the combination of more extreme droughts and concurrent grazing regime may drive the system across a tipping point, where feed quantity and quality, soil and biodiversity is lost and cannot be restored. However, we do not know what are the thresholds of drought severity and grazing regime that may cause an irreversible regime shift. Here, we use a region-wide experimental platform where we can manipulate rainfall and grazing regimes and observe the response of the ecosystem. Specifically, we look at many aspects of productivity, feed quality, biodiversity (soil biota, plants, animals), and soil properties, and determine whether some of these characteristics may serve as indicators for a looming crash in rangeland functioning.