This paper,from the perspective of herdsman’s income, makes an empirical study on herdsman’s livelihood in Gannan Grassland by quantile regression.The result shows that the influencing factors between agropastoral ecotone and pure pastoral ecotone are different differences in income structure and livelihood.Herdsmen who lived in agropastoral ecotone were influenced by migrant working,number of family members,distance from the market,livestock numbers,S&T training and collective cooperations.However,in pure pastoral area,income of herdsmen is only influenced by the permanent number of family members.In general,herdsmen are highly depending on subsidy and grazing styles,which is hard to change the structure of livelihood.Therefore,this paper proposes several ways on how to increase their income,such as animal drylot feeding,transformation of former extensive animal husbandry production structure and pursuit of new ways in planning husbandry development.