Responses of plants to grazing are better understood, and more predictable, than those of consumers in grassland ecosystems of the North American Great Plains. In 2003, we began a large-scale, replicated experiment to examine the effects of grazing on ground-dwelling beetles (Tenebrionidae), an important consumer community in shortgrass steppe of north-central Colorado, USA. We sought to determine whether modifications of the intensity and seasonality of livestock grazing alter the structure and diversity of beetle communities compared to traditional grazing regimes. Treatments represented a gradient of grazing by cattle and native herbivores: long-term grazing exclosures; moderate summer grazing (the traditional regime); intensive spring grazing; intensive summer grazing; and moderately summer-grazed pastures that were also inhabited by prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus). In 2004 and 2006, attributes of vegetation and beetle communities were sampled on 25 study plots (n = 4-6 plots per treatment). Vegetation structure and plant species composition differed among treatments, with the most pronounced differences represented by the extremes of the grazing gradient (long-term exclosures, grazed prairie dog colonies). As a whole, the beetle community, comprising individuals from eight families, was surprisingly unresponsive to grazing treatments. However, at finer taxonomic resolution, and only in a wetter year (2006), species of tenebrionids were sensitive to treatments, with the more densely vegetated grazing exclosures supporting a unique tenebrionid assemblage. For example, Eleodes fusiformis, which tend to prefer cooler microclimates, were consistently more common on grazing exclosure plots compared to the other treatments. Our findings highlight the combined role of long-term treatment differences in vegetation attributes and the variability of precipitation as drivers of consumer responses. However, with no response to the experimental manipulations of grazing intensity and timing, our findings generally support the contention that shortgrass steppe communities are resistant to grazing. Further, these results indicate that grazing may be a useful tool for balancing production and conservation issues in shortgrass steppe, where ecosystem services can be provided with marginal impacts on native consumer communities.