Cultivated forages are widely planted in arid and semi-arid agro-pastoral regions to increase livestock carrying capacity and thereby relieve excessive grazing pressure. The effect of grazing on soil N2O emissions in different types of sown pasture converted from cropland remains unclear. Stands of annual (tillage) and perennial (no-tillage) forage species were established in a saline cropland area of northwest China in a 4-year experiment to investigate the effect of utilization method (grazing vs. haying) on soil N2O emissions during the growing seasons. Grazing did not differ from haying in cumulative soil N2O flux during the growing seasons in the annual forages but had 11 % lesser (P < 0.05) cumulative N2O flux in the second year in the perennial forages. The positive effects of soil compaction and the manure return from grazing sheep on soil N2O emissions may be counteracted or even outweighed by the negative effects of enhanced soil nutrient uptake due to sheep intake. A negative correlation (r = 0.55, P < 0.05) between soil N2O flux and soil water content was found in the perennial forages, but not in the annual forages. The varying regression slopes of soil N2O emissions vs. soil organic carbon content in the annual forages differed (P < 0.05) between grazing and haying. The multiple linear regression results indicated that soil temperature accounted for >= 60 % of the temporal variation in soil N2O flux. Grazing significantly increased the mean forage yield by 44 % and 14 % and mean crude protein (CP) yield by 81 % and 11 % over that of haying, and decreased the mean hay-scaled soil N2O emission (NEIhay, kg of N2O kg(-1) of dry forage yield) by 36 % and 20 % and mean CP-scaled soil N2O emission (NEICP, kg of N2O kg(-1) of CP yield) by 49 % and 17 % over that of haying, in the annual and perennial stands, respectively, from 2014 to 2017. In conclusion, grazing reduced the soil N2O emission intensity (NEI) by increasing forage yield in annual sown pasture but by reducing soil N2O emission in perennial pasture. Therefore, grazing is one of the optimal approachs to improve forage yield while mitigating soil N2O emissions in sown pasture in continental arid regions.