Grazing systems, pasture size, and cattle grazing behavior, distribution and gains
Issue Date
1993-01-01Keywords
sizedrinking water
grazing time
distance travelled
controlled grazing
liveweight gain
continuous grazing
duration
pastures
rotational grazing
grazing behavior
grazing
beef cattle
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Hart, R. H., Bissio, J., Samuel, M. J., & Waggoner, J. W. (1993). Grazing systems, pasture size, and cattle grazing behavior, distribution and gains. Journal of Range Management, 46(1), 81-87.Publisher
Society for Range ManagementJournal
Journal of Range ManagementDOI
10.2307/4002452Additional Links
https://rangelands.org/Abstract
Reduced pasture size and distance to water may be responsible for the alleged benefits of intensive time-controlled rotation grazing systems. We compared cattle gains, activity, distance traveled, and forage utilization on a time-controlled rotation system with eight 24-ha pastures, on two 24-ha pastures grazed continuously (season-long), and on a 207-ha pasture grazed continuously, all stocked at the same rate. Utilization on the 207-ha pasture, but not on the 24-ha pastures, declined with distance from water. At distances greater than 3 km from water in the 207-ha pasture, utilization was significantly less than on adjacent 24-ha pastures, at distances of 1.0 to 1.6 km from water. Cows on the 207-ha pasture travelled farther (6.1 km/day) than cows on the 24-ha rotation pastures (4.2 km/day), which traveled farther than cows on the 24-ha continuously grazed pastures (3.2 km/day). Grazing system, range site, slope, and weather had minimal effects on cow activity patterns. Gains of cows and calves were less on the 207-ha pasture (0.24 and 0.77 kg/day, respectively) than on the 24-ha rotation pastures or 24-ha continuously grazed pastures (0.42 and 0.89 kg/da, respectively), with no differences between the latter. Calculated "hoof action" on the rotation pastures was less than that demonstrated to increase seed burial and seedling emergence. Intensive rotation grazing systems are unlikely to benefit animal performance unless they reduce pasture size and distance to water below previous levels, decreasing travel distance and increasing uniformity of grazing.Type
textArticle
Language
enISSN
0022-409Xae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.2307/4002452