Cattle Responses to Continuous and Seasonal Grazing of California Annual Grassland

Abstract

An 8-year (1961-1968) study at the San Joaquin Experimental Range, in the Sierra Nevada foothills in central California, compared continuous, repeated seasonal, and rotated seasonal grazing on native range, and continuous grazing on sulfur-fertilized range. Cow and calf weight responses showed continuous grazing of annual grassland range to be most productive for cow-calf production. At birth, no advantage of one grazing treatment over another was found among calf weights. At the start of the adequate green forage season, calves under both continuous grazing treatments (native and fertilized) averaged 15 kg heavier than calves under rotated seasonal grazing; calves on continuously grazed fertilized range averaged 12 kg heavier than calves under repeated seasonal grazing. At weaning, calves under continuous grazing treatments averaged 25 kg heavier than calves under seasonal grazing treatments. No advantage of one grazing treatment over another was found among mature cow weights.