Botanical and Chemical Composition of Cattle and Sheep Diets on Pinyon-Juniper Grassland Range

Abstract

Diets collected by use of esophageal fistulated steers and sheep on foothill range in southcentral New Mexico where compared botanically and chemically. Sheep diets were generally higher in forbs and lower in grass than cattle diets and contained more forbs than grass except during June, July and August. Important forbs in sheep diets were carruth sagewort, vervain, and globemallow. Cattle diets contained more grass than forbs in all periods except April, with blue grama the most important grass followed by sideoats grama, wolftail, and threeawns. Sheep diets were consistently higher in crude protein and ash content than cattle diets, but there were no significant differences in cell-wall constituents and in vitro dry matter disappearance among dates or between cattle and sheep diets./Se llevó a cabo el estudio en el Estado de New Mexico, E.U.A. Las dietas del ganado ovino constituyeron en mas hierbas que gramíneas con la excepción de los meses de Junio, Julio y Agosto. Las más importantes hierbas fueron Artemisia carruthii, Verbena spp. y Sphaeralcea coccinea. Las dietas del ganado bovino constituyeron en mas gramíneas que hierbas con la excepción del mes de Abril. La gramínea mas importante fué Bouteloua gracilis. Bouteloua curtipendula, Lycurus phleoides y Aristida spp. fueron secundarias en importancia. Las dietas del ganado bovino tuvieron mas proteína cruda. No hubo diferencia en los contenidos de fibra cruda ni de la digestibilidad entre las dietas del ganado bovino y ovino.