Seasonal Forage Preferences of Grazing Cattle and Sheep in Western Oregon

Abstract

On perennial ryegrass-subclover and tall fescue-subclover forage mixtures, grazing cattle preferred grass to clover during the spring-summer period. Sheep selected a consistently high amount of subclover in both pasture mixtures during spring. In summer, sheep preferred tall fescue to subclover but on ryegrass-subclover pastures retained or increased dietary preferences for dry subclover over ryegrass. Light and heavy stocking induced no large differences in forage selection patterns for either cattle or sheep.