Rangeland Ecology & Management

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ANIMAL ACTIVITY INFLUENCES BY GRAZING STRATEGY.
Author
Lindsey, Torie W.
Redden, Miles D.
Volesky, Jerry
Schacht, Walter
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2016
Body

Grazing strategy is reported to affect animal movement and energy expenditure. Activity (steps taken) of yearling steers was studied using three different grazing strategies on Sandhills subirrigated meadow at the University of Nebraska Barta Brothers Ranch 11 km northwest of Rose, Nebraska. The grazing strategies were a 4-pasture rotation with a single occupation, a 120-pasture rotation with a single occupation (ultrahigh stocking density), and continuous grazing; there were two replications of each strategy. The research was conducted during a 60-day grazing period from mid-June to mid-August in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Each pasture in the 4-pasture rotation was 0.42 ha and grazed by 10 steers for 15 days and each pasture in the 120-pasture rotation was 0.14 ha and grazed by 36 steers for 0.5 day. The continuously grazed pastures were each 0.75 ha and were grazed by 4 steers for 60 days. In each year, two to four steers in each treatment replication were randomly selected and fitted with IceCube pedometers for the entire 60-day grazing period. We hypothesized that animal activity would increase as pasture size increased and as the length of grazing time in a pasture increased, thus continuously grazed pastures will have the greatest activity while ultrahigh density grazing will have the least number of steps per day. However, steers in ultrahigh stocking density pastures in 2013 took 40% more steps than steers in other treatment pastures through most of the grazing season. In 2014, steers in ultrahigh stocking density pastures took a greater number of steps in mid-July (39% greater) and late-July (30% greater) only. Data from 2015 steers remain to be analysed but the greater number of steps taken by steers in the ultrahigh stocking density pastures may be a result of behavior changes associated with stocking density.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM Corpus Christi, TX