Rangeland Ecology & Management

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REPEATABILITY OF TERRAIN USE BY CATTLE IN RUGGED RANGELAND PASTURES
Author
Mercado, Tatjana J.
Bailey, Derek W.
Thomas, Milton G.
Enns, Richard M.
Speidel, Scott E.
Publisher
Society for Range Management
Publication Year
2018
Body

Tracking collars are used to monitor cattle movements and allow us to make inferences about cattle behavior. However, few studies have evaluated the consistency of cattle movements over time in rugged rangeland pastures. A study was conducted at five locations in New Mexico and Arizona: the Chihuahuan Desert Rangeland Research Center (CDRRC), Evans Ranch, Wilbanks Ranch, Hartley Ranch and Todd Ranch. Eight to 19 randomly-selected cows from herds of 40 to 200 cows were tracked with GPS collars at each ranch. Cows were tracked at either 10- or 15-minute intervals. Terrain use was summarized by week. A repeated measures analysis was conducted on each ranch using the weekly average of slope use, elevation use, and distance from water as the dependent variables. Intraclass correlations of weekly averages of the three terrain use metrics were used to assess temporal consistency of grazing distribution traits. Week was a fixed effect and cow was a random effect. Intraclass correlations of terrain use by individual cows varied among ranches. The Wilbanks Ranch had the strongest intraclass correlations for slope, elevation, and distance to water of 0.60, 0.50, and 0.77, respectively. Intraclass correlations for elevation at the Hartley and Todd Ranches were strong, 0.61 and 0.71, respectively, but correlations for slope and distance to water were weak to moderate (0.18 to 0.30). In contrast, intraclass correlation at the CDRRC and Evans Ranch were weak (0.00 to 0.08). Our results suggest that consistency of terrain use by cattle can vary by location; however, these relationships are positive and moderate to strong at most ranches. Factors such as cattle familiarity with pastures and the nature of the terrain features may explain part of this variability, however additional research examining how temporal changes in terrain use affect this phenotype is needed.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Conference Name
SRM Reno, NV