A 2-year experiment was conducted to determine the effect of 27 years of continuous grazing at moderate (7 ha/cow/yr) (MC) and heavy (5 ha/cow/yr) (HC) rates of stocking on seasonal diet selection and forage intake dynamics. Nine trials were conducted to determine differences between treatments in botanical composition and quality of diets and forage intake. Proportion of Texas wintergrass (Stipa leucothrica Trin. and Rupr.) in diets was greater (P<0.05) in the MC than HC treatment whereas amounts of warm-season short- and midgrasses were less. Differences between treatments in botanical composition of diets were related to differences in seasonal availability and live:dead tissue ratios of forages. However, such differences did not generally affect diet quality. Supplementation of HC cattle with 20% CP breeder cube either replaced forage organic matter intake (January 1986) or substituted for insufficient forage availability (February 1987). Supplementation never stimulated forage intake. Forage organic matter intake was restricted at forage standing crops below 700 kg/ha. This material was digitized as part of a cooperative project between the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. The Journal of Range Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact lbry-journals@email.arizona.edu for further information. Migrated from OJS platform August 2020
Scholarly peer-reviewed articles published by the Society for Range Management. Access articles on a rolling-window basis from vol. 1, 1948 up to 5 years from the current year. Formerly Journal of Range Management (JRM). More recent content is available by subscription from SRM.