Observations of cattle grazing pinegrass (Calamagrostis rubescens) indicated that in addition to cropping, pinegrass tillers were pulled up. The objective of this study in British Columbia was to quantify this pull-up. As many as 48% of the tillers were pulled up during only one grazing pass by a cow. Following repeated passes by a cow, up to 75% of the tillers were pulled up. This tiller pull-up can be partitioned into two categories: uprooted (refers to entire tillers, usually united in a tuft, that are pulled up with rhizome and root tissue still attached), and the torn category comprises the aerial portions of tillers that are severed at or near the base of the leaf sheath. In the latter case, only the upper three of four leaves are removed, and the shorter scale leaves and vegetative stem are left attached to the rhizome. More tillers are normally uprooted than are torn during grazing.
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