Kie and Boroski investigated cattle home range and diet in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, where shrubs dominate the understory rather than herbaceous species. Kie and Boroski used radio-telemetry collars on cows to determine their homes ranges and habitat use patterns. When choosing home ranges, cattle showed the greatest affinity for riparian habitat, followed by clearcuts, second-growth forest, and burned areas. Cattle diets included seeded grasses and shrubs mostly from upland sites, but forbs primarily from riparian sites. The authors suggest that the need for water and the relative lack of herbaceous forage in the understory of mixed-conifer forests in the Sierra Nevada resulted in the strong, summer-long preference for riparian habitats.
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