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How grazing management practices affect the livestock productivity in steppe
Author
Zhang ZH
Rong YP
Li PZ
Li Z F
Publisher
XII International Rangeland Congress
Publication Year
2025
Body

Understanding how grazing management practices affect the livestock productivity in steppe is a key issue to the sustainable rangeland. We conducted a grazing experiment in 202 2 and 202 3 at the steppe of Inner Mongolia. Five grazing managements included light (LGL, 0.38 sheep units·ha-1·yr-1), moderate (MGL, 0.75 sheep units·ha-1·yr-1), and heavy (HGL, 1.06 sheep units·ha-1·yr-1) grazing of lambs, moderate grazing of ewes (MG E, 0.75 sheep units·ha-1·yr-1), and the mixed grazing of both (MIX, 0.75 sheep units·ha-1·yr-1) in a randomized block group design with three replicates. Of these, LGL, MGL and HGL were the grazing intensity treatments, MIX, MGL and MGE were the flock treatments, and t he MIX treatment consisted of mix-grazing lambs (MML) and mix-grazing ewes (MME). The results showed that there were significant differences (P<0.05) among the daily grazing time (DGT) of lambs with different grazing intensities, and the DGT of lambs under MGL treatment was the shortest. There were significant differences in DGT of sheep with different flock s, where MGL treatment was the highest while MGE was the lowest. Besides, significant differences were found in daily overall dynamic body acceleration (DODBA) of sheep with different flock s, with MME treatment being the highest and MML being the lowest. There were significant differences among daily feed intake (DFI) and average daily gain (ADG) of sheep with different flock s. Among them, DFI was significantly higher in ewes (MGE, MME) than in lambs (MGL, MML), while ADG was significantly lower. The linear mixed models showed that ADG in lambs was mainly positively influenced by DFI under various grazing intensities. Differently, ADG was mainly positively affected by DGT and negatively affected by DODBA under various flock s. In conclusion, different grazing managements had significant effects on sheep productivity and their grazing activities. And the grazing intensity regulated productivity by influencing the feed intake, whereas flock had effects by influencing the activity level. These provide new ideas to guide the grazing management practices in steppe.

Language
English
Resource Type
Text
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Additional Information
This paper is part of the larger XII International Rangelands Congress Proceedings. Page Numbers: 1905-1909. Theme: Theme 6 / Poster presentations – Theme 6
ISSN
978-0-646-72121-7
Conference Name
International Rangeland Congress
Collection
International Rangelands Congress
Keywords
Grazing activity
Energy expenditure
Feed intake
Rangeland productivity