Three grass species, Agropyron desertorum (Agde) and Agropyron elongatum (Agel) and recently, Bromus tomentellus (Brto) are mainly used for range improvement as mixed seeding in semi-arid areas of Iran. Because there is little information about management of these grasses, this study was conducted at the Sisab Research Station in northern Iran to evaluate their responses to grazing management a...

Speculation about the association of soil characteristics with the expression of ovine Johne's disease (OJD) prompted this cross-sectional study. We enrolled 92 sheep flocks in Australia during 2004-2005 and in each enrolled flock collected pooled faecal samples from an identified cohort (group of same age and sex) of sheep and soil samples from the paddocks grazed by this cohort of sheep. Faec...

The first motive for the determination and evaluation of an energy productionsystem is the need to change. Such system is dynamic in nature and is influenced bymany factors such as age and physiological status of individual sheep or goat, quantityand quality of available feed and environment including the management systems.Traditional pastoral resource assessments do not always account for the...

A study was conducted to determine the copper status of different classes of grazing sheep during twodifferent seasons on a farm located in southern Punjab, Pakistan. A complete free-choice supplement wasavailable to all animals throughout the year. Soil, forage and blood plasma from animals were taken eighttimes during the year (2005) (four times in both summer and winter seasons). Soil Cu2+ w...

We studied five lower forest–grassland ecotones in the Darhad Valley in northern Mongolia and investigated the effects of 20th Century grazing regimes and changes in grazing management on ecotone dynamics at a local scale. A total of 2968 Siberian larch (Larix sibirica) trees were cored and tree-age distribution was constructed to determine 20th Century tree establishment. Tree age and location...

I . The rates of production, or entry rates, of acetic, propionic and butyric acids in the rumen of grazing sheep have been measured by a radioisotope technique previously used on penned animals. 2. Regression equations were derived relating entry rates to ruminal concentrations. The equations from penned and grazing sheep did not differ significantly. 3. The standard errors of entry rates pred...

The aim of this study was to assess the effect that the randomised versus even distribution of excreta (dung and urine) may have on modelling nitrogen (N) losses by leaching, volatilisation and denitrification from a grazing system. A range of stock densities (from 200 to 2000 sheep/ha, equivalent to an annual stocking rate of 3 to 33 dry sheep equivalent (DSE)/ha respectively) were simulated t...

Tolerance of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) to animal grazing varies widely within the species. However, the molecular mechanisms influencing the grazing tolerant phenotype remain uncharacterized. The objective of this study was to identify genes and pathways that control grazing response in alfalfa. We analyzed whole-plant de novo transcriptomes from grazing tolerant and intolerant populations o...

Sheep are more resistant than cattle to larkspur poisoning and thus may be used as a biological tool to graze larkspur to reduce cattle poisoning. Sheep readily graze larkspur in its mature stages, but if they are to be an effective management tool, they must graze it in the early growth stages before cattle enter the allotment. The objective of this study was to determine if sheep could be pos...

The Slovenian karst region and similar types of land are difficult to cultivate and often exposed to the process of being abandoned and overgrown with shrubs, trees, and brushwood. Co-grazing in a mixed group may be a way to optimize the management of sheep and goat flocks in such areas. To obtain more knowledge of the natural behavior of small ruminants, the experiment was designed on pasture ...