A grazing study was undertaken to examine the effect of maintaining three levels of pre-grazing herbage mass (HM) on dairy cow performance, grass dry matter (DM) production and output from perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) pastures. Cows were randomly assigned to one of three pre-grazing HM treatments: 1150 - Low HM (L), 1400 - Medium HM (M) or 2000 kg DM/ha - High HM (H). Herbage accumula...

In breeding hind systems, summer is often a period when feed quality and quantity may compromise lactation in the hind and growth of the calf. The growth and feed intake of calves and hinds offered the leaf turnip Pasja were compared to those on a perennial pasture. Calves consumed 1.0 kg forage DM/head/d on pasture and 0.77 kg DM/d on Pasja. The higher digestibility of Pasja meant that the met...

The objective of this study was to determine nursing calf forage intake prior to weaning in the Nebraska Sandhills range. Eight crossbred cow-calf pairs in year one and 12 pairs in year two were selected for each trial. Pairs were randomly assigned to one of two rotation groups, pasture (Graze) or individual fed dry lot pens for each pair (Pen). Pen pairs were fed harvested meadow hay of simila...

The numbers of horses grazing at pasture are increasing in developed countries, so a proper understanding of their feeding selectivity and of the tactics they use for extracting nutrients from swards is essential for themanagement of horses and grasslands. Resource acquisition in herbivores can be optimised through the modulation of their intake and patch selection both being strongly dependent...

Pasture biomass is an important quantity globally in livestock industries, carbon balances, and bushfire management. Quantitative estimates of pasture biomass or total standing dry matter (TSDM) at the field scale are much desired by land managers for land-resource management, forage budgeting, and conservation purposes. Estimates from optical satellite imagery alone tend to saturate in the cov...

The objective of this study was to evaluate productive, nutritional, and economic traits in lactating cows on pasture fed diets with different cation-anion balances (DCAB). Ten ¾ Holstein × ¼ Dairy Gyr the middle third lactation, at an average age 70 ± 4.6 months body weight 400 55.2 kg, were distributed into five treatments a 5 Latin square experimental design two simultaneous squares. Treatme...

Goats in pens eat about 20% more of a low quality feed than do sheep. This higher intake is just sufficient to match the higher maintenance energy requwment of the goats, so, in reality, they are not more suited to an existence on low quality feeds There is little difference between goats and sheep in the extent to which they digest and utilise feeds. It is clear that goats will eat more browse...

To test the hypothesis that sheep live weight (LW) could be used to improve enteric methane (CH4) emission calculations, mature ewes of 4 different breeds representative of the UK sheep industry were studied: Welsh Mountain, Scottish Blackface, Welsh Mule and Texel (n = 8 per breed). The ewes were housed and offered ad libitum access to fresh cut pasture of three different types, varying in dig...

Two levels of grazing intensity were unposed on pasture durtng a spring-time pre-treatment period in two years at Massey University’s Dary Cattle Research Urut. The two grazing intensws were lax (L), 2000-2500 kg DMlha residual herbage mass (RHM) and intense (I) 1000-1500 kg DM/ha RHM. imposed for 2 grazmg rotations. Durmg this period, net herbage accumulation (NHA) on the L wards was approxima...

As ruminants are able to digest fibre efficiently and assuming that competition for feed v. food use would intensify in the future, cereals and other field crops should primarily be destined to cover the dietary needs of humans and monogastric animals such as poultry and pigs. Farming systems with a reduced or absent concentrate supplementation, as postulated by organic agriculture associations...