Managing the mineral nutrition of free-range grazing livestock can be challenging. On farms where grazing animals are infrequently yarded, there are limited opportunities to administer trace element supplements via feeds and concentrates. In New Zealand, where the majority of sheep, cattle, and deer graze pasture year round, inadequate intake of cobalt, copper, iodine and selenium is prevalent....

The Technosystem intensive grazing system, now called TechnoGrazing™, was developed by Rangitikei farmer, Harry Wier, during the past 25 years and is being adopted successfully on New Zealand pastoral farms. The TechnoGrazing concept is a most effective advance in subdivision and grazing management, achieving very intensive and efficient pasture utilisation, with a quantum leap in animal produc...

The heritability of diet selection for mountain big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt. ssp. vaseyana [Rydb] Beetle) by grazing sheep was estimated from fecal samples collected from 549 Rambouillet ewes. Fecal samples were collected in September and October during 1996 and 1997 from free-grazing ewes on intermountain sagebrush-bunchgrass rangelands at the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station in Idah...

Preference value means livestock preference to eat some plants relative to other plants or species. Accordingly, by studying the preference values, the range managers could determine the rangelands grazing capacity to achieve the optimum performance of livestock and to guarantee the stability of rangeland ecosystem. The objective of this study was to determine the preference value of perennial ...

A survey was conducted in Southwestern, Punjab, Pakistan during two different seasons to assess the status of selenium of three different classes of grazing sheep. Blood plasma from lactating, non-lactating and male sheep were collected four times monthly in winter and summer seasons and analyzed for selenium concentration. Seasonal variations were found for plasma selenium concentration. Selen...

An understanding of the factors controlling plant community composition will allow improved prediction of the responses of plant communities to natural and anthropogenic environmental change. Using monitoring data from 1980 to 2009, we quantified the changes in community composition in Leymus chinensis and Stipa grandis dominated grasslands in Inner Mongolia under long-term grazing-exclusion an...

Extensive livestock production has been Mongolia’s major industry for centuries and traditional nomadic herding lifestyle and Mongolia’s expansive rangelands sustain this industry. After the democratic election and economic liberalization in 1992, formerly state-owned collectives were disbanded and Mongolia’s livestock population was privatized. There was no longer a state institution to formal...

THE sheep population of Australia now exceeds 130 million, spread over the greater part of the Commonwealth and grazing under a wide variety of climatic and nutritional conditions. In some areas, sheep may have to exist for long periods on dry native pastures or be fed supplementary rations, both of which can be low in carotene, the precursor of Vitamin A. In these circumstances, it is possible...