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Herbage intake of cattle, sheep and goats grazed alone and in mixtures on a ryegrass/white clover pasture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2017

H.A. Collins  and
A.M. Nicol
H.A. Collins*
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Science, Lincoln College, New Zealand
A.M. Nicol*
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Science, Lincoln College, New Zealand
*
+North Wyke Research Station, North Wyke, Okehampton, Devon
*Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian EH26 OPY
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Extract

Animal production is commonly reported to increase when different animal species are grazed together on the same pasture (Nolan and Connolly 1977). In such experiments there is often a difficulty with interpretation of results due to a failure to establish equal grazing pressures between species mixtures, and confounded production differences may result. The theory behind the design of mixed experiments continues to pose problems (Connolly and Nolan 1976, Connolly 1984).

The experiment reported here was designed to investigate whether, when different animal species are grazed at the same pressure, there are differences in animal intake and/or diet composition when they are grazed singly or in mixtures.

Nineteen, 18-month-old steers, 40 yearling wether goats and 40 10-month-old wether sheep were grazed in New Zealand on a mature summer ryegrass/white clover pasture (4550 kgDM/ha) in 5 treatments: cattle alone (CA), sheep alone (SA), goats alone (GA), and cattle with sheep (CS, SC) and cattle with goats (CG, GC).

Type
Ruminant Nutrition
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Production (1972) , Volume 1989 , March 1989 , pp. 48
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Production 1989

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References

Nolan, T. and Connolly, J. 1977. Mixed stocking by sheep and steers - a review. Herbage Abstracts 47 (11) 367–374.Google Scholar
Connolly, J. and Nolan, T. 1976. Design and analysis of mixed grazing experiments. Animal Production, 23, 63–71.Google Scholar
Collins, H.A. and Nicol, A.M. 1986. The consequence for DMI of grazing sheep, cattle and goats to the same residual herbage mass. Proc. N.Z. Society of Animal Production, 46, 125–128.Google Scholar