Ingestive behaviour, herbage intake and grazing efficiency of beef cattle steers on Tanzania guineagrass subjected to rotational stocking managements

The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the ingestive behaviour, herbage intake and grazing efficiency of beef cattle steers grazing on Panicum maximum Jacq. cv. Tanzania subjected to different rotational stocking intensities. Treatments corresponded to two post-grazing conditions (residues of 25 and 50 cm) associated with a pre-grazing condition of 95% sward canopy light interception during regrowth (LI). The grazing time increased linearly with the duration of the occupation period (475 to 630 minutes/day). On paddocks grazed down to a residue of 25 cm, the bite rate increased linearly along the occupation period, with an average of 42.5 bites/minute. On paddocks grazed down to a residue of 50 cm, the bite rate was stable and equal to 39 bites/minute. There was no difference in herbage intake between grazing intensities. However, grazing at 25 cm residue resulted in greater herbage removal (68.0 vs. 45.6%) and greater grazing efficiency (90.4 vs. 49.8%) than grazing at 50 cm residue. Post-grazing residues of Tanzania guineagrass under rotational stocking management may be set at either 25 or 50 cm, since the herbage intake was not affected within this grazing intensity range. However, herbage removal and grazing efficiency were reduced with the 50 cm post-grazing height and grazing time increased with long occupation periods.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Difante,Gelson dos Santos, Euclides,Valéria Pacheco Batista, Nascimento Júnior,Domicio do, Silva,Sila Carneiro da, Torres Júnior,Roberto Augusto de Almeida, Sarmento,Daniel Oliveira de Lucena
Format:	Digital revista
Language:	English
Published:	Sociedade Brasileira de Zootecnia 2009
Online Access:	http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-35982009000600005
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!