FOR SOME YEARS NOW, J. P. Beggs, Farm Advisory Officer at Blenheim, has been concerned with problems of establishing legumes in the hill country about Blenheim. The natural cover on this country consists of an almost pure sward made up of five species of Notodanthonia. Because of the steep nature of the country, oversowing is the only practical method of pasture improvement, and this fails beca...

The control of feed intake by ruminants is complex, and developing a cohesive theory of intake control in ruminants continues to be a challenge. Because our understanding of factors that regulate intake by cattle is inadequate, predicting feed intake, even under the best of circumstances, is difficult. In grazing cattle, this difficulty is exacerbated by additional influences that can sway basi...

The use of a systemic approach allows us to analyse the interrelationship between the vegetation dynamic and the agricultural practices through three biological indicators which relate to one hundred paddocks in six cattle farms. Concerning the vegetation dynamics, it seems that some management practices lead to a nonreversable degradation stage. As regards the forage system, the measure of swa...

Food processing and consumption by herbivores are affected differently the availability of forage quality quantity per unit time. This demonstrates “Allometric response concept”, it is considered a significant determinant in habitat use for foraging grazers. The relevance this approach has comprehensively been applied to different body sizes, but little known about its demonstration explain pat...

The rural territories linked to European sheep systems still cover wide areas and provide multiple ecosystems services although the current situation of associated biodiversity is not fully understood. In this study foliage arthropods (including pollinators), vegetation height, number flowers plant species richness were evaluated in 9 grazed lands from 5 EU countries with different livestock ma...

Recently, an increasing interest in such fertilizers and fertilization methods which not only directly supply nutrients to plants, but also stimulate soil bioactivity is noted. Their effect on both microbiota forage plants has been fully recognized. The aim of the study was investigate combined plant mixture type mineral (NPK) with biostimulants based a marine algae extracts botanical compositi...