Our objectives were to evaluate strategies to improve productivity and economic returns from beef and dual-purpose cattle systems based on data collected on one dual-purpose (Bos taurus x Bos indicus) and two beef (Nellore) cattle farms in the western Amazon region of Brazil. Forage chemical composition and digestion rates of carbohydrate fractions of grazed Brachiaria decumbens and Brachiaria ...

Beyond grazing, managed grasslands provide ecological services that may offer economic incentives for multifunctional use. Increasing biodiversity of plant communities may maximize net primary production by optimizing utilization of available light, water, and nutrient resources; enhance production stability in response to climatic stress; reduce invasion of exotic species; increase soil OM; re...

The efficacy of the morantel sustained release bolus (MSRB) in reducing gastrointestinal parasitism in first season grazing calves was evaluated during the summer--autumn grazing seasons of 1982 and 1983 in western Oregon. Each of 38 calves (1982) and 40 calves (1983) were randomly assigned to either control or treatment groups which were given MSRB on the day of turnout onto pasture. Mean worm...

Plants show phenological responses to herbivory. Some enclosure experiments have demonstrated that the onset of the peak flowering season is dependent on grazing pressure. We constructed a mathematical model using Pontryargin's maximum principle to investigate changes in flowering time by examining shifts in resource allocation from vegetative to reproductive plant components. We represented a ...

Small-scale patches (locations of 50 cm × 50 cm at a feeding station level) in a bahia grass ( Paspalum notatum ) pasture under cattle grazing were investigated in terms of herbage mass, quality and utilisation during a grazing season (May–November), to characterise the quantityquality relationship of patches and relate this to spatially heterogeneous grazing by animals. Nitrogen concentration ...

Production data from 11 southeastern Montana ranches were used to parameterize a bio-economic computer model of cow/calf range production. Effects of changes in breeding date, weaning date, and range removal date on system performance for a ranch with a fixed forage resource base (3,060 animal unit months of range forage and 744 t of hay) were simulated. Input costs were locally established in ...

To examine the effects of cultivation and grazing on evapotranspiration (ET), continuous measurements of ET were conducted over almost two years, from December 2005 to September 2007, using the eddycovariance technique in two paired ecosystems: a steppe and a cropland in Duolun and a fenced and a degraded steppe in Xilinhot, Inner Mongolia, China. The ET of the four ecosystems approached or exc...

Understanding grassland dynamics and their relationship to weather grazing is critical for pastoralists whose livelihoods depend on productivity. Studies investigating the impacts of climate human factors inter-seasonal have focused mostly changes vegetation structure. Yet, quantifying impact these specific communities not known. This study uses digital repeat photography examine how intra-seas...

The various ingestive behavioral measurements have seldom been used to estimate long-term DM intake or to An estimate of the animal-production potential of pastures can be explain differences in intake on daily animal responses assessed by knowing the daily dry matter (DM) intake of the grazing animal and the digestibility of the DM consumed. The objective of among grazing management strategies...