Studies across 5 yr involving 938 British-breed crossbred cattle (372 heifers, 566 steers) were used to evaluate the effects of grazing alternate summer and fall forages on slaughter breakeven cost of various beef production systems. Grazed summer forage combinations included 1) continuous brome, 2)brome and warm-season grasses, 3) brome and alfalfa or sudangrass, 4) brome and a monoculture of ...

Leafy spurge is an invasive Eurasian weed on pastures and rangeland in North America where it reduces grass forage production. Our objective was to determine the effects of multispecies grazing combined with Aphthona flea beetles on leafy spurge-infested rangeland. On two westernNorth Dakota sitesdivided into four25to79-hapastures, two grazingduration treatmentswere applied: season-long with 7 ...

An experiment investigated whether the inclusion of chicory (Cichorium intybus) in swards grazed by beef steers altered their performance, carcass characteristics or parasitism when compared to steers grazing perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne). Triplicate 2-ha plots were established with a chicory/ryegrass mix or ryegrass control. Forty-eight Belgian Blue-cross steers were used in the first gr...

Grazing frequency, grazing intensity, plant health, and grazer abundances were examined under two different fertilization regimes and compared to unfertilized areas of Juncus roemerianus (black needlerush) marsh. These measurements were taken in three separate sites: two low elevation sites and one high elevation site. Fertilizer was added over one grazing season (April–August) with measurement...

Fire and grazing can interact to affect the structure and composition of vegetation communities in a manner that may differ from the effects of fire or grazing that occurs in isolation of the other. In order to better understand the effects of a fire-grazing interaction at the level of an individual plant species, we studied the response of a perennial tallgrass prairie forb, Arnoglossum planta...

Standards for the height of herbaceous vegetation remaining in meadows at the end of the growing season have been, and continue to be, implemented on public grazing lands throughout the Sierra Nevada. Although supporting research is limited, stubble height standards are intended to benefit riparian resources by limiting grazing pressure. This study illustrates how the timing and intensity of de...

Herbivory and bacterivory by phagotrophic protists were estimated in the southern basin of the oligotrophic Lake Tanganyika at different seasons (in the rainy season in February–March 2007 and in the dry season in July–August 2006 and September 2007), using two independent methods: the selective inhibitor technique for assessing community grazing on picocyanobacteria (PCya) and fluorescently la...

Early and intense grazing of semi-natural grasslands replacing traditional mowing and late grazing has been identified as a threat to grassland biodiversity. We compared fruit production, fruit set attributes (e.g. plant size or phenology of reproduction), and differences in potentially negative effects (accumulation of ungrazed vegetation) in continuous grazing from May through September, with...

Using outdoor mesocosms we investigated the relative importance of the direct and indirect (here: altered grazing) effects of seawater warming on benthic microalgae in a Baltic Sea Fucus vesiculosus (Phaeophyceae) system during the spring season. Seawater warming had a positive main effect on microalgal total biomass accrual and growth rate and on total mesograzer abundance and biomass. Moreove...

To assess the potential for enhancing an existing stand of native perennial grasses on a California Coast Range Grassland site, we experimentally manipulated the seasonal timing and presence of grazing for 3 years (1994 through 1996) and of autumn burning for 2 years (1994 and 1995) and measured species cover for 6 years (1993 through 1998). We subjected the species matrix to classification (TW...