Different grazing habits and dietary preferences affect pasture composition. The effects of sheep or cattle are associated with grazing pressure and the ability of sheep to graze closer and more selectively than cattle.
Sheep grazing nutritious or palatable perennial pasture plants in summer and autumn often critically damage pasture plants. Cattle do less damage.
Sheep and cattle do not need to be grazed together and this practice is likely to complicate management decisions. Run together, sheep will always benefit at the expense of cattle, but running cattle in front of sheep, on the same area, often increases animal production and provides simpler pasture control.
Applying grazing management:
Different species and varieties of pasture plants vary greatly in their response to grazing. Knowledge of how each responds to grazing is essential to get the best animal performance and pasture persistence.
The objectives of grazing management are to:
- optimise pasture growth rate;
- use feed efficiently and profitably;
- ensure quantity and quality are suited to satisfying the stock objectives;
- ensure persistence of desirable plant species;
- ensure that ground cover is adequate to prevent erosion and resist weed invasion; and
- maintain stable pastures.
Generally, management that assists the well-being of the pasture benefits the grazing stock. However in all systems compromises are likely.
To employ the above objectives, you need to confidently:
- read the pasture — assess its health, composition and productivity;
- assess the situation — livestock need, pasture requirements; and
- apply appropriate strategies where they will be most beneficial and profitable for pasture and animals.
Grazing management should not be used as a strategy isolated from other management tools. Grazing strategies may well vary with different levels of other tools. Thus grazing management needs to be modified if poorly adapted species have been sown or plant nutrients are deficient.
Selective grazing:
Use the grazing action of animals to increase tillering and therefore the density of pastures. Keep pastures short (5–15 cm) so sunlight reaches most of the plant material and allows maximum production of new tillers or competing species.
Given suitable moisture and temperature, pastures that are heavily grazed are slow to provide new growth and recovery is initially slow. Then, as new leaves are produced, they are able to trap more sunlight and the rate of growth increases. The lower a pasture is grazed and the longer it is grazed hard for, the greater will be that initial delay.
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