ARS | Publication request: PRODUCTIVITY OF MIXED-SPECIES "NATURAL" PASTURES UNDER INTENSIVE ROTATIONAL GRAZING

Submitted to: Agronomy Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: November 8, 1996
Publication Date: N/A

Technical Abstract: Temperate "natural" pastures form a large and under-utilized resource on livestock farms in northcentral U.S. Under good grazing management, these pastures have the potential to persist indefinitely while producing feed profitably. Successful integration of these pastures into livestock farming requires estimates of daily amount of forage available for animal intake under grazing. Such information is needed for feed budgeting and stocking rate calculations on a daily or seasonal basis. A 50-acre natural pasture was managed under rotational grazing for 2 yr. Forage availability in 1994 during the grazing periods of 5/15-6/15, 6/15-8/15, 8/15-9/15 and 9/15- 10/15 averaged 70, 64, 41 and 22 kg ha**-1 d**-1, respectively. In 1995, forage supply data for the corresponding periods were 70, 43, 41 and 11 kg ha**-1 d**-1. The decrease in forage supply during the summer of 1995 was due to a prolonged period of dry weather.