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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fort Collins, Colorado » Center for Agricultural Resources Research » Rangeland Resources & Systems Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #335699
Title: Novel technology for measuring animal movement on rangelands

Author
item PLECHATY, TAMARAH - University Of Wyoming
item SCASTA, J DEREK - University Of Wyoming
item Derner, Justin
item Augustine, David

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/8/2016
Publication Date: 7/20/2017
Citation: Plechaty, T., Scasta, J., Derner, J.D., Augustine, D.J. 2017. Novel technology for measuring animal movement on rangelands. Meeting Abstract. Pg. 184. http://rangelands.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2017-SRM-Annual-Meeting-Abstracts.pdf.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Previous comparisons of animal responses to grazing management have largely focused on animal weight gains. As a result, we have an incomplete understanding of the effects of grazing management on attributes such as animal movement. Moreover, the influence of animal movement such as the distance traveled by livestock could provide insights into processes involved with grazing behavior and associated animal energetics and expenditures. Here we used novel technology of IceTag pedometers (IceRobotics Ltd, South Queensferry, UK) to record number of steps, lying time, standing time, and motion indices of individual animals with contrasting grazing management: 1) season-long grazing, mid-May through early October, in 10 replicate 130 ha pastures with stocking density of 0.18 steers ha-1, and 2) pulse grazing (short grazing periods with single large herd rotating among 10 paired, 130ha pastures with ten-fold greater stocking density of yearling steers (1.8 steers ha-1). Both grazing treatments had a moderate stocking rate (0.6 AUM ha-1). The study was conducted in 2015 and 2016 at the USDA-ARS Central Plains Experimental Range, a Long-Term Agro-ecosystem Research (LTAR) network site. Two steers in each of the season-long grazing pastures and 10 of the 234 steers in the pulse grazing treatment were randomly chosen to be fitted with pedometers. For the 2015 grazing season, yearlings in the pulse grazing treatment took more steps and had a higher motion index, with less lying time compared to steers in the season-long grazing treatment. Differential animal movements between grazing treatments were largely driven by differences observed when grazing occurred in pastures dominated by Sandy Plains ecological sites as no differences were present when grazing pastures dominated by Loamy Plains ecological sites. Animal movement differences between grazing treatments provide insight into the processes associated with observed lower individual animal weight gains of steers with the pulse grazing.