We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Sward height determines animal performance on limpograss (Hemarthria altissima cv. Flórida) pastures.
- Authors
da Silveira Pontes, Laíse; Petkowicz, Karina; Stafin, Giliardi; Kunrath, Taíse Robinson
- Abstract
Changes in grazing intensity affect forage production and performance of animal on C4 grass pastures; however, these relationships are not well defined for cattle grazing on limpograss (Hemarthria altissima (Poir) Stapf & C.E. Hubb. cv. Flórida) under continuous stocking. The objective of this study was to quantify plant and animal production from Flórida limpograss pastures, managed at different grazing intensities by beef heifers (i.e. different sward heights) in order to define pasture management outcomes that maximise plant and animal responses. For a 3-year period, the influence exerted by the sward height (10, 20, 30 and 40 cm) was assessed. Greater total herbage accumulation and herbage accumulation rate were observed for the more lenient grazing heights (30 and 40 cm). The 20-, 30- and 40-cm heights revealed similar heifer average daily gain of 0.49 kg liveweight (LW) animal–1 day–1, reducing at the rate of 0.04 kg LW animal–1 day–1, for each cm decrease below 19 cm, according to a segmented equation. LW gain per area showed a quadratic response to the sward height, with optimum values (i.e. 2.1 kg LW ha–1 day–1) achieved at a pasture height of around 21 cm. Therefore, to optimise cattle performance on continuously stocked Flórida limpograss pastures, a sward height of ~20 cm should be maintained. Changes in grazing intensity affect animal performance of tropical grasses, but these variations have not been described for cattle grazing on limpograss (Hemarthria altissima (Poir) Stapf & C.E. Hubb. cv. Flórida) under continuous stocking. Our results demonstrate that to optimise cattle performance, management targets should permit animals to graze pastures of Flórida limpograss at sward heights of ~20 cm. Thus, this result will be used to guide choice of grazing height for use in production systems based on limpograss.
- Subjects
FLORIDA; HEIFERS; PASTURES; GRAZING; PASTURE management; ANIMAL herds; PASTURE animals; GRASSES
- Publication
Crop & Pasture Science, 2021, Vol 72, Issue 10, p841
- ISSN
1836-0947
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1071/CP20463