A description is given of equipment designed to be fitted to either sheep or cattle, and to record automatically information on the jaw movements associated with both grazing and ruminating, movements ofthe head in plucking mouthfuls of herbage, and the time spent in grazing. The equipment has been successfully tested against alternative visual and mechanical methtxls of measuring grazing behaviour.The use of modified equipment in detailed studies has shown (a) that the maximum acceleration of the head in a longitudinal plane when plucking mouthfuls of herbage was twice as great in sheep as in cattle and in the sheep, but not in the cow, increased as sward height decreased; and (b) that the ratio of jaw movements to head movements was always greater than unity in both sheep and cattle, and was greater on tali than on short swards in two out of three comparisons. The rate of biting was significantly lower on tall than on short swards.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.