Effect of sward surface height on intake and grazing behaviour by lactating Holstein Friesian cows

Abstract

Minson, 1990). Nevertheless, grazed pasture is an economically attractive major food resource

Effect of pre-grazing herbage mass on dairy cow performance, grass dry matter production and output from perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) pastures

“…This behavioural adaption is consistent with reports in the literature; low pre-grazing HM or sward height leads to a reduction in intake per bite causing cows to adapt their grazing behaviour in an effort to maintain GDMI (Hodgson, 1985). Such responses have been reported under both continuous grazing (Gibb et al, 1997) and strip grazing systems (Peŕez-Prieto and Delagarde, 2012;Tuñon 2013) where cows increased grazing time in order to totally or partially compensate for a reduced intake rate on low HM pastures. However, the compensatory response of increasing grazing time may be limited by the time budgets for ruminating and other activities (Gibb et al, 1997) and thus daily GDMI may be limited by grazing short pastures.…”

“…Such responses have been reported under both continuous grazing (Gibb et al, 1997) and strip grazing systems (Peŕez-Prieto and Delagarde, 2012;Tuñon 2013) where cows increased grazing time in order to totally or partially compensate for a reduced intake rate on low HM pastures. However, the compensatory response of increasing grazing time may be limited by the time budgets for ruminating and other activities (Gibb et al, 1997) and thus daily GDMI may be limited by grazing short pastures. The lack of treatment effect on GDMI in the current study demonstrates the ability of rotationally grazed cows to adapt their grazing behaviour to maintain GDMI across the range of HM investigated.…”

“…However, grazing very low HM pastures may reduce GDMI as intake per bite declines on low HM pastures and cows are unable to fully compensate for the reduction in intake rate by increasing grazing time (Hodgson, 1985). This has been reported under continuously stocked grazing systems where GDMI and milk production were shown to decline with sward height (Gibb et al, 1997). However, there is a paucity of information on the effects of grazing very low HM pastures (<1200 kg DM/ha) on the GDMI and milk production of rotationally grazed cows.…”

Podolian beef production on pasture and in confinement

“…Herbage height tended (P , 0.10) to be higher in summer. In agreement with Gibb et al (1997) and Burns and Sollenberger (2002), this variable was negatively correlated with bite rate (r 5 20.60; P , 0.001) and positively related to bite mass (r 5 0.55; P , 0.01). In particular, in a Boval et al's (2007) experiment, bite mass increased by 9 mg per additional centimetre of extended tiller length.…”

Animal behavior and pasture depletion in a pasture-based automatic milking system

“…Studies conducted in conventional pasture-based systems have analyzed the impact of supplementation (Phillips and Leaver, 1986;Sheahan et al, 2011), frequency of pasture allocation (Dalley et al, 2001;Granzin, 2003), pasture height (Gibb et al, 1997) and pasture allowance (Chilibroste et al, 2012), together with available grazing time (Gregorini et al, 2009;Kennedy et al, 2009;Perez-Ramirez et al, 2009), prior fasting (Chilibroste et al, 1997 and2007) and time of the day (Gregorini, 2012) on cow behavior.…”