Jade St. Peter's MSc Defence

Influence of Grazing Management Strategies on Forage Quality/quantity and Animal Performance in an Ontario Cow Calf System

These studies sought to develop best grazing management practices for optimizing forage growth/quality and cattle performance. Cow-calf pairs were grazed from May through September to evaluate the effectiveness of set stocking, rotational, strip, and continuous grazing on animal performance and forage growth. While different grazing methods did not increase forage biomass, sward height or animal performance, intensive grazing man-agement (strip, rotational) was found to increase days on pasture and dry matter intake as a percentage of body weight. Fall stockpile grazing was studied using yearling heifers to evaluate effectiveness of grasses, alfalfa or birdsfoot trefoil in an extended grazing system. The study found harvesting forages more than once prior to grazing may decrease available pasture during the fall and decrease grazing days. Heifer performance was not affected by pasture forage species. Considerations to forage/grazing management can directly benefit producers by lengthening the grazing season in both spring and fall.