Description

Feed is the most costly input for US ruminant livestock production systems, and increasing the utilization efficiency of irrigated forage systems can improve system profitability. This study assessed the production, utilization and quality of 22 intensively managed perennial grasses and legumes. Forages were cultivated as monocultures under irrigation and subjected to similarly intense clipping or mob stocking for two years at six-week intervals between May and September. Grasses and legumes were randomly assigned to 22 adjacent 1.5-m-wide by 9-m-long subplots within each whole plot, and pairs of whole plots were randomly assigned to grazing or clipping management. Seven grasses did not persist following the first harvest, and accumulation for three legume species could be evaluated only twice in Year 1. For the 12 remaining species harvested four times both years, harvest management did not affect dry matter accumulation or removal, but utilization was 10% greater under grazing than clipping (p = 0.0031). Given sufficient rest periods, numerous cool-season grasses and temperate legumes are tolerant of repeated mob grazing.

Author ORCID Identifier

Jennifer MacAdam https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2349-9863

Xin Dai https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8821-0042

Document Type

Dataset

DCMI Type

Dataset

File Format

.xlsx

Publication Date

5-31-2024

Funder

Utah Agricultural Experiment Station

Publisher

Utah State University

Embargo Period

12-1-2024

Methodology

Accumulation and removal were assessed using a non-destructive rising plate meter that was calibrated for each grass and legume species. The condensed tannin concentration of three legumes was assayed, and the nutritive value of each forage was determined using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and the grass or legume hay equation of the NIRS Forage and Feed Testing Consortium.

Start Date

2007

End Date

2008

Language

eng

Code Lists

See README

Disciplines

Climate | Plant Sciences | Soil Science

License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.26078/jdms-xg87

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Article Location

 
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