Date of Award

1984

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Departmental Honors

Department

Wildland Resources

Abstract

Since the late 1960's, the term station (Goddard 1968), feeding station (Novellie 1978, Underwood 1982), and feeding site (Underwood 1983) have been used to describe the area in front of a foraging animal in which it can access forage without moving its front legs. The area is a hypothecial semicircle in front of the grazing animal, but the vegetation actually impacted by defoliation may be considered a "grazed patch," which may be the sum of several feeding stations. As animals graze the vegetation in an area, grazed patches are created. Presently, it is undocumented if such patches influence the behavior of grazing animals during subsequent grazing events. A pilot study was therefore conducted to explore the effect of grazed patches on grazing distribution. The purpose of the study was to determine if cattle remove more phytomass from patches of grazed vegetation in a relatively homogeneous environment (in terms of species composition, topography, soils, and climate).

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