Sward structure and foraging behaviour of cattle grazing reproductive tropical pastures

摘要

The rate of nutrient intake ( RNI) is an important determinant of animal performance for grazing animals that depends on diet quality and instantaneous intake rate ( IIR).In turn, diet quality and IIR are the outcome of the interaction between animal size and structure of the sward.Stems can be a dominant component of reproductive tropical pastures.The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that foraging behaviour of younger/smaller steers would be less affected by the increase in the physical strength and density of stems compared to older/larger cattle, which are less able to be selective while foraging.