Biodiverse semi-natural pastures are threatened because of sub-optimal grazing. The influence of breed on choice of foraging vegetation type, diet and hence pasture management was investigated in dairy cows kept on mountain pastures. Five dairy cows each of the traditional Swedish Mountain cattle breed and the commercial Holstein breed were equipped with GPS receivers measuring animal position for 6 h daily grazing time during 6 days. Plant groups in the ingested herbage were recorded visually for 30min per cow and day. The grazing area, mapped using infra-red aerial photography combined with field work, consisted of ten vegetation types dominated by bilberry forest (33%), mixed forest (28%) and grass and sedge fen (12%). Although grass-dominated pasture comprised only 0.3% of the area, the cows spent on average 27% of their time there. Swedish Mountain cows spent less time in grass-dominated pasture than Holsteins (24% vs. 31%) but more time in bilberry forest (21 vs. 13%). Swedish Mountain cattle also travelled longer distances during grazing (6.3 vs. 5.0 km). This limited study revealed a general selection of grass-dominated pasture, but indicated that using traditional breeds can result in better management of other vegetation types.
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