Spörndly, Eva
- Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
The aim was to develop grazing regimes that combined the preservation of biodiversity in semi-natural grasslands with maintained animal production in circumstances where, in the future, there might be a shortage of grazing animals. A long-term multidisciplinary experiment was started to compare a conventional grazing regime with two alternatives, one in which fewer animals maintain the same area of grassland (grazing every second year), and other that promotes biodiversity of late-flowering species (late grazing). Three experimental years have been completed with the three grazing regimes using 23-29 steers. The weight gains of animals during the first two experimental years were similar in the three treatment groups, between 0.59 and 0.64 kg animal-1 day-1, but a lower weight gain of 0.47 kg animal?1 day?1 was observed in the late grazing group during the third year.
Keywords
semi-natural pastures; grazing; cattle; preference
Published in
Grassland Science in Europe
2004, volume: 9, number: 9, pages: 593-595
Title: Land use systems in grassland dominated regions. Proceedings of the 20th General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation
SLU Authors
UKÄ Subject classification
Animal and Dairy Science
Veterinary Science
Publication identifier
- ISBN: 3-7281-2940-2
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/4403