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Cattle weight gains, diet botanical composition, and diet quality on a riparian meadow range in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon were evaluated in the late summer and fall in 1976, 1977, and 1978. Pregnant yearling heifers were used to evaluate livestock performance. Esophageally fistulated cows were used to evaluate diet botanical composition and diet quality. Cattle diets showed little difference in botanical composition between periods or years. Grasses comprised an average of 80% of the diet during the 3 year period. Kentucky bluegrass (Pm prutensis) was the most important grass in cattle diets and had the highest percent cover on the study pastures. Cattle diet quality showed little change within or between years. Crude protein concentrations appeared adequate for cattle to gain .5 kg per day. However, estimated digestible energy concentrations averaged only 80% of that recommended by the NRC. Daily gains were erratic between and within years averaging .41 kg for the 3 years. Average daily gains on the meadow were better than or equal to those reported in other studies for upland and upland and meadow pastures at the Starkey Range for the same periods. Separate fencing and deferred grazing of mountain meadows could improve cattle performance and aid ranchers in gathering cattle at the end of the grazing season. In addition deferred grazing should result in pasture improvement and provide better habitat for nesting birds. The primary disadvantage of deferred use of meadows would be the cost of fencing. performance has not been reported. The objectives of our study were to determine the botanical composition and nutritive value of the diet aud cattle weight gains on a riparian mountain meadow in the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon. Experimental Site and Procedures The study site was located on the Starkey Experimental Range and Forest 48 km southwest of La Grande, Ore. Moderately deep canyon drainages separating broad rolling uplands characterize the topography of the Starkey Range. Elevations range from 1,080 to 1,525 m. A description of the soils of the study area is given by Strickler (1966). The average annual precipitation is approximately 53 cm and comes as snow and rainfall in the winter and spring. There is sufficient summer rainfall to result in fall regrowth in approximately one year out of two. Precipitation at Starkey in 1976, 1977, and 1978 is presented in Table 1. Riparian mountain meadows are a highly productive and important forage resource in many parts of the western United States. These areas are of particular value to the public from the standpoint of water and recreation. They also provide important fish and wildlife habitat. A rapidly increasing demand for the previously mentioned products dictates that riparian mountain meadows must be managed more intensively in the future than in the past. Under season long grazing riparian mountain meadows often receive excessive use even under light or moderate stocking rates because they are situated in low, flat areas with abundant forage and water (Roath et al. 1982). One way of eliminating this problem is separate fencing of riparian mountain meadows from surrounding uplands. A recent study by Kauffman et al. (1982) shows that delayed grazing of riparian meadows may reduce or eliminate adverse impacts of grazing on nongame wildlife. Restriction of livestock to upland areas in the early part of the grazing season would allow deferment of riparian mountain meadows and should result in subsequent improvement in their condition. This could also aid in gathering livestock at the end of the grazing season as livestock would be concentrated on accessible terrain. The effect of deferred grazing of riparian mountain meadows on cattle diet and Two IO-ha pastures having the same grazing history were established in 1975. Vegetation composition and structure of the pastures was nearly identical. Vegetation of the pastures is quite diverse and typical of riparian meadows in the Blue Mountains (Ganskopp 1978). As the result of disturbance most of the original vegetation has been severely altered. Many of the riparian meadows have been reseeded to introduced pasture grasses one or more times. Kentucky bluegrass (Poaprutensis) presently dominates the understory of many of the meadows. Under pristine conditions tufted hairgrass (Deschampsia caespitosa) was the dominant grass. Dominant forbs on the meadows include cinquefoil (Potentiflu sp.) and western yarrow (Achilles millefolium lanulosa). Both of these forbs are increasers and cinquefoil is particularly unpalatable to cattle (Pickford and Reid 1948). A variety of shrubs is found in the meadows although common snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) and black hawthorn (Crataegus douglasii) predominate. Common snowberry is an important forage species for cattle in the Blue Mountains but black hawthorn receives little or no use. Most of the species on the study area were perennials; thus, only slight variations were found in species composition among years. Cover data were pooled across pastures because the vegetation composition of the two pastures was similar (Table 2). Table 1. Precipitation in cm at the Starkey Experimental Range and Forest. Month 25 year X 1976 1977 1978 January 6.48 6.86 I .02 5.08 February 4.27 2.29 2.54 4.06 March 4.57 2.54 2.11 3.56 April 4.42 5.08 2.79 6.68 May 5.44 4.39 4.80 4.0 I June 4.72 3.71 1.83 3.12 July 1.57 .05 .I3 2.54 August 2.01 6.86 7.42 3.43 September 2.72 3.71 9.42 4.11 October 4.52 2.67 3.76 7.1 I November 5.66 4.06 7.75 4.06 December 6.68 0.00 9.40 3.20 Total 53.06 42.22 52.97 50.96 Authors are, respectively, graduate research assistant; associate professor, rangeland resources, OSU, EasternOregon Agricultural ResearchCenter, Union; professor and project leader, USDA Range and Wildlife Habitat Laboratory, La Gra?de. J.L. Holechek is currently assistant professor of range ecology, Department of Ammal and Range Sciences, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces 88003. This report IS Oregon State Agricultural Experiment Statlo” Technical Paper Number 6313. This research was jointly funded by the Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center, Oregon State University and the Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, United States Forest Service, USDq. and was part ofthe PNWFRES Project 1701 entitled, “The influence of cattle grazmg methods and big game on riparian vegetation, aquatic habitat and fish populations.” JOURNAL OF RANGE MANAGEMENT XI(~), November 1962 745 Table 2. Percent cover pooled by pastures of the primary forage species and their contribution by percent weight toattle dietspooled by grazing periods and years. Pasture cover data are from Ganskopp (1978). Percent Percent Species cover in diet Kentucky bluegrass (Poo prurensis) 21 12 Sheep fescue (Festuca ovina) 6 8 Small fruited bulrush (Scirpus microcorpus) 5 8 Spike bentgrass (Agrosris exarara) 2 8 Timothy (Phleum protense) 4 4 Meadow foxtail (Alopecurus prarensis) 4 5 Mountain brome (Bromus carinarus) 2 3 Idaho fescue (Festuca idahoensis) 4 8 Sedge (Carex sp.) 6 5 Rush (Juncus sp.) 5 3 Other grasses and grasslikes 8 16 Total grasses and grasslikes 67 80 Western yarrow (Achilles millefolium lanulosa) 2 2 Clover (Trifolium sp.) 1 2 Cinquefoil (Potentilla sp.) 6 0 Other forbs 4 8 Total forbs 13 12 Common snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) 8 6 Black hawthorn (Croraegus sp.) 5 0 Willow (Salix sp.) <I 0 Saskatoon serviceberry (Amelanchier aln~olia) I T Wax currant (Ribes cereum) I T Baldhip rose (Rosa gymnocarpa) 1 T Other shrubs 3 1 Total shrubs 20 8 The two study pastures were adjacent to each other and enclosed with a 4-strand barb wire fence. Meadow Creek bisected each pasture. Cattle were grazed on the pastures from August 16 to October IO in 1976, 1977, and 1978. The grazing season was divided into two 28-day periods which extended from August 16 to September 12 (late summer) and September 13 to October 10 (fall). The cattle were grazed the first 28 days on one pasture and then rotated to the other. Under this strategy each pasture was grazed in the late summer every other year. Three esophageally fistulated cows were used to collect diet samples in all 3 years of study. In addition, 1 I head of pregnant yearling heifers were grazed on the pastures. A moderate stocking rate was assigned after criteria developed by Skovlin et al. (1976). The performance of the 1 I heifers on the pastures was evaluated by weighing without shrink at the onset of grazing and theend of each 28-day grazing period. Every other week 2 collections were made with the fistulated animals. Fistulated cows were grazed continuously on the pasture under study in all periods. Two samples were collected from each cow on the same week on a biweekly basis. The collection procedure involved grazing the fistulated cows to various parts of the pasture and allowing them to graze freely until at least 1 kg of grazed forage was acquired. Esophageal fistula samples were dried in a forced air over at 400 C for 7 days and then ground through a I-mm screen. Crude protein was determined by the Kjedahl technique to include nitrates. In vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) was determined by a modification of the Tilley and Terry (1963) technique (Vavra et al. 1973). Acid detergent fiber (ADF) and lignin were determined by the permanganate method of Van Soest and Wine (1968). Digestible energy (DE) values were predicted from IVOMD using the following regression equation developed by Rittenhouse et al. (1971): Meal DE/kg DM = .039 (OMD) -.10. The microhistological technique of Sparks and Malechek (1968) was used in botanical analysis of diet samples. Twenty microscope fields on each of 3 slides were examined at 100X for each sample. A completely randomized design and a standard F-test were used for all statistical comparisons. Covariance analysis was used to determine the relationship among initial weights at the beginning of each period

Cattle Diet and Daily Gains on a Mountain Riparian Meadow in Northeastern Oregon