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A new technique to describe canopy characteristics of grass swards with spatial distribution, dry‐matter digestibility and dry weight of small‐size canopy components
Author(s) -
HIRATA M.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
grass and forage science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.716
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1365-2494
pISSN - 0142-5242
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2494.1996.tb02055.x
Subject(s) - canopy , agronomy , grazing , spatial distribution , dry matter , environmental science , pasture , biology , mathematics , ecology , statistics
A new technique describing canopy characteristics of grass swards was developed In this technique, the sward canopy is regarded as a set of canopy components which are 2‐cm‐long segments of leaves and stems, and the spatial distribution, dry‐matter digestibility (DMD) and dry weight of the components are estimated. The technique was applied to a canopy of a bahia grass ( Paspalum notatum Flügge) pasture in spring, summer and autumn. The spatial distribution in terms of the quantity and quality of components within the canopy can be described as can the dry weights of material in different DMD classes. From these descriptions, some important canopy characteristics were highlighted that cannot be identified with other techniques. They were the variation in DMD within a canopy, the possible difficulty for animals in discriminating between the components within a prehension bite, and the reduction in summer in the proportion of highly digestible components. Because of the way in which the canopy characteristics were described and the importance of the canopy characteristics highlighted, the technique is considered to be of potential value for describing canopy characteristics in relation to sward‐animal interactions during grazing.