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The development of a model to assess the effects of rabbit grazing on grass
Author(s) -
DENDY JULIE,
MCKILLOP GORDON,
FOX SUE,
WESTERN GAVIN,
LANGTON STEVE
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
annals of applied biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1744-7348
pISSN - 0003-4746
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7348.2003.tb00256.x
Subject(s) - biology , grazing , crop , rabbit (cipher) , yield (engineering) , population , silage , agronomy , zoology , toxicology , mathematics , demography , statistics , materials science , sociology , metallurgy
Summary Grass for use as silage is widely grown in the UK. However there is little information on the effects of rabbit grazing on crop yield. In a three‐year trial, grass was grown in six enclosures following current agronomic procedures and was subjected to grazing by two population densities of rabbits. The annual yield loss at the end of the trial was found to be 1% per rabbit ha −1 . The yield loss per rabbit was calculated to be around 200 kg and the financial loss was calculated as £3.40 per rabbit at 1998 prices (approx. £17 t −1 ). This new information provides farmers with a better understanding of the economics of damage caused by rabbits enabling them to make more informed decisions as to whether their rabbit population needs to be managed, or whether their crop needs to be protected by some other means.