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Grazing Time of Beef Steers on Permanent Pastures 1
Author(s) -
Hein M. A.
Publication year - 1935
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.2134/agronj1935.00021962002700080011x
Subject(s) - citation , grazing , agriculture , agricultural science , agronomy , political science , business , library science , computer science , geography , biology , archaeology
The method used was to keep a record of the time the animals actually spent in grazing during a continuous 24-hour period from 6 a. m. one day to 6 a. m. the following day. Records were taken every 15 minutes during this period. These data were collected for three 24-hour periods in 193I and in I932. In I93I the animals were so marked that it was possible to obtain data on the individual animals without disturbing their normal habits, but in 1932 this was not possible and the records were taken as a group for each pasture. Four pastures were located adjacent to each other and grazed with three lots of animals. Pasture A-I (light continuous grazing) contained 8 acres grazed at the rate of one animal to 2 acres,-A-2 (heavy continuous grazing) 5 acres with one animal per acre, while A-3 North and A-3 South (heavy alternate grazing) were 2 acres each with one animal per acre. The animals were long yearlings or short ~-year-old steers in thrifty condition and during the periods of collecting the data they were making an average daily gain from 0.75 to 2.00 pounds per head. In i93i , the pastures furnished an abundance of herbage, but in I932 a shortage of rainfall in the summer limited the grass growth after July, especially on the heavily grazed pastures.