Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-45l2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T07:12:29.843Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An analysis of cattle live-weight changes on tropical grass pasture during the dry and early wet seasons in northern Australia: 2. Relations to trends in the pasture, diet and grazing behaviour

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

R. L. McCown  and
R. W. McLean
R. L. McCown
Affiliation:
C.S.I.B.O. Division of Tropical Crops and Pastures, Davies Laboratory, P.M.B. P.O. Aitkenvale, Townsville, Queensland 4814, Australia
R. W. McLean
Affiliation:
C.S.I.R.O. Division of Tropical Crops and Pastures, Cunningham Laboratory, St Lucia, Queensland 4067, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Cattle grazing buffel grass pastures during the dry season at Katherine lose large amounts of live weight during a short period following first rain. In Part 1 we showed that these losses were due mainly to reduction in gut contents. Part 2 examines the changes in pasture, diet and grazing behaviour to assess the probable change in nutritional status of cattle following rain.

During the dry season the most valuable pasture component, green leaf, was very scarce and had a nitrogen concentration of about 1%. Diets of oesophageally-fistulated cattle contained less than 0·5% N. Shortly after first rain diet N doubled owing both to rapidly increasing amounts of green leaf and to the increase in N concentration in young leaf to over 3%. Although intake was not measured, literature is cited to show that this increase in dietary N would be expected to increase rumen digestion rates with a resultant marked increase in D.M. intake and a reduction in gut contents.

Although availability of high quality herbage increased very rapidly following first rain, a period of increased nutritional stress immediately following rain could not be ruled out. However, any such decline in nutrition appears to be short-lived.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 101 , Issue 1 , August 1983 , pp. 25 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Chacon, E. & Stobbs, T. H. (1976). Influence of progressive defoliation of a grass sward on the eating behaviour of cattle. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 27, 709–727.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denis, J. P., Blancou, J. & Thiongane, P. I. (1979). Crise pondérale des zébus sahéliens lore de l'installation dea premières pluies. Revue d'élevage etde Médedne Vétérinaire des Pays Tropicaux 32, 277–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Egan, A. R. (1965). Nutritional status and intake regulation in sheep. II. The influence of sustained duodenal infusions of casein or urea upon voluntary intake of low-protein roughages by sheep. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 16, 451–462.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardener, C. J. (1980). Diet selection and liveweight performance of steers on Stylosanthes hamata–native grass pastures. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 31, 379–392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, B. A. & Hall, D. G. (1975). Estimation of the botanical composition of oesophageal extrusa samples. 1. A modified microscope point technique. Journal of the British Grassland Society 30, 229–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ive, J. R. (1976). Simulating change in cattle liveweight during the transition period in a dry monsoonal climate. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 27, 297–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, A. D. & Simons, J. G. (1972). Direct reading emission spectroscopic analysis of plant tissue using a briquetting technique. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis 3, 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Little, D. A. & Takken, A. (1970). Preparation of oesophageal fistulae in cattle under local anaesthesia. Australian Veterinary Journal 46, 335–337.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lorimer, M. S. (1981). Forage selection studies. 2. Diet quality, liveweight change and wool production of sheep grazing Astrebla spp. pastures in N. W. Queensland. Tropical Grasslands 15, 183–192.Google Scholar
McCown, R. L., Wall, B. H. & Harrison, P. G. (1981). The influence of weather on the quality of tropical legume pasture during the dry season in northern Australia. I. Trends in sward structure and moulding of standing hay at three locations. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 32, 575–587.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McIntyre, G. A. (1952). A method for unbiased selective sampling, using ranked sets. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 3, 385–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLean, R. W., McCown, R. L., Little, D. A., Winter, W. H. & Dance, R. A. (1983). An analysis of cattle live-weight changes on tropical grass pasture during the dry and early wet seasons in northern Australia. 1. The nature of weight changes. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 101, 17–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milford, R. & Minson, D. J. (1966). Intake of tropical pasture species. Proceedings of the 9th International Grasslands Congress, Sao Paulo, pp. 815–822.Google Scholar
Minson, D. J. & McLeod, M. N. (1972). The in vitro technique: its modification for estimating digestibility of large numbers of tropical pasture samples. Technical Paper, Division of Tropical Pastures, C.S.I.R.O. Australia, No. 8.Google Scholar
Minson, D. J. & Milford, R. (1967). The voluntary intake and digestibility of diets containing different proportions of legume and mature pangola grass (Digitaria decumbens). Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture and Animal Husbandry 7, 546–551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norman, M. J. T. (1963). Dry season protein and energy supplements for beef cattle on native pastures at Katherine, N. T. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture and Animal Husbandry 3, 280–283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norman, M. J. T. (1967). The critical period for beef cattle grazing standing forage at Katherine. Journal of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science 33, 130–132.Google Scholar
Romero, V. A. & Murray, R. M. (1980). Effect of early storms on the diet selected by grazing cattle. Proceedings of the Australian Society of Animal Production 13, 465.Google Scholar
Siebert, B. D. & Kennedy, P. M. (1972). The utilization of speargrass (Heteropogon contortus). I. Factors limiting intake and utilization by cattle and sheep. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 23, 35–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stobbs, T. H. (1970). Automatic measurement of grazing time by dairy cows on tropical grass and legume pastures. Tropical Grasslands 4, 237–244.Google Scholar
Walker, B. (1969). Effects of feeding hay on the early wet season weight loss of cattle in western Tanzania. Experimental Agriculture 5, 53–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weston, R. H. (1967). Factors limiting the intake of feed by sheep. II. Studies with wheaten hay. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 18, 983–1002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar