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Effect of sward height and its clover vertical distribution on the performance of cashmere goats grazing perennial ryegrass/white clover swards during the autumn

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2021

M. del Pozo  and
K. Osoro
M. del Pozo
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigatión Aplicada y TecnologÃa Agroalimentaria, Apdo 13, 33300 Villaviciosa, Asturias, Spain
K. Osoro
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigatión Aplicada y TecnologÃa Agroalimentaria, Apdo 13, 33300 Villaviciosa, Asturias, Spain
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Extract

Previous trials performed in temperate sown swards from New Zealand (Clark et al, 1982), from UK (del Pozo and Wright, 1995) and from Spain (Osoro and Martinez, 1995) showed improvements of sward clover contents on grass/clover pastures grazed by goats during the early part of the grazing season. However, this phenomenon might not occur to the same extent during autumn due to clover's poorer competitiviness with ryegrass. Additionally, Merchant and Riach (1994) showed that cashmere goats required pastures with mean sward heights to be above 6 cm to achieve aceptable levels of performance but were not able to considerate the implications of the sward legume content on their liveweight changes. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of three contrasting sward height regimes and their associated relative changes in the vertical distribution of the sward clover proportion on the performance of cashmere goats grazing during the autumn season a lowland perennial ryegrass/white clover pasture located in Northern Spain.

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Programme
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science , Volume 1997 , 1997 , pp. 172
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1997

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References

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