Displacement patterns and herbage capture by steers in Italian ryegrass and Black oat pastures managed under different heights in integrated crop-livestock system

This experiment was aimed to evaluate the grazing strategies of steers in Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) and black oat (Avena strigosa Schreb.) pastures managed with four sward heights, 10, 20, 30 and 40 cm. The hypothesis that different sward heights could determine variations on the displacement patterns and herbage capture by grazing animals, with potential impacts in a crop-livestock system was tested. The treatments (sward heights) were distributed in a randomized block design with three replicates. Diurnal evaluations were performed by visual assessment in three periods, two of them in the vegetative stage and the one in the reproductive stage. Results indicated that decreases in the sward height were related to the increased stocking rate, resulting in lower herbage mass and leaf blade mass. In this limited condition, animals increased the bite rate, the number of bites per feeding station, the total number of bites, the number of visited feeding stations and decreased the time spent per feeding station. This response pattern resulted in lower displacement among feeding stations; however, the total displacement observed was greater. The animals changed their herbage capture and displacement patterns in response to sward heights, where limited herbage availability could impact the crop-livestock system.