Relationships between daily herbage intake of grazing cattle with daily herbage allowance and leafiness

Okajima, T.; Kamijoh, T.; Yokota, H.; Ohshima, M.

doi:1996.9.5.577

Article

Ruminant Nutrition and Forage Utilization

Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences 1996;9(5): 577-582.
https://doi.org/10.5713/ajas.1996.577 Published online October 1, 1996.

Relationships between daily herbage intake of grazing cattle with daily herbage allowance and leafiness

T. Okajima, T. Kamijoh, H. Yokota, M. Ohshima

Abstract

In order to investigate the relationship between daily herbage allowance(DHA) and daily herbage intake(DHI) on the points of leaf and stem masses, grazing experiments were carried out on the pasture of tall fescue(Festuca arundinacea Schreb.). The experiments consisted of four 3-days` grazing periods which were from August 14 to 17, August 17 to 20, October 12 to 15 and October 15 to 18 in 1990. The value of DHA was 32.1 to 84.3, and the value of DHI was 9.9 to 27.0. The index of leafiness(leaf to stem ratio, LSR) was 0.74 to 3.06. The relationship between DHI and DHA was quadratic. Both relationship of daily leaf intake(DLI) to daily leaf allowance(DLA) and that of daily stem intake(DSI) to daily stem allowance(DSA) were likely to be asymptotic forms, although DHI did not show any significant relationships to DLA nor to DSA. The relationship between DLI and LSR was quadratic, and a negative relationship was found between DSI and LSR. From the relationship of DLI to LSR and that of DSI to LSR, the relationship of daily intake of leaf and stem (DLSI) to LSR was derived as quadratic and the LSR value at which the maximum DLSI was attained was estimated. The DHA, DHI, DLA, DLI, DSA, DSI and DLAI were expressed as the same unit of g/kg live body weight/day.

Keywords: Cattle; Daily Herbage Allowance; Daily Herbage Intake; Festuca arundinacea Schreb. Grazing; Leafiness