Projects:    Livestock

  
 

 


Long-term cow-calf receipts for the mesquite rangelands of Texas alone are in excess of $200 million annually. Our preliminary pasture-scale research indicates that use of sustainable grazing strategies with fire to manage brush could increase livestock productivity and profitability up to 20%. Thinning dense brush can improve livestock productivity, wildlife habitat, biodiversity and the production of clean water, and reduce soil loss.

 Research was initiated to determine the impacts of fire and rotational grazing on nutrient acquisition. Composited herd fecal samples have been collected at weekly to bi-weekly intervals from the Continuous, 4 pasture-1herd, and 8 pasture-1herd treatments in the summer of 1998 and from November 1998 to present. Samples were analyzed by near infra-red spectroscopy to estimate diet protein content and digestibility. Unlike earlier research, we have not detected a consistent increase in diet protein concentration associated with rotational grazing. Growing season diet quality has a tendency to be greater in 8 pasture-1herd systems. During fall and winter diet quality tended to be lower in both rotation treatments than in the continuous herds. Use of prescribed burning increased diet quality in the spring and summer periods. Fall and winter diets tended to be lower in protein as a result of burning. Seasonal dietary response differentials to burning are similar to those documented for grasses in a companion study.

The average livestock production for 1998-2001 for each treatment was:
Continuous grazing                14.0 kg/ha
4-pasture-1-herd-herbicide     13.8 kg/ha (Before 1998 was 4p-3-herd)
4-pasture-1-herd-burn             15.1 kg/ha
8-pasture-1-herd-burn             15.7 kg/ha