Comparison of the rate of pasture wastage by cattle and sheep in a grazing field

Pasture wastage could happen when practicing a grazing management system for ruminants like cattle and sheep. When sent for grazing, animals tend to defecate and trample on pastures which results in them not wanting to touch those spots again. The rate of this wastage needs to be studied. The farms which are practicing a strict rotational grazing system, the Veterinary Institute of Malaysia in Kluang,Johor and Pusat Ternakan Haiwan in Air Hitam, Johor were chosen for this study; to compare and determine the rate of pasture wastage between sheep and cattle as well as to verify the commonly used figure of 60% to be deducted as the wastage in estimating utilizable forage in a paddock. Five quadrat samples of pastures were randomly taken from each paddock for each round of grazing of both cattle and sheep, the day before animals were allowed to be let in for grazing and again taken the day after grazing. This determined the amount of grass available to be grazed and percentage of pasture wastage by the group of animals, assumed by the amount that was not grazed. All grass samples before grazing and after grazing were sent to the laboratory for dry matter (DM) determination. The results showed that there was no difference in percentage of pasture wastage by cattle and sheep. This was despite previous results which tended to show that wastage by cattle was higher than that of sheep by quite a big margin, with values of 80.74% and 67.67% respectively. This preliminary study to measure rate of pasture wastage had only five sample numbers with only five grazing groups for each species of cattle and sheep. This small sample number could have contributed to the non-significant results obtained. As the results tended to show a higher rate of wastage by cattle than sheep, the commonly used figure of 60% wastage in estimating utilizable forage was thus acceptable. Behavior of cattle in grazing pattern was the more 62 / J. Agrobiotech, 6, 2015, p. X-XX. likely cause of the wastage of pasture compared to sheep’s behavior in grazing as well as the different physical size between cattle and sheep. The grazing management system practiced by farms which included grazing period and quality of forages available in one paddock area were considered in determining the rate of pasture wastage.