Strategy for the Nutritional Management of Cattle Grazing in Native Grasslands in Japan
2009
Yayota, Masato, Gifu University, Gifu, Japan | Nakano, Miwa, National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science, Tochigi, Japan | Ohtani, Shigeru, Gifu University, Gifu, Japan
Over the last four decades, cattle production on native grasslands in Japan has seen a sharp decline, being replaced by a confined production system. However, the confined system has been confronted with the risk of variability in the market price of grain feed. Today, we need to reconstruct the animal production system using native grasslands as an alternative to the current confined system. In the nutritional management of grazing cattle, we are facing the following four issues: (1) monitoring the spatiotemporal variability of forage quantity and quality, (2) estimating the nutritional intake with forage selection by cattle, (3) determining the digestive characteristics of native forage, and (4) calculating the energy expenditure and demands of grazing activity. The application of recent technological advances such as satellite remote sensing techniques, GIS/GPS, behavior-monitoring devices and the n-alkane technique is helping to overcome these issues and provide information on the status of forage resources and cattle nutrition. For practical use, we need to integrate these technological applications on a systematic basis.
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