Evaluation of Herbage for Grazing

Abstract

IN the numerous published accounts of digestibility trials with cut herbage, the assumption has been made¹ that the herbage fed represents that which grazing animals would eat. It is known, however, that animals select grass and clover leaf in preference to stem when grazing^2,3 ; these are the more nutritious constituents of the sward, so that by feeding the whole cut from the sward, the nutritive value of the portion stock would eat in the field is underestimated. Thus we need to measure the feeding value of a portion of the sward that we cannot actually analyse, namely, that taken off by the grazing animal. This problem is being investigated at the Grassland Improvement Station.