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Superintendent
David Davis
21262 Genoa Road
Linneus, MO 64653
Phone: 660 895-5121
FAX: 660 895=5122
Email: DavisDK@missouri.edu

Reseach Approach

Research approach:Pasture grasses were predominantly endophyte-free tall fescue, orchardgrass, and Kentucky bluegrass, with lesser amounts of timothy, red top, and reed canarygrass. Several pastures contained a small remnant population of big bluestem and switchgrass. In the spring of 1994, the entire area was overseeded with red clover and birdsfoot trefoil. Annual lespedeza and white clover were also seasonally present in most fields. Sixteen 10 acre pastures were used in the study to provide two blocks of each treatment in a randomized complete block design with split-plot assignment of treatments. Eight pastures had been in established tall fescue for 16 years and eight were no-till seeded to tall fescue in the spring of 1994. Blocking was on the basis of the age of fescue stand. Within each block, pastures were randomly assigned a stocking rate and then spilt to either continuous or rotational stocking treatments. Rotational grazing cells consisted of 12 equal sized paddocks constructed with temporary fence. Stocking rates of 300, 600, 900, or 1200 lb liveweight per acre at turnout were utilized with grazing by yearling steers with a starting weight of approximately 550 lb/head. Steers were stratified by herd origin and weight and then assigned to treatments randomly from each by group.

Beginning and ending dates for each year and each stocking rate are given in Table 1. All treatments began grazing on the same date in 1996. In all subsequent years, initiation of grazing was staggered to reflect the relative amounts of forage residual resulting from the different stocking rates. Termination of grazing was on the same date for all treatments within each year with the exception of one block of continuous grazing at 1200 lb/acre stocking in 2000 which was terminated on August 2. At the beginning of the study, a criteria was set for early removal of livestock from any treatment. If the test animals lost weight during two consecutive 21-day periods, that treatment group would be removed from the study. Cattle were weighed unshrunk on two successive days at the beginning and end of the study and were weighed unshrunk at 21 day intervals in between. While various groups of cattle exhibited weight loss for a single 21-day period on several occasions through the study period, only the one group in 2000 exhibited weight loss in two successive periods. Cattle were dewormed at the beginning of each grazing season. They were not implanted or fed any supplemental feed. Salt blocks were available to the cattle at most times.

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