Abstract: Grazing intensity refers to the amount of quantitative animal demand for forage placed upon the standing crop forage or forage mass, and to the resulting level of defoliation made during grazing. After several years of research some grazing intensity studies were found to include no stocking rate that resulted in overgrazing; in other studies, the stocking rate labeled as light proved to be the best stocking rate included in the study. Overgrazing refers to continued heavy grazing, which exceeds the recovery capacity of the forage plants and creates deterioration of the grazing lands. Aggressive nonforage plants on the site can be expected to magnify the deleterious effects of heavy grazing on the desirable forage plants because of differential defoliation levels and enhanced competition. The deleterious effects of heavy grazing may merely be masked by a series of favorable rainfall years and remain mostly invisible until triggered by severe drought. Undergrazing or nonuse does not generally result in damage to rangelands, although opportunities to favorably manipulate plant composition may be foregone. Grazing intensity has direct effects on livestock performance levels and on long-term economic returns to animal enterprises primarily based on grazing.
Publication Year: 2001
Publication Date: 2001-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 2
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