Animal and pasture responses in contrasting temperate pasture-based cattle management systems: set-stocking versus cell grazing
Abstract
Grasslands cover a significant portion of the Earth's land and offer many benefits. In the UK, they constitute the largest agricultural area and support livestock production. Traditional set-stocking (SS) and continuous grazing methods allow animals to selectively graze more palatable and nutritious plant parts and species, boosting individual animal productivity in the short term but can be detrimental to long-term pasture productivity. Cell grazing (CG), an intensive rotational system, is proposed as an alternative that can enhance system productivity and profitability through increased pasture production, utilisation, and stocking rates; with potential to optimise natural resource use (e.g., land) and mitigate environmental impacts (e.g., soil carbon sequestration). A 4-year study at Rothamsted Research's North Wyke site in southwest England compared animal and pasture responses under SS and CG stocking methods using a split-block design with three replicates (enclosures) per treatment. The SS enclosures (1.5-1.75 ha) were continuously grazed with fixed stocking rates, and CG enclosures (1.0 ha) were rotationally grazed with flexible daily grazing area allocations and stocking rates. Grazing occurred from spring to autumn, using two cohorts of autumn-born dairy × beef steers, each grazed for 2 years before slaughter. Measurements included standing herbage mass (weekly), herbage chemical composition (fortnightly), steer liveweight (monthly), and botanical composition…
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