Foraging strategy of cattle in patchy grassland

Area of Science:

• Animal Behavior
• Ecology
• Grazing Management

Background:

• Grazing herbivores exhibit diverse foraging strategies in heterogeneous environments.
• Understanding patch selection is crucial for optimizing livestock nutrition and pasture utilization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate cattle patch selection strategies in relation to energy intake.
• To evaluate different hypotheses explaining foraging behavior in patchy grasslands.

Main Methods:

• Cattle foraging behavior was observed over two years in different grassland types.
• Bite counts, bite size, and forage digestibility were analyzed across vegetation patches (short, tall, stemmy).
• Four foraging strategy hypotheses were tested against observed patch selection.

Main Results:

• Cattle consistently selected short and tall grass patches over stemmy ones.
• Patch selection was better explained by random grazing time allocation than bite allocation.
• Digestibility influenced patch selection, but not as strongly as predicted by intake rate maximization models.

Conclusions:

• Cattle foraging selectivity aligns with daily energy maximization, constrained by search and discrimination costs.
• Flexible selection of short/tall patches and avoidance of stemmy patches is an effective strategy in complex environments.