Purple threeawn (Aristida purpurea Nutt.) is a native bunch grass that is avoided by grazers. It is capable of dominating old cropland and overgrazed pastures, limiting livestock carrying capacity, and degrading wildlife habitat. Traditional management tools have had little impact on threeawn dominance in semiarid regions of the west. Our objectives were to: 1) assess fire and nitrogen treatment effects on threeawn forage quality at various phenological stages to test their potential as pretreatments in a grazing strategy and 2) examine a threeawn-dominated plant community’s response to prescribed fire, nitrogen addition, and clipping. Fire improved threeawn forage quality with greater improvements in early phenological stages. Nitrogen had little effect on forage quality. Fire and nitrogen reduced threeawn while increasing cool season grasses. Light and moderate clipping following fire did not improve the efficacy of fire. Fire appears to an effective preliminary treatment to improve the chance of herbivory.

Hard Red Winter (HRW) and Soft Red Winter (HRW) wheat classes (Triticum aestivum L.) and oat (Avena sativa L.) are commonly established as a source of winter and spring forage for cattle grazing in many regions of Texas and the U.S. Southern Great Plains. Small grains used in these grazed systems offer the flexibility of management for season long forage production or production of both forage and grain (dual-purpose). Many commercially available and experimental cultivars are continually evaluated on their ability to produce grain, but little yield data is available on wheat and oats under dual-purpose management systems. In forage production systems, soil fertility management is also an integral component in meeting specific yield goals that producers depend upon to sustain adequate animal performance. Current nitrogen (N) recommendations in Texas are based on heavy, moderate, and light levels of grazing. To address these issues, two-year studies were initiated at three locations in Central Texas. The objectives of these studies were; (1) to evaluate thirty wheat and ten oat cultivars based on forage production and grain yield to identify those best suited to dual-purpose management; (2) to determine winter wheat forage yield potential at varying levels of N fertility; and (3) to evaluate five minimally invasive and non-destructive methods of quantifying forage yield. Results from dual-purpose cultivar evaluations included significant differences in forage yield, nutritive value, and grain yield between cultivars and species. Overall, oat produced less forage than either class of wheat, but Mg content was generally higher in oat. For grain production, SRW performed better under irrigation, but in dryland situations both wheat classes performed equally. We also found that pre-plant N fertilizer significantly reduced stand establishment in dry environments. The 67 kg ha-1 pre-plant N and the 45 kg ha-1 top-dress rates produced the highest forage yield. Nutritive value generally increased as N application rate increased, even when no yield increase was observed. Hand clipping and canopy height both correlated very well with full plot harvest and visual ratings and NDVI had moderate relationships with full plot harvest. The relationship between ground cover and dry matter yield was variable and only weakly correlated.

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No. of bitstreams: 1 spasiani_pp_me_jabo.pdf: 1094137 bytes, checksum: 1880f9b0c1c104145166d750bbad626e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-24 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Esse estudo teve como objetivo identificar e quantificar as diferenças na emissão de metano, consumo e digestibilidade aparente de ovinos mantidos em pastos de capim-massai (Panicum maximum x Panicum infestum) em sistema silvipastoril sob lotação intermitente com diferentes espaçamentos arbóreos. O experimento foi conduzido no setor de Forragicultura e Pastagens da FCAV, UNESP Jaboticabal, SP, no período de janeiro a julho de 2015. Os tratamentos foram constituídos de dois espaçamentos entre árvores de eucalipto (Eucalyptus urophylla x Eucalyptus grandis) (6,0m x 1,5m e 12,0m x 1,5m) em sistema silvipastoril (E6 e E12, respectivamente), e um tratamento que permaneceu sem árvores (SA). Foram utilizados ovinos adultos, manejados sob lotação intermitente. Como critério de entrada dos animais no pasto, foi utilizada a medida de 95% de interceptação luminosa do capim-massai. Como critério de saída, foi utilizada a altura de 20 cm da planta forrageira. O delineamento experimental foi inteiramente casualizado, com três tratamentos (arranjos arbóreos) e seis repetições (piquetes) no caso das variáveis de altura e massa do capim-massai e cinco repetições (animais) das variáveis de digestibilidade, consumo e emissão de metano (CH4). Os pastos foram avaliados em épocas do ano (águas e seca). Foi realizada a análise de contrastes ortogonais (1º e 2º graus) para os ciclos de pastejo e teste de médias Tukey para espaçamentos arbóreos (α=5%). Houve diferença significativa (p<0,05) entre os tratamentos para altura do dossel forrageiro, relação entre massa seca de forragem verde:morta e massa seca de forragem do pré e pós pastejo nos três ciclos, sendo o tratamento E6 o que apresentou os menores (p<0,05) valores em relação aos demais tratamentos. Houve interação significativa (p<0,05) entre os ciclos de pastejo e espaçamentos arbóreos para as médias de digestibilidade aparente da matéria seca (DMS). As médias de DMS do ciclo de julho foram maiores (p<0,05) do que as do ciclo de março. No ciclo de julho as médias de DMS variaram entre os espaçamentos arbóreos sendo no tratamento SA maiores (p<0,05) que o tratamento E6. Houve interação significativa (p<0,05) entre os ciclos de pastejo e espaçamentos arbóreos para as médias de consumo de forragem e de energia. O consumo de matéria seca (CMS) foi maior no ciclo de pastejo de julho. Houve diferença significativa (p<0,05) entre os espaçamentos arbóreos somente nas médias de CMS, consumo de energia bruta (CEB) e consumo de energia digestível (CED) do ciclo de pastejo de julho, onde o tratamento SA apresentou maiores (p<0,05) médias em relação ao tratamento E6. Houve interação significativa (p<0,05) entre os ciclos de pastejo e espaçamentos arbóreos nas médias de emissão de CH4 pelos animais por dia e por ano (CH4dia e CH4ano). No ciclo de pastejo de julho, as médias de CH4dia e CH4ano foram maiores (p<0,05) em comparação com as médias de março. As variáveis de emissão de CH4 por unidade de consumo apresentaram diferenças significativas apenas para ciclo de pastejo, onde julho apresentou menores (p<0,05) valores de emissão e CH4 por kg de matéria seca consumida, por energia bruta consumida e por energia digestível consumida, quando comparado às emissões do ciclo de pastejo de março. / This study aimed to identify and quantify the differences in methane (CH4) emission, intake and apparent digestibility of sheep kept in massaigrass pastures (Panicum maximum x Panicum infestum) in silvopastoral system under intermittent stocking with different arboreal spacings. The experiment was conducted at the Forage and Pastures sector of FCAV, UNESP Jaboticabal, SP, from January to July 2015. The treatments consisted of two spacings between eucalyptus trees (Eucalyptus urophylla x Eucalyptus grandis) (6,0m x 1,5m and 12,0m x 1,5m) in silvopastoral system (E6 and E12, respectively), and a treatment that remained treeless (TL). Adult sheep, managed under intermittent stocking were used. As animals enter criteria in the pasture was used to measure 95% light interception of massaigrass. As exit criteria, it used the height of 20 cm of the forage plant. The experimental design was completely randomized with three treatments (arboreal arrangements) and six replicates (paddocks) in the case of height and mass variables of the massaigrass and 5 repetitions (animals) of digestibility variables, intake and emission of methane (CH4). The pastures were evaluated in a year (water and dry seasons). The analysis of orthogonal contrasts was held (1st and 2nd degree) for grazing cycles and Tukey test for arboreal spacings (α = 5%). There was a significant difference (p <0.05) between treatments for sward height, ratio of dry matter forage: dead, dry herbage mass of pre and post grazing in the three cycles, the E6 treatment which presented the lower (p <0.05) values than the other treatments. There was a significant interaction (p <0.05) between grazing cycles and arboreal spacings for the average apparent digestibility of dry matter (DDM). The average DDM July cycle were greater (p <0.05) than those of March cycle. In cycle July average DDM varied between arboreal spacings being larger TL treatment (p <0.05) than the E6 treatment. There was a significant interaction (p <0.05) between grazing cycles and arboreal spacings for the average forage and energy intake. The dry matter intake (DMI) was higher in July grazing cycle. There was a significant difference (p <0.05) between the arboreal spacings only in average DMI, gross energy intake (GEI) and digestible energy intake (DEI) of July grazing cycle, where treatment TL showed higher (p <0.05) averages for the E6 processing. There was a significant interaction (p <0.05) between cycles of grazing and arboreal spacings in average CH4 emission by animals per day and per year (CH4day and CH4year). In the grazing cycle of July, the average CH4day and CH4year were higher (p <0.05) compared with the averages for March. The CH4 emission variables per unit of intake showed significant differences only for grazing cycle, where July showed lower (p <0.05) emission and CH4 per kg of dry matter consumed by gross energy consumption and digestible energy consumed when compared to emissions of March grazing cycle.