Impacts of strategic grazing on herbage accumulation and nutritive value of naturalised hill pasture

摘要

Steep hill country is an important part of the landscape in southern Australia.Despite lower productivity, this land plays a critical role in controlling recharge, water and nutrient runoff and soil erosion.A major problem in steep hill country is overgrazing on hilltops, which leads to poor groundcover by perennial pasture species and dominance of annuals in winter and spring.Restoration of perennial pastures including perennial native grasses that are well adapted to Australian environment is the key to improve the sustainability and profitability of the farming systems.Previously Nie et al.(2005 ) revealed that a series of strategic grazing strategies can increase perennial grass population by 30% ～ 47%, and groundcover up to 90% in summer/autumn.This paper reports the effects of strategic grazing on pasture production and nutritive value.