Rotational and continuous grazing of sheep in the Inner Mongolian steppe of China

摘要

The Inner Mongolia steppe of China is traditionally used for grazing.In the last three decades overgrazing by sheep led to a sparse cover of vegetation in winter that enables soil erosion and hence degradation of the grassland,which may be influenced by grazing system.The objective of this study‐which is part of the Sino‐German DFG research cooperation MAGIM‐ was to investigate the effects of rotational and continuous grazing on chemical composition of herbage,herbage mass ( HM),feed intake and digestibility,and live weight gain (LWG) of sheep grazing at a moderate stocking rate of 4.5 sheep/ha on the Inner Mongolian steppe of China.