The use of faecal NIRS to monitor diet quality different grazing systems in tropical savannas

摘要

Nutrition is the major factor influencing animal production in grazing systems, however it is very difficult to monitor in extensive systems.This is especially so in northern Australia which has distinct wet and dry seasons,large paddocks with highly heterogeneous pastures and the likelihood for selective grazing.Faecal NIRS is one method to monitor diet quality in these extensive systems (Givens et al.,1997).Here we present data that illustrates the considerable seasonal differences in nutrition across four different grazing systems and discuss this in relation to collection methods and inter‐animal variation that occurs.