Effect of winter grazing date on yield components of Lolium perenne (L.)/Trifolium repens (L.) hill pasture

Perennial ryegrass/white clover pastures were grazed at different times in the winter to study the effect of time of grazing on subsequent plant growth. In 1983–84, 1984–85, and 1985–86, pastures were grazed to a residual of 400 kg dry matter ha-1 by sheep once in early December (D), January (J), February (F), March (M), or April (A) and compared with an ungrazed control (C). Rates of herbage accumulation on C in the winter were low, averaging 6, -9, and 2 kg dry matter ha-1 in December, January, and February, respectively. Little forage production occurred during the month immediately following winter grazing. Herbage accumulation rate then increased sufficiently to replace the forage removed from winter-grazed paddocks by early spring. By May, herbage mass on grazed treatments was similar to C except for D and A which averaged 20 and 47% less forage than C, respectively (P<0·01). Herbage accumulation rates of D were unique among winter grazing treatments in never exceeding those of C. By May 1986, D yielded less perennial ryegrass compared with C (P<0·05). Grazing reduced the number of leaves per ryegrass tiller for 1 to 2 months following grazing. By May, J, F and M had numerically more tillers m-2 and more leaves per tiller than C. Similar May yields of J, F, M, and C resulted from fewer but larger and slightly less leafy tillers of ungrazed compared with winter grazed plants.

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