scholarly journals Improvement of Native Pasture Productivity through Introduction of Various Types of Palatable Species on Dry Lands in Timor

Author(s):  
Bernadete Barek Koten ◽  
Redempta Wea ◽  
Agustinus Semang ◽  
Johanis Jermias ◽  
Victor Lenda
2010 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 276 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. Hendricksen ◽  
D. J. Myles ◽  
D. J. Reid ◽  
D. M. Orr

The diet selected in autumn by steers fistulated at the oesophageous was studied in a subset of treatments in an extensive grazing study conducted in a Heteropogon contortus pasture in central Queensland between 1988 and 2001. These treatments were a factorial array of three stocking rates (4, 3 and 2 ha/steer) and three pasture types (native pasture, legume-oversown native pasture and animal diet supplement/spring-burning native pasture). Seasonal rainfall throughout this study was below the long-term mean and mean annual pasture utilisation ranged from 30 to 61%. Steers consistently selected H. contortus with levels decreasing from 47 to 18% of the diet as stocking rate increased from 4 ha/steer to 2 ha/steer. Stylosanthes scabra cv. Seca was always selected in legume-oversown pastures with diet composition varying from 35 to 66% despite its plant density increasing from 7 to 65 plants/m2 and pasture composition from 20 to 50%. Steers also selected a diet containing Chrysopogon fallax, forbs and sedges in higher proportions than they were present in the pasture. Greater availability of the intermediate grasses Chloris divaricata and Eragrostis spp. was associated with increased stocking rates. Bothriochloa bladhii was seldom selected in the diet, especially when other palatable species were present in the pasture, despite B. bladhii often being the major contributor to total pasture yield. It was concluded that a stocking rate of 4 ha/steer will maintain the availability of H. contortus in the pasture.


Author(s):  
Graeme D. Ruxton ◽  
William L. Allen ◽  
Thomas N. Sherratt ◽  
Michael P. Speed

This chapter concerns Batesian mimicry, which is the resemblance of a palatable species to an unpalatable or otherwise unprofitable species. Often these unprofitable models have warning signals, which the mimic has evolved to copy. The chapter also considers another well-known form of deception, namely masquerade, which is the resemblance of a palatable species to the cues of an object of no inherent interest to a potential predator such as leaves, thorns, sticks, stones, or bird droppings. Batesian mimicry and masquerade share many properties, and both can be considered examples of ‘protective deceptive mimicry’. We begin by briefly reviewing some well-known examples of protective deceptive mimicry. We then compare and contrast the various theories that have been proposed to understand them. Next, we examine the evidence for the phenomenon and its predicted properties, and finally we address several important questions and controversies, many of which remain only partly resolved.


Author(s):  
Edwin Sheeba Percis ◽  
Anandan Nalini ◽  
Thanga Nadar Jenish ◽  
Joseph Jayarajan ◽  
Subramanian Bhuvaneswari ◽  
...  

1968 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. B. Owen ◽  
W. J. Ridgman

SUMMARYExperiments designed to assess differences between treatments in pasture productivity as measured by the production of animals are complicated by the stocking rates chosen. The paper attempts toderive a simple model relating production per animal and production per unit area to stocking rate for meat animals, based on biological considerations.A method is proposed which would allow meaningful grazing experiments to be carried out employing only one stocking rate, thus considerably reducing the expense of this type of experimentation.The model is applied to some recent data obtained by Hodgson (1966) and Appleton (1967, personal communication).


1967 ◽  
Vol 7 (26) ◽  
pp. 217 ◽  
Author(s):  
MJT Norman

The liveweight performance and carcase characteristics of Brahman x Hereford, Africander x Hereford and Africander x Shorthorn F, crossbred spayed heifers were compared with those of local Shorthorn spayed heifers on native pasture at Katherine, N.T., between 1962 and 1965. The breed groups were divided for planes of winter nutrition, viz., with and without 2 lb a day of peanut meal from early June until the start of the wet season. Without supplement, the average weight gains of B x H, A x H, A x S, and Shorthorn cattle between June 1962 and May 1965 were 0.49, 0.37, 0.36, and 0.23 lb a day respectively. With supplement, cattle reached slaughter weight a year earlier ; the average weight gains of B x H, A x H, and Shorthorn cattle between June 1962 and May 1964 were 0.61, 0.63, and 0.50 lb a day respectively. (There was no A x S supplemented group). Without supplement, the dressing percentage and estimated proportion of fat of B x H cattle was higher and the estimated proportion of muscle and bone lower than those of other breeds. With supplement, there were no significant differences in dressing percentage or carcase composition between breeds. Measurements made of thermoregulatory attributes indicated that the local Shorthorn cattle, through body temperature control, showed adaptation to heat stress.


1997 ◽  
Vol 128 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. T. CHONG ◽  
I. TAJUDDIN ◽  
Abd. M. S. SAMAT ◽  
W. W. STÜR ◽  
H. M. SHELTON

The productivity of grazing sheep was assessed under 7-year-old rubber at the Rubber Research Institute of the Malaysia Experimental Station at Sungai Buloh near Kuala Lumpur between October 1988 and May 1990. The sheep were Dorset × Marlin crossbred lambs and they grazed planted leguminous cover crops and naturally occurring species at a range of stocking rates.In the immature rubber trial, presentation yields of forage declined with time regardless of stocking rate. In the mature rubber trial, presentation yields of forage were low (<1000 kg/ha) due to low light transmission. High stocking rates (>6 sheep/ha) resulted in a decrease in the proportion of palatable species, namely Pueraria phaseoloides, Paspalum conjugatum, Asystasia gangetica and Mikania micrantha and an increase in the proportion of the less palatable species such as Calopogonium caeruleum and Cyrtococcum oxyphyllum.Daily liveweight gains ranged from 100 g/lamb per day at 4 sheep/ha to 70 g/lamb per day at 14 sheep/ha in the immature rubber trial. Only the lowest stocking rate of 2 sheep/ha was continuously sustainable in the mature rubber trial. The estimated maximum liveweight gain that could be achieved under immature rubber was 266 kg/ha per year at a stocking rate of 13·2 sheep/ha.


Soil Research ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 841 ◽  
Author(s):  
AA Webb ◽  
AJ Dowling

Morphological, chemical and physical properties of basaltic clay soils (Vertisols-Usterts and Torrerts) from the Oxford Land System in central Queensland are described and compared over their geographical range of occurrence and also their position in the landscape. These soils are derived from undifferentiated basic lavas and interbedded pyroclastics of Tertiary age. Black earths are the dominant soil group. Position on slope had the biggest influence on depth of soil, with crest and mid-upper slope positions having more shallow (<0.9 m) soils than mid-lower and footslope positions. Soils have very high CEC and clay contents throughout the profile, are mildly alkaline at the surface and strongly so at depth, are non-saline and non-sodic (except in some footslope positions), and have an exchange complex dominated by calcium and magnesium. In the surface 0.1 m, extractable P and Zn, and total N and S levels are low and crop responses to fertilizer are probable. In comparison of 26 paired sites, where areas of native pasture and cultivation occur in close proximity, cultivated soils have lower organic C and total N, P, K and S levels than native pasture soils. This reflects a general decline in soil fertility under cultivation, and has implications for soil management and long-term soil stability.


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