Effect of rotational grazing on plant and animal production

Mayee Chen; Junping Shi; Mayee Chen; Junping Shi

doi:10.3934/mbe.2018017

Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering

2018, Volume 15, Issue 2: 393-406. doi: 10.3934/mbe.2018017

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Effect of rotational grazing on plant and animal production

Mayee Chen ¹,
Junping Shi ^{2
,
,}

1.
Jamestown High School, Williamsburg, VA 23185, USA,
2.
Department of Mathematics, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795, USA

Received: 16 September 2017 Accepted: 23 April 2017 Published: 01 April 2018
MSC : Primary: 58F15, 58F17; Secondary: 53C35

It is a common understanding that rotational cattle grazing provides better yields than continuous grazing, but a quantitative analysis is lacking in agricultural literature. In rotational grazing, cattle periodically move among paddocks in contrast to continuous grazing, in which the cattle graze on a single plot for the entire grazing season. We construct a differential equation model of vegetation grazing on a fixed area to show that production yields and stockpiled forage are greater for rotational grazing than continuous grazing. Our results show that both the number of cattle per acre and stockpiled forage increase for many rotational configurations.
- Rotational grazing,
- differential equation model,
- plant and animal production
Citation: Mayee Chen, Junping Shi. Effect of rotational grazing on plant and animal production[J]. Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering, 2018, 15(2): 393-406. doi: 10.3934/mbe.2018017

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Abstract

It is a common understanding that rotational cattle grazing provides better yields than continuous grazing, but a quantitative analysis is lacking in agricultural literature. In rotational grazing, cattle periodically move among paddocks in contrast to continuous grazing, in which the cattle graze on a single plot for the entire grazing season. We construct a differential equation model of vegetation grazing on a fixed area to show that production yields and stockpiled forage are greater for rotational grazing than continuous grazing. Our results show that both the number of cattle per acre and stockpiled forage increase for many rotational configurations.

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