Researchers tempted grazing cattle with sweet molasses feed to discover whether cows would roam far and wide to graze or stick close to the herd, water supplies and feed stations.
The findings by animal scientists at the University of California, Davis, and published in the journal Scientific Reports, offer a low-cost way for ranchers and others to identify the best cows for their landscapes to optimize grazing while meeting the nutritional needs of cattle.
This is the third in a series of papers about research seeking to better understand the grazing personalities of cattle. The first studies established that the cows weren’t mindless wanderers or followers but had personalities that differentiated how far and wide they would graze, said Kristina Horback, the senior author on the paper and an associate professor in…