Cattle Grazing Preference Among Four Clover Species.

The value of including forage legumes in forage systems can be no longer overlook and preference determination can be an important tool used for selecting forage legumes for inclusion in grazing systems. This 1-year study was carried out at the Iberia Research Station Jeanerette, LA to evaluate cattle preference of clovers and its relationships with clover structural and chemical characteristics. Treatments were four clover species, ball clover ‘Grazer’s Select’, berseem clover ‘Bigbee’, red clover ‘Kenland’, and white clover ‘Ladino’ arranged in a 4 × 4 Latin Square Design Experiment.  Each plot was 10 × 10 m and separated by 3-m alleyways. Six Angus crossbred yearling steers (initial body weight of 230 ±11 kg) were allowed to graze the plots for 48-h duration when herbage accumulation was deemed sufficient for each grazing event. There were three grazing periods March 14, April 28, and May 30 of 2014 hereafter referred to as period 1, 2, and 3 respectively. Grazing preference was based on herbage disappearance (HD) and the Chesson-Manly (CM) Index. For both preference determination parameters (HD and CM Index), there was a period × clover species interaction (P < 0.05). During period 1, HD was similar for all four clover species (542 kg DM ha^-1) but for period 2, HD was only different for red clover (990 kg DM ha^-1) greater than the rest (613 kg DM ha^-1).  During period 3, HD was greater for red clover (590 kg DM ha^-1) than ball clover (260 kg DM ha^-1) but neither was different than berseem and white clover. The CM Index was only different during period 3, red clover (7.9%) greater than ball clover (4.2%). Within clover species across grazing period, HD and CM index for ball clover was least during grazing period 3 and for berseem clover, HD and CM index was greater during period 1 than 3 but neither was different than period 2. Herbage disappearance showed an identical trend for red and white clovers, greater during period 2 than period 1 and 3. Averaged across the three grazing periods, HD was greater (636 kg DM ha^-1) for erect (berseem and red clover) than prostrate growing (ball and white clover) clovers (483 kg DM ha^-1) in this study.  Based on the results, cattle showed no definitive preference for any of the four clover species, but when clover species were group based on growth habit cattle showed greater preference for erect than prostrate growing clover and this may be linked mainly to herbage mass.