Improved characterization of cattle foraging strategies

加拿大的农业景观包括约4，804，496公顷的驯服或播种牧场和15，391，072公顷的天然牧场（Stats Can 2007）。 这种饲料的大部分被加拿大肉牛业用作奶牛、公牛和生长/幼畜的饲料来源。了解牛如何调整其放牧行为，以应对不断变化的环境和饲料动态是至关重要的一个健康的草原生态系统和优化畜牧业生产。由于与自由放养的动物一起工作的挑战，关于放牧动物使用的代谢和行为策略的工作很少，据我们所知，没有关于加拿大典型环境条件下秋季和冬季放牧的出版工作。秋季和冬季提供了一个独特的机会来评估动物对饮食和环境压力的反应。

The Canadian agricultural landscape includes some 4,804,496 hectares of tame or seeded pasture and 15,391,072 ha of natural land for pasture (Stats Can 2007). The majority of this forage is used by the Canadian beef cattle industry as a source of feed for cows, bulls and growing/young stock. Understanding how cattle adjust their grazing behavior to contend with changing environmental and forage dynamics is paramount to a healthy grassland ecosystem and to optimize livestock production. Due to the challenges of working with free-ranging animals, little work has been done with respect to metabolic and behavioural strategies used by grazing animals, and to our knowledge, there is no published work pertaining to fall and winter grazing under environmentalc onditions typical of Canada. The fall and winter periods present a unique opportunity to evaluate animal response to dietary and environmental stressors.