Improved characterization of cattle foraging strategies

加拿大的农业景观包括大约4,804,496公顷驯化或播种的牧场和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。了解牛如何调整它们的放牧行为以应对不断变化的环境和牧草动态，对于健康的草原生态系统和优化畜牧业生产至关重要。由于与自由放牧动物合作的挑战，关于放牧动物所使用的代谢和行为策略方面的工作很少，据我们所知，还没有发表关于在加拿大典型环境条件下秋季和冬季放牧的工作。秋季和冬季为评估动物对饮食和环境压力的反应提供了一个独特的机会。

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.