Abstract
Understanding the behaviour of grazing animals at pasture is crucial in order to develop management strategies that will increase the potential productivity of grazing systems and simultaneously decrease the negative impact on the environment. The objective of this review was to summarize and analyse the scientific literature that has addressed the site use preference of grazing cattle using global positioning systems (GPS) collars in the past 21 years (2000–2020) to aid the development of more sustainable grazing livestock systems. The 84 studies identified were undertaken in several regions of the world, in diverse production systems, under different climate conditions and with varied methodologies and animal types. This work presents the information in categories according to the main findings reviewed, covering management, external and animal factors driving animal movement patterns. The results showed that some variables, such as stocking rate, water and shade location, weather conditions and pasture (terrain and vegetation) characteristics, have a significant impact on the behaviour of grazing cattle. Other types of bio-loggers can be deployed in grazing ruminants to gain insights into their metabolism and its relationship with the landscape they utilise. Changing management practices based on these findings could improve the use of grasslands towards more sustainable and productive livestock systems.
Highlights
Introduction published maps and institutional affilUnderstanding the behaviour of grazing animals at pasture, i.e., how grazing animals distribute themselves and move across pasture and what activities they perform in each area, is crucial in order to develop management strategies that will increase the potential productivity of the grazing systems and decrease their negative impact on the environment
Agreeing on the knowledge gap recognised by Swain et al [16], and considering the substantial increase in the number of papers published reporting the use of global positioning systems (GPS) tracking in livestock in the last decade, we identified the need to assemble the existing literature with a focus on factors driving the distribution patterns in the field of grazing cattle to inform targeted management strategies
The scope of this review does not cover the technical details of the GPS devices, nor those of the other bio-loggers available for animal monitoring, but we have focused on the application of GPS sensors to understand cattle site use preference and the knowledge generated from the numerous studies published since 2000
Summary
A Web of Science search (on 11 May 2020) using the criteria “topic: ((GPS or GNSS) and (cattle or cow *) and (distribution or field use or site use or landscape use or grazing patterns or site selection or cattle location or landscape selectivity or occupation pattern or patterns of livestock activity)) and document type: (Article OR Note)” identified 251 journal articles published between 2000 and 2019. When analysing the response variables, response variables, the site use preference was primarily assessed by foraging or grazing response variables, the was site use preference was by primarily assessed by foraging or grazing the site use preference primarily assessed foraging or grazing areas, travel characareas, travel characteristics, proximity totowater resources oror habitats selection, areas, travel characteristics, proximity waterpoints points and resources habitats selection, teristics, proximity to water points and resources or and habitats selection, with the first three with the first three ofofvariables being more studied in in thethe rangeland with theof first threegroups groups variables being morefrequently studied rangeland groups variables being more frequently studied infrequently the rangeland conditions (Figure 5) These variables seem to be more relevant in larger areas. Intuitively,(Figure these variables seem to be more relevant areas
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