Voluntary intake and ingestive behavior of steers grazing Johnstone or endophyte-infected Kentucky-31 tall fescue

Abstract

Effects of grazing low-endophyte (Acremonium coenophialum Morgan-Jones and Gams, less than 1% infection) Johnstone (J) or high-endophyte (60% infection) Kentucky-31 (K) tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) on grazing behavior and voluntary intake were studied. Six Angus steers (average initial BW = 326 kg) grazed 1.21-ha plots of each forage cultivar (three steers per cultivar) in four 28-d periods beginning May 27. Daytime observations (0630 until 2130) revealed that J steers spent more (P less than .10) time grazing and lying down and took more (P less than .05) prehensile bites than K steers did; conversely, steers grazing K spent more (P less than .10) time standing and idling than J steers did. Idling time showed a forage x period interaction (P less than .10). Mean OM bite size (grams per bite) was not affected (P greater than .10) by forage but differed (P less than .10) among periods. Limited nighttime observations (2130 until 0630) revealed no effects (P greater than .10) of forage on grazing time or number of prehensile bites taken. Voluntary intakes of OM and NDF did not differ (P greater than .10) between steers grazing J and K; however, a forage x period interaction (P less than .10) existed such that, during Period 1, steers grazing J had greater (P less than .01) OM and NDF intakes than did steers grazing K. These data suggest that cattle grazing endophyte-infected tall fescue display altered daytime grazing behavior and that reduction of voluntary intake attributable to endophyte infection may be less severe under free-grazing than has been reported for controlled environmental conditions.