A Comparison of Sampling Procedures in Making Pasture Yield Determinations

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Abstract
The direct harvest plan of sampling grass pastures is characterized by smaller standard errors and lower coeffs. of variability than the difference plans. Tests of the variance of the data obtained in this investigation by 4 plans of sampling procedure show significant F values, for the direct harvest plan in a number of instances where such a finding would be expected, but no such values for the other plans. The direct harvest plan is advantageous in showing period yields and in computing yields where grazing is delayed because of a rotation plan of pasturing, or for other reasons. These advantages, together with its simplicity, make it highly suitable as the one plan of sampling where only yield determinations of grass pastures are desired. The difference plans provide a valuable check on the direct harvest plan. They are much more satisfactory than the direct harvest plan in determining yields of crops such as soybeans and sweet clover, which may either be killed or greatly retarded in growth by frequent close cutting, and are also valuable in computing period-by-period amounts of herbage consumed in grazing. Difference plan No. 2, in which open pasture yields of the previous sampling date are subtracted from the protected area samples, is proposed as an improved plan of calculating yields over difference plan No. 1, in which open pasture yields are subtracted from the protected area yields of the same date. The amt. of liveweight maintained per acre is one of the valuable measurements of pasture yield.