Seasonal Food Preferences of Cattle on Native Range in the South Texas Plains

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Cattle diets were studied on a predominantly native range in Hidalgo County, which is in the extreme southern part of Texas, from Sept., 1976-Nov. 1977. Microhistological examination of cattle feces was used to determine the botanical composition of diets. Percentages of grasses, forbs and browse consumed by cattle for the fall of 1976 and the winter, spring, summer and fall of 1977, respectively,were: grasses.sbd.77.9, 81.2, 84.9, 65.1, 63.6; forbs.sbd.20.2, 6.9, 13.4, 31.6, 34.8 and browse.sbd.2.0, 11.9, 1.7, 3.3, 1.6. Cattle showed an increasing preference for forbs during the summer and fall of 1977 as the availability of several grass species decreased. Roemer three-awn [Aristida roemeriana], red lovegrass [Cenchrus ciliaris], and hooded windmillgrass [Chloris cucullata] were the most utilized species, but they were eaten in about equal proportion to their availability. Buffelgrass [Cenchrus ciliaris], common Bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon] and sedges [Cyperus spp.] were eaten in lesser amounts but were highly preferred. Perennial forbs, especially spreading sida [Sida spp.] and orange zexmenia [Zexmenia hispida] were important components of the summer and fall diets. Pricklypear [Opuntia lindheimeri] was the only important browse species which was important only in winter. These data indicated that perennial grasses made up the bulk of cattle diets on a predominantly native range in south Texas; however, perennial forbs were important seasonally.