Pasture is land with lush herbaceous vegetation cover used for grazing of ungulates as part of a farm or ranch. Prior to the advent of mechanized farming, pasture was the primary source of food for cattle and sheep. It is still used to some degree. Advances in managed intensive grazing (MIG), and improvements in fence technology, led to renewed interest in grazing in the 1990s.
Pasture growth can consist of grasses, legumes, or a mixture. Alfalfa, clover, and birdsfoot trefoil are legumes used in intensive pasture management. Many grasses, including native grasses, bluegrass, orchardgrass, and reed canary grass are used, depending upon conditions, of which soil type, minimum annual temperature, and rainfall amount are most important.
Related Topics
Rangeland - Cattle grazed on "native" vegetation where there is low rainfall.
Thirty-five acres of continuously grazed pasture were divided into six, five to eight-acre paddocks in summer 1999.
Previous use of this pasture was primarily as a nighttime loafing lot for an 80 cow, Holstein milking herd.
Pasture quality and availability maintained milk production at levels equivalent to the levels achieved during the winter months when cows were fed high quality purchased forages.
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