Rational mixed grazing management maximizes dietary complementarity

Rational management of mixed grazing is essential to leverage dietary complementarity between horses and cattle. Horses maintained their preference for short vegetation (≤4cm), while cattle grazed on these areas proportionally to availability, unlike typical avoidance behavior. Cattle reduced use of taller vegetation (≥9cm) and avoided dense, dry patches with high dung concentration. Mixed grazing did not reduce parasite load for horses or improve sward nutritional value. Findings from a three-year experiment at IFCE’s No. 19 station compare simultaneous mixed grazing of horses and cattle with single-species horse grazing, under fertile pasture conditions, with data from three replicates and a bar chart showing grazing preference differences by vegetation height.