Nutritional characteristics of cattle forage plants in the eutrophic nature reserve Oostvaardersplassen, Netherlands

Abstract

The digestible organic matter (DOM) content and the chemical composition of the forage classes grasses, reed, forbs and browse varied seasonally. The DOM content of all forage classes showed a decrease from spring to winter, but the assumed minimum energy content for cattle maintenance (c450 g DOM kg-1 dry matter) was reached at different moments in the different forage classes. Reed reached it in autumn, grasses in winter, forbs (living parts) remained the entire year above this level and browse remained the entire year below this level. Grazing delayed the maturation of Poa trivialis, reed Phragmites australis and the important forb Urtica dioica. The protein, K, Ca, P, Cu content of the four forage classes exceeded the cattle maintenance levels for these nutrients the whole year. The Na and Mg content of grasses, reed and browse were marginal in some periods. -from Authors