Livestock selective behaviour in natural grasslands challenges the concept of plant preference in the elaboration of a successful diet

• Published in: 2013; 22. International Grassland Congress, Sydney, AUS, 2013-09-15-2013-09-19, 1171-1172
• Main Authors: Bonnet, Olivier J.F, Cezimbra, Ian Machado, Tischler, Marcelo Ritzel, Azambuja, Julio C.R, Meuret, Michel, Carvalho, Paulo Cesar F
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Publisher New South Wales Department of Primary Industry 2013
• Subjects: Agricultural sciences; Agroécologie; Comportement alimentaire; développement; gestion des ressources naturelles; Ingestion; lutte biologique; pastoralisme; Paturage; politique agricole; Préférences alimentaires; Ruminant; Sciences agricoles

Conciliating livestock production and conservation of grassland biodiversity is now an imperative. We propose that a way to reach that goal is to take advantage of the natural tendency of herbivores to exploit environmental heterogeneity. However, it would go against the well-rooted concept that mammalian herbivores have invariable preference for some plants. Preference was defined as being “what the animal select when given the minimum of physical constraints” (Parsons et al. 1994). But after decades of studies, the concept of preference remains particularly inefficient in predicting observed patterns of selection by herbivores (e.g. Newman et al. 1992; Parsons et al. 1994; Provenza 2006). We performed detailed descriptions of cattle diet composition and foraging strategy in highly diversified natural pasture of South Brazil. We present here preliminary results that seriously question the concept of plant preference.