@conference {41339,
	title = {Growing grass and clover separately allows animals to sustain a high nutrient intake},
	booktitle = {Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	volume = {62},
	year = {2002},
	month = {Jan},
	pages = {163-166},
	publisher = {New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	organization = {New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	address = {Palmerston North},
	abstract = {White clover has high nutritive value but the proportion in mixed pasture and therefore the diet, is often low. Offering sheep ryegrass and clover growing side-by-side, for short periods, increases the proportion of clover in the diet and daily intake compared to a mixed pasture. This experiment tested whether sheep offered ryegrass and clover side-by-side could sustain a high proportion of clover in their diet and a high daily intake, compared with sheep grazing ryegrass alone, clover alone and ryegrass and white clover growing as a mixed sward. Forty-eight dry, non-pregnant Romney ewes (56 {\textpm} 1.8kg live weight) were randomly allocated to four replicates (two spatial x two temporal) of each treatment (n=3) for 12 days. Average grazing time was 292 {\textpm} 16.2 min/day and did not differ significantly among treatments. Short-term intake rate on clover (5.0 g/min) was higher than ryegrass (3.5 g/min) (P=0.02). As a result, clover dominant diets supported higher daily intake (1.36 kg/d for clover alone vs. 1.08 kg/d for ryegrass alone). Sheep sustained a diet of 70\% clover and 30\% ryegrass, showing that predominance of clover in the diet was not a result of novelty. This improved daily intake would provide significant benefit to animal production systems and can be achieved simply by growing grass and clover separately. },
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {Marotti DM and Cosgrove GP and Chapman DF and Parsons AJ and Egan AR and Anderson CB}
}
