Jh. Niezen et al., GROWTH-RESPONSES IN RED DEER CALVES AND HINDS GRAZING RED-CLOVER, CHICORY OR PERENNIAL RYEGRASS WHITE CLOVER SWARDS DURING LACTATION, Journal of Agricultural Science, 121, 1993, pp. 255-263
Two experiments were conducted at the Massey University Deer Unit, New
Zealand in 1990 and 1991 to evaluate the' performance of lactating re
d deer hinds and their calves grazing conventional perennial ryegrass-
based pastures, red clover or chicory. In both experiments, hind and c
alf performance was evaluated from 1 month post-parturition over a 2 1
/2 month summer period to weaning at 3 1/2 months of age. In Expt 1, h
inds and calves were grazed on low (5.4 kg dry matter (DM)/hd/day), me
dium (10.8) or high (16.4) allowances of red clover, or on a medium al
lowance of a conventional ryegrass/white clover sward (9-9 DM/hd/day).
In Expt 2, hinds and calves grazed equal DM allowances (12 kg DM/hd/d
ay) of perennial ryegrass/white clover, chicory or red clover. Red clo
ver generally had higher organic matter digestibility (OMD) and higher
total N than ryegrass/white clover, and when grazed at equal DM allow
ances, promoted higher voluntary food intake in the hinds, increased c
alf growth (430 v. 330 g/day) and increased hind liveweight change. Al
though decreasing the red clover allowance in Expt 1 slightly but non-
significantly decreased hind voluntary food intake and decreased both
calf and hind liveweight change, all low red clover values were still
consistently higher than all ryegrass/white clover values (P < 0.05).
In Expt 2, chicory was of higher OMD and ash content than red clover b
ut N content was lower and similar to ryegrass/white clover. Chicory p
romoted lower levels of calf liveweight change than red clover but hig
her than ryegrass/white clover. Hind liveweight change on chicory was
lower than on red clover and was similar to ryegrass/white clover. It
was concluded that red clover offers potential as a special purpose fo
rage for deer production and that further experimental work is needed
with chicory.