This article was written by Breann Saulnier, OMAFRA Grazing Livestock Assistant. You may look out into a pasture and see an abundance of tall, delicious-looking grass for livestock to graze but this is not necessarily what the livestock see. The amount of forage available for grazing is the portion of plant material that the animal chooses to eat, not the total amount of forage growing that is visible. So how do you know what the animal will choose to eat? Well, the palatability and the utilization of forage for animals is influenced by what stage of growth the grass is in. In the context of grazing, palatability refers to a measure of when animals are given free choice, choose to…
