Exploring ‘Wether’ Grazing Patterns Differed in Native or Introduced Pastures in the Monaro Region of Australia

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Understanding how and why livestock choose to graze on pasture can provide valuable information to farmers, such as overall pasture use, foraging patterns, and behavior trends. This information may be used to further assist farmers in making management decisions on how to increase production. This study specifically aimed to understand what the important drivers of grazing were, such as landscape attributes (pasture quality, distance to trees, distance to fences, distance to water) and climatic variables (rainfall, temperature), in paddocks comprising either native or improved/introduced grass species, in the Monaro region of SE Australia. Pasture quality was a highly important and a significant variable, along with temperature and elevation for the improved pasture paddock, in contrast to the native paddock, where in addition to elevation and temperature, near distance to trees was more important in determining sheep location. Results from research such as this can provide valuable insights into various grazing behaviors of sheep and also assist in shaping the sustainable management of sheep. ABSTRACT: Monitoring livestock allows insights to graziers on valuable information such as spatial distribution, foraging patterns, and animal behavior, which can significantly improve the management of livestock for optimal production. This study aimed to understand what potential variables are significant for predicting where sheep spent the most time in native (NP) and improved (IP) paddocks. Wethers (castrated male sheep) were tracked using Global Positioning System (GPS) collars on 15 sheep in the IP and 15 in the NP, respectively, on a property located in the Monaro region of Southern New South Wales, Australia. Trials were performed over four six-day periods in April, July, and November of 2014 and March in 2015. Data were analyzed to understand various trends that may have occurred during different seasons, using random forest models (RFMs). Of the factors investigated, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was significant (p < 0.01) and highly important for wethers in the IP, but not the NP, suggesting that quality of pasture was key for wethers in the IP. Elevation, temperature, and near distance to trees were important and significant for predicting residency of wethers in the IP, as well as the NP. The result of this study highlights the ability of predictive models to provide insights on behavior-based modelling of GPS data and further enhance current knowledge about location-based choices of sheep on paddocks.