Date Available

12-7-2011

Year of Publication

2006

Document Type

Thesis

College

Agriculture

Department

Plant and Soil Science

First Advisor

Charles T. Dougherty

Abstract

Maintaining forage availability is challenging for managers of grazing systems, especially in spatially heterogeneous swards. Remote sensing may help to overcome this problem. The objectives of this study were to (i) determine a method by which NDVI may be calibrated to estimate biomass, (ii) determine if NDVI can be used to assess spatial variability of yield in extensive grasslands, and (iii) to determine if NDVI can be used to evaluate grazing systems. We found that the calibration of NDVI values for the estimation of biomass was better correlated with the destructive harvesting procedure (R2 = 0.68) but far more laborious and time-consuming than estimation of biomass from the rising plate meter (R2 = 0.54). Semivariograms revealed that sampling at a 0.76 m distance provided information about the spatial variability structure of NDVI values from grazed swards. Frequency distributions of sward biomass derived from NDVI reflected foraging strategies of cattle. Negative skewness and high kurtosis of histograms indicated selective grazing, while positive skewness and low kurtosis indicated the opposite. Histograms also allowed for estimation of available forage within each field. We concluded that grassland biomass may be derived from high resolution NDVI and RPM data and used to evaluate condition of grassland landscapes and aid decision-making of managed grazing systems.

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