Grazing management has been the focus of the research with forage plants in Brazil for many years. Only in the last two decades, however, significant changes and advances have occurred regarding the understanding of the key factors and processes that determine adequate use of tropical forage plants in pastures. The objective of this review is to provide an historical overview of the research with forage plants and grasslands in Brazil, highlighting advances, trends, and results, as well as to describe the current state of the art and identify future perspectives and challenges. The information is presented in a systematic manner, favoring an integrated view of the different trends and research philosophies. A critical appraisal is given of the need for revision and change of paradigms as a means of improving and consolidating the knowledge on animal production from pastures. Such analysis idealizes efficient, sound and sustainable grazing management practices necessary to realize the existing potential for animal production in the tropics.

Este trabalho foi realizado para verificar a existência de relação entre tamanho e número de perfilhos em pastos de capim-marandu e testar se ajustes relacionados a variações em índice de área foliar (IAF), relação área foliar:volume por perfilho (R) e densidade aparente de perfilhos na equação de predição da resposta permitiriam explicar eventuais desvios da inclinação teórica predita. Foram avaliadas quatro condições da pastos (10, 20, 30 e 40 cm de altura), mantidas constantes por bovinos em regime de lotação contínua e taxa de lotação variável. O delineamento experimental foi o de blocos completos casualizados com quatro repetições. Avaliaram-se a densidade populacional de perfilhos, a massa por perfilho, a área foliar por perfilho, o índice de área foliar, a relação folha/colmo e a razão área foliar:volume do perfilho (R). Além disso, regressões lineares simples foram realizadas para a avaliação dos parâmetros da relação funcional entre densidade populacional e massa por perfilho. As medições foram realizadas de janeiro a dezembro de 2002. Pastos de capim-marandu possuem um mecanismo de compensação tamanho/densidade populacional de perfilhos pelo qual maiores densidades populacionais estão associadas a perfilhos pequenos e vice-versa. Os valores de R apresentaram variações sazonais, indicando que perfilhos desta espécie podem reduzir área foliar em relação ao seu volume como mecanismo de sobrevivência em condições de déficit hídrico. As análises de regressão revelaram coeficientes lineares menores que -3/2, de modo que os desvios desta expectativa foram explicados pelas variações registradas em IAF, R e na densidade aparente de perfilhos.

SUMMARY: The ability to adapt to a range of edaphic conditions favours the widespread use of marandu palisade grass in high as well as low input systems of animal production in Brazil. However, little information exists regarding the influence of grazing management practices on sward structure and the carry-over effects on animal responses. The present experiment was planned to evaluate animal behaviour, herbage intake (HI) and nutritive value, herbage accumulation and body weight gain (BWG) of beef cattle heifers grazing marandu palisade grass subjected to intensities of continuous stocking management. Treatments corresponded to four sward surface heights (SSH: 100, 200, 300 and 400 mm) and were allocated to experimental units (1200 m²paddocks) according to a randomized complete block design with four replications. Herbage accumulation rate (HAR) varied with season of the year and SSH, with highest and lowest values recorded during summer and winter, respectively. During the summer, herbage accumulation was larger on swards managed at 200, 300 and 400 mm, with the opposite occurring during winter/early spring. Stocking rate (SR) and number of grazing days (GD) followed a similar seasonal pattern of variation, with values decreasing as SSH increased. Crude protein (CP) andin vitroorganic matter digestibility (IVOMD) of hand-plucked herbage decreased as SSH increased from 100 to 400 mm, while the inverse happened with BWG (from 0·190 to 0·930 kg/day, respectively). Bite mass (BM) increased and rate of biting and grazing time (GT) decreased as SSH increased, with daily HI being larger on tall (300 and 400 mm) relative to short (100 and 200 mm) swards. Grazing management affected the nutritive value and the amount of herbage consumed, particularly through changes in BM. However, variations in intake were relatively more important than variations in nutritive value in influencing animal performance, highlighting the importance of providing favourable harvest conditions for grazing animals by establishing adequate sward targets for management.