Impact of cattle treading on hill land: 1. Soil damage patterns and pasture status

An experiment was conducted on steep hill land in New Zealand to describe the pattern of cattle treading that occurred from a single damage event during winter. The experiment also measured some of the consequences of treading and sought to define the subsequent grazing management which promoted the most rapid recovery of pasture. In hill paddocks of mixed topography, damage of the soil surface was greatest on animal tracks/ camps and easy contoured areas (50% soil surface), puddling on tracks/camps and skid damage on steep inter-tracks became frequent. These processes are significant because animal tracks/camps act as important channels for surface water flow in hill lands; and disturbed, inter-track areas are an important source of sediment runoff. During spring, pasture growth rates were reduced by treading damage. From a systems context this could represent losses of 5-10 kg DM ha −1 d −1 during early-mid spring. Pasture cover and growth rates had fully recovered by early December