1) Identify the organism or biological attribute that you plan to study.
I plan to study the different vegetation that grows in my field, and what order my cow calf pairs will eat them.
2) Use your field journal to document observations of your organism or biological attribute along an environmental gradient. Choose at least three locations along the gradient and observe and record any changes in the distribution, abundance, or character of your object of study.
In Alberta it is just becoming nice enough outside for plants to start to grow. I have made 3 entries in my journal about the vegetation in the sites I chose for my field observation. In a month we will be moving our cow calf pairs into our field to do rotated grazing. They will only stay in one section for a total of 3 days, then they will get moved to a new section. I want to know which vegetation they will choose to eat first, second, and third. I have picked three locations to do my observations on. I will continue to add to my field journal until the cow calf pairs arrive, this way I can record any new vegetation that may grow before then.
Entry 1:
March 25, 2023
1500
Sunny
High 1
Low -11
Field 1- Mostly covered in snow, some grasses are starting to show through. There is an assortment of pine and birch trees. There is no evidence of growth.
Field 2- Mostly covered in snow with a few bare patches. Alfalfa/timothy/brome stocks from last year are starting to show through.
Field 3- Covered in deep snow. Some tussocks are showing through the snow. You can not see much of the vegetation, there is a mix of pine and birch trees.
Entry 2
April 8, 2023
1045
Sunny
High 17
Low 1
Field 1- All of the snow is gone, except for some small random patches. There are only dry grasses from last year. Nothing new has started to grow yet.
Field 2- All the snow is completely gone. This field has Alfalfa/timothy/brome, the soil is dry
Field 3- There is still some snow left, water is starting to pool. There is a mixture of short and long grasses and other herbaceous plants.
Entry 3:
April 22, 2023
1400
Sunny and windy
Low 3
High 10
Field 1- The only change since last time is that the snow is completely gone
Field 2- No changes from the last entry
Field 3- The snow has melted, creating the marsh to come back.
Environmental gradient: composition and soil attributes.
3) Think about underlying processes that may cause any patterns that you have observed. Postulate one hypothesis and make one formal prediction based on that hypothesis. Your hypothesis may include the environmental gradient; however, if you come up with a hypothesis that you want to pursue within one part of the gradient or one site, that is acceptable as well.
Hypothesis: Cow calf pairs will choose the same order to eat their food in, in any field they are occupying.
Prediction: I think that cow calf pairs will choose to eat young grass and clover, then mature wide blade grasses, if needed they’d eat leaves, shrubs, and weeds last.
4) Based on your hypothesis and prediction, list one potential response variable and one potential explanatory variable and whether they would be categorical or continuous. Use the experimental design tutorial to help you with this.
Response Variable: the available vegetation
Explanatory Variable: What field the cow calf pairs are in
Categorical or Continuous: Continuous, because you are able to measure the percent cover of vegetation on a scale.
This could work, but I have some questions for your to consider as you develop this idea. One issue is that in order to test your hypothesis, all three fields must have the same types of vegetation and in the same amounts. Also, how will you tell what they eat first, second or third? Is first defined as what they eat in the first three days? In terms of your variables, I think the response variable is the amount of vegetation eaten and your predictor variable might just be the type of vegetation. Then you have 3 fields for replication with the possibility of more than one plot per field. You will have to figure out how to measure the amount of vegetation eaten though. You could establish plots that you sample before and after the cows are in that field….Just some thoughts there is definitely a potential study there, it will take a bit more planning and tweaking of your hypothesis, prediction and variables.
Thanks for your comment, I have revamped my study.
This is the idea I have now:
I will split my one pasture into three pastures separated by an electric fence, this way each will have similar vegetation and in the same amounts. There will be the same amount of cow-calf pairs in each of them. Once a day, for 3 days I will record the amount of grasses, woody vegetation, and weeds in 5 random quadrats that are 1m^2, per pasture with 1cm^2 subunits. I will record the percent covered in grasses, woody vegetation, and weeds in each quadrat.
Would this be suitable for my research project?
Thanks for your help,
Katrina
Hey Katrina,
Great observations so far! I’m also taking this course and I’m gonna try to provide some feedback on your hypothesis! Coming from a cattle farm background myself, I can understand how this could be an interesting study. From my understanding of your hypothesis, you mean to say that the cows will eat all (or at least most) of one available resource before moving on to the other? Make sure that you leave the cows in each section long enough for them to eat through their first and second food choices so you can determine what their last resort food is. Also, gathering data for the “available vegetation” might be difficult, but not impossible.
To my understanding, your variables might be a little mixed up. The response variables should be the process being studied (what the cows are eating), and the explanatory variables should be whats causing it (the amount of each vegetation available). With this rework, your response variables would be categorical (grass, clover, leaves, weeds) and your explanatory variables would be continuous (70% grass, 20% leaves, 10% weeds).
Knowing how quickly cows can eat, I would suggest gathering observations a few times a day, but I’m sure you check them frequently anyways. With some reworks of the variables and a good sampling strategy you could turn this into an interesting study. Best of luck!
Matthew Bajus