FIGURE 6 · STAGE 06 / 10 — SUPPRESSION

Rotational suppression of Rubus niveus regrowth
by virtually-fenced cattle

MATURE — lignified, thorny, not forageCUT CROWNS — after mechanical clearingFLUSH — soft shoots, the forageCUT CANE — dead, and carried offSEED BANK — below the line, unchangedENDEMIC — remnant Scalesia
DESIGN SET-POINTS
rest τr  45 d
residency τg  5 d
cycle  50 d
window  d20–d55
target entry  d45
herd  3 head, collared
containment  Nofence · virtual

(A) One management cell, cut in front of the viewer. The standing wall of Rubus niveus — thorny, lignified, and no use as forage — is felled tile by tile as the crew's blade reaches it; the crowns are left, and the same wall survives uncut outside the cell, on the unmanaged mid-slope. Nothing regrows behind the cutter: the flush of soft, unarmed shoots rises from the crowns only after the block is clear, and it rises from zero. That flush is what the herd takes; each thicket is defoliated as the animals reach it, so the feeding front and the animals are one event. The virtual boundaries exist only while the animals are in the cell: the herd walks into open ground, the first boundary is set behind them, the second at the far end once they have been turned, and the cell is worked back and forth in three passes — about half the flush on the first, most of the rest on the second, the remainder on the third. When there is nothing left to take the boundaries are lifted and the herd walks out through the open end.

WHAT IS DIFFERENT HERE. The cut cane is carried off the plot instead of being left to decompose, so any fruit on it leaves with it; the resprout flush is taken by targeted grazing rather than by three foliar herbicide passes; and the removed cane becomes mushroom substrate, then feed. It does not remove the seed already in the soil, and it does not replace the initial cut.

Not operating · authorization in process
VIRTUAL BOUNDARYVIRTUAL BOUNDARYVIRTUAL BOUNDARYVIRTUAL BOUNDARYVIRTUAL BOUNDARYVIRTUAL BOUNDARYVIRTUAL BOUNDARYVIRTUAL BOUNDARY VIRTUAL BOUNDARY · NOFENCEGPS + AUDIO CUE — NO PHYSICAL FENCEVIRTUAL BOUNDARY · NOFENCEGPS + AUDIO CUE — NO PHYSICAL FENCE UNCUT · MATURE · LIGNIFIED & THORNY — NOT FORAGETHE SAME SEQUENCE, FURTHER UP THE HILL —ONE MORE CELL OPENED ON EVERY CYCLE FLUSH OF SOFT SHOOTS FROM CUT CROWNS — THIS IS THE FORAGE CUT CROWNS — LEFT BY THE CREW AT STAGE 02SEED BANK — THE CANE LEAVES, SO NOTHING IS ADDED TO IT 1 m — scaled from adult cattle stature # ROUND 25: pinned to the crop, not to SCENE_H
B WHAT STANDS IN THE CELL — MATURE WALL, THEN THE FLUSH, THEN THE HERD Both curves are read off panel A: red is the share of the wall still standing, yellow is the height of the soft regrowth. The wall goes to zero as it is cut; the flush starts from that zero, rises through the rest period, and is taken as the herd reaches it. The dashed line is how fast it would harden if nobody came. WINDOW OPENS d≈20 enough soft shoot to be worth grazing 0.00.51.0 PALATABILITY THRESHOLD L=0.35 LIGNIFICATION L(d) — modelled MATURE RUBUS WALL — STANDING CUT TO ~5 cm → ZERO SOFT-SHOOT FLUSH — FROM ZERO, RISING HERD IN — τg · three passes, boundary to boundary WALLCUTCANE OFFd0d22d45 · HERD INBOUNDARY 1BOUNDARY 2d48 · HERD OUT ONE LOOP OF PANEL A — days since the cut, to the herd leaving; time is compressed, not linear (rest 45 d, residency 5 d ≈ ×7); cycle closes at d50 RELATIVE 0–1
FOR LEGENDS AND MORE DETAILS, KEEP SCROLLING DOWN
CAPTION

(B) The same loop as two curves read directly off (A). Red is the share of the mature wall still standing: high, then to zero as it is cut. Yellow is the height of the soft regrowth: from that zero, rising through the rest period, then taken down as the herd passes. The dashed line is the modelled lignification of that regrowth if nobody came — the window opens on biomass at d≈20 and would close on hardening at d≈55; the design enters at d45. Enter late and the herd is being asked to eat the wall again.

SET-POINTS ARE DESIGN VALUES, NOT OBSERVATIONS. No grazing trial has been run on these plots. τr, τg, the window bounds and L(d) are the model the design assumes and are to be fixed by trial — the lignification curve in particular should be replaced with measured fibre or shoot-hardness data from the first cut-and-resprout plots. The time axis of (B) is the animation's clock: weeks of regrowth are compressed into seconds, the days of residency are expanded, and the axis says so.
STANDING WALL
CUT BEGINS
CANE OFF THE PLOT
GATHERED, NOT LEFT
REGROWTH
FROM THE CROWNS
HERD IN
d45 · PASS 1
BOUNDARY 1
CUE · TURN
BOUNDARY 2
CUE · TURN
FENCE OFF
HERD OUT
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