This work was conducted between May and October of 2003 at the Experimental Station of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (EEA-UFRGS) and was aimed at studing and comparing the efficiency of the rising plate meter, sward-stick and capacitance meter to predict the herbage mass in an italian ryegrass pasture. The work had two experiments: the experiment 1 where the three methods were evaluated when the pasture had free growth (establishment phase) in a completely randomized with 32 replicates and three treatments; the experiment 2 where pre and post grazing herbage mass was evaluated by the sward-stick and rising plate meter in paddocks under rotational grazing. The experimental design of experiment 2 was a completely randomized block with four replicates; the experimental treatments were two grazing intensities (low and moderate) defined by herbage allowances representing 2,5 and 5,0 times the potential intake of the lambs. In the experiment 1 the sward-stick showed the best determination coefficient (r²=0,65). In the experiment 2 the best determination coefficients were obtained when the pasture under rotational stocking was evaluated using the sward-stick.
sward-stick; rising plate meter; capacitance meter
