The pugometer: an evaluation of a new tool for assessing treading damage of pasture soils and comparisons with other methods

Treading damage inflicted by grazing animals degrades soil physical quality, increases sediment and nutrient loss to water, and reduces pasture yield. The extent or severity of treading damage can be assessed using several methods such as roller chain, depth of pug, and visual scoring. However, the ability of these methods to assess treading damage, and their relative merits, have not previously been compared. Four methods of measuring treading damage are compared in this study including the three methods mentioned and a new tool called the pugometer, which was developed to measure treading damage in a spatially explicit manner. These comparisons were conducted on three paddocks at Massey University’s Dairy 4 farm near Palmerston North, Manawatu, New Zealand which had sustained treading damage of varying levels during grazing in wet conditions. All four methods were able to identify varying degrees of treading damage competently with strong correlations between them (R2 = 0.72–0.87). Therefore, the selection of the most appropriate method to assess treading damage will depend on the circumstances. Visual scoring was the quickest and simplest method to use over a large area, and so could be employed easily by a farmer. The pugometer provides a quantitative measure of the spatial variability of treading damage and so would be a useful research tool. The depth of pug and roller chain methods are reliable but much more time consuming and therefore are only practicable as research tools for small plot studies. Following a treading event, the pugometer was able to monitor the recovery of surface roughness in a spatially explicit and rapid manner. Additional keywords: depth of pug, quantifying pugging, roller chain, visual assessment.