Agronomy Journal 92:740-747 (2000)
© 2000 American Society of Agronomy
FORAGES
Forage Yield of Stockpiled Perennial Grasses in the Upper Midwest USA
Janet L. Riesterer,
D.J. Undersander,
Michael D. Casler and
David K. Combs
Dep. of Agronomy, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706-1597 USA
jlrieste{at}facstaff.wisc.edu
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ABSTRACT
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Stockpiling forage is an effective method to extend grazing beyond the growing season. This study was conducted to determine standing forage organic matter (SFOM) and vertical biomass distribution, with and without applied N fertilizer, of seven cool-season grasses (early- and late-maturing orchardgrass [Dactylis glomerata L.], quackgrass [Elytrigia repens (L.) Desv. ex Nevski], reed canarygrass [Phalaris arundinacea L.], smooth bromegrass [Bromus inermis Leyss.], tall fescue [Festuca arundinacea Schreb.], and timothy [Phleum pratense L.]) stockpiled over winter. Forage was sampled pre- and postgrazing at one site and clipped to both 8 and 2.5 cm as layers of vertical distribution at two other sites in October, December, and late March. Four N fertilizer treatments ranged from 0 to 168 kg N ha-1. Stockpiled SFOM ranged from 2.06 to 3.73 Mg ha-1 at the end of the growing season across three locations. Tall fescue and early-maturing orchardgrass yielded the highest and quackgrass and smooth bromegrass the lowest at all harvest dates. Tall fescue, early-maturing orchardgrass, and reed canarygrass were most suited for grazing beyond December, while the late-maturing orchardgrass and timothy would be utilized most efficiently by grazing before heavy and prolonged snow cover. Quackgrass and smooth bromegrass are not suitable grasses for stockpiling. Nitrogen fertilizer applied in late summer increased yield of the stockpiled forage by nearly 75%. Application of N also increased the distribution of biomass above 8 cm by nearly 50%.
Abbreviations: ANOVA, analysis of variance • OM, organic matter • SFOM, standing forage organic matter
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INTRODUCTION
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ROTATIONAL GRAZING is an increasingly common and effective method used to reduce the amount of forage that must be mechanically harvested and stored. In a typical upper midwestern grazing system, pasture is available during a 6-mo growing season, from late April to late October. Beyond these months, little or no forage growth occurs, and grazing animals are usually fed stored forage. Stored winter feed is one of the largest expenses incurred by the grazier.
Stockpiling forage is the practice of accumulating forage biomass during late summer and fall and grazing it after the growing season. Stockpiling forage can extend the grazing season and reduce the costs associated with harvesting and storing forage, as well as time spent making hay or silage. Labor can be reduced to 25% of that needed for conventional wintering of beef cows (Van Keuren, 1970). Some forage loss will occur under stockpiling management, but proper grazing management can minimize it. Combining stockpiling with rotational stocking may help producers manage pastures throughout the year, reducing costs of stored winter feed, while efficiently allocating and utilizing pasture forage. Further, losses associated with making hay, such as mowing, conditioning, raking, and baling, as well as storage and feeding, can add up to a 27 to 50% loss of the forage from the system (H.M. Bartholomew, personal communication, 1998).
Research on stockpiling forage is lacking in the North-Central USA, because relatively few livestock producers depend on pasture forage through the winter months. In Iowa, Bryan et al. (1970) and Wedin et al. (1966) reported yield of stockpiled forage, but only through December. Most other studies pertain to tall fescue stockpiled in the southern USA (Balasko, 1977; Dougherty, 1981; Ocumpaugh and Matches, 1977). The recent trend toward rotational stocking in the upper Midwest has renewed interest in stockpiling.
By stockpiling pasture, growers can provide feed to grazing animals well into December, and possibly longer if ice and snow do not prevent grazing. Cattle and sheep can graze through as much as 0.5 m of fresh snow as long as there is a good supply of ungrazed forage below the snow (Decker, 1988). In Ohio, animals commonly graze through 0.3 m of powdery snow to obtain forage below. However, once the snow has been even lightly trampled, it can freeze and become crusted, reducing or halting grazing. When wet snow or ice covers the stockpiled pasture, supplemental feed is required (H.M. Bartholomew, personal communication, 1998).
As winter progresses, grasses lodge under the weight of snow and ice, increasing leaf rot and decay and reducing palatability and nutritional value. Severe lodging may also limit the ability of animals to graze the forage. Several studies on stockpiled tall fescue and orchardgrass have reported quality to remain adequate throughout winter. Digestibility and crude protein levels of stockpiled forage have been shown to be adequate to meet the needs of animals at or near maintenance levels (Archer and Decker, 1977; Bryan et al., 1970). Yield and animal intake data are needed for stockpiled forages under Midwest conditions so that appropriate animal stocking density can be calculated. Our objectives were to compare the stockpiling characteristics of several cool-season grasses common to upper Midwest pastures. Accumulation of standing forage organic matter and vertical biomass distribution, with and without applied N, were compared three times over winter.
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Materials and methods
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Field research was conducted at the University of Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Stations near Arlington (43°18' N, 89°21' W), Lancaster (42°50' N, 90°47' W), and Marshfield, WI (44°39' N, 90°8' W), during 1995 to 1998. The soil types were Plano silt loam (fine-silty, mixed, superactive, mesic Typic Argiudoll) at Arlington, Rozetta silt loam (fine-silty, mixed, superactive, mesic Typic Hapludalf) at Lancaster, and Withee silt loam (fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, frigid Aquic Glossudalf) at Marshfield.
Soil samples were taken once each year to a 15-cm depth at each site. Soil samples were analyzed for pH, organic matter (OM), available P, and extractable K by the University of Wisconsin Soil and Plant Analysis Laboratory using the procedures of Schulte et al. (1987). Soil organic matter was estimated from weight loss on ignition at 360°C for 2 h. Soil pH was measured in water with a glass electrode pH meter. Available P and extractable K were analyzed in Bray P-1 extracts. Phosphorus was determined colorimetrically and K was determined with flame photometry. Soil tests at the Arlington site indicated a soil pH near 6.5, organic matter content of 3.9%, P levels at 49 mg kg-1, and K levels at 155 mg kg-1. Lancaster soil tests revealed a slightly higher pH of 6.8, organic matter content of 3.2%, P levels at 28 mg kg-1, and slightly low K levels at 105 mg kg-1. Soils at Marshfield had a pH of 7.0, organic matter content of 3.5%, P levels at 32 mg kg-1, and K levels at 125 mg kg-1.
The experimental design was a randomized complete block with four replicates and a restricted randomization: a split-plot within a strip-plot (Fig. 1)
. Whole plots were harvest dates and fertility treatments, randomized and stripped across each other within each complete block; subplots were combinations of harvest dates by fertility treatments; and sub-subplots were the seven grasses.
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Fig. 1 Field layout of one block in the experimental design: a split plot within a strip plot. Harvest date whole plots (vertical lines) and fertilizer treatment whole plots (horizontal lines) are randomized within the block. Sub-subplots are grasses. OGL, orchardgrass, late; TF, tall fescue; Q, quackgrass; RC, reed canarygrass; SB, smooth bromegrass; T, timothy; and OGE, orchardgrass, early
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Seven cool-season grasses, `AC Nordic' (late maturity) and `Benchmark' (early maturity) orchardgrass, `Roseau' quackgrass, `Palaton' reed canarygrass, `Alpha' smooth bromegrass, `Barcel' tall fescue, and `Colt' timothy were established at these three sites in the spring of 1995. Land was prepared with a soil digger followed by a cultipacker. Grass seed was drilled in seven 15-cm rows within the plot at the Lancaster and Arlington sites, and in five 15-cm rows at the Marshfield site using a Tool Carrier 2700 drill (Wintersteiger,1
Salt Lake City, UT). Plot size was 1.2 by 3.7 m at Arlington and Lancaster and 0.9 by 6.1 m at Marshfield. A border of `Martin' tall fescue was planted around each plot of quackgrass to reduce the potential of interplot contamination by rhizome spreading (Casler and Goodwin, 1998). At planting and again on 1 August, plots received 67 kg N ha-1 from ammonium nitrate applied with a drop spreader. All stands had nearly 100% ground cover at the beginning of the study.
Four N treatments were imposed. Plots received one of two fertility treatments in late summer, either a control, 0 kg N ha-1 (F0), or 67 kg N ha-1 [F67(1)] on 1 August, which coincided with the start of stockpiling. Two other fertility treatments were applied in the spring and at the start of stockpiling in late summer. The F168(2) treatment was an application of 101 kg N ha-1 after the first spring cut (late May) and 67 kg N ha-1 on 1 August. The F168(3) treatment was a split application of 45 kg N ha-1 applied before the first spring cut (early April) and 56 kg N ha-1 applied after the first spring cut, as well as 67 kg N ha-1 on 1 August.
During the 1996 and 1997 growing seasons, all plots were mechanically harvested to an 8-cm stubble with a flail chopper when the tallest plots reached a 30-cm height, ending on 1 August. Forage accumulated after 1 August was harvested as three stockpiling treatments during the off-season: (i) shortly before or after the first killing frost, (ii) mid-December, and (iii) late March or early April (Table 1)
; these treatments are hereafter referred to as the October, December, and March harvest dates, respectively.
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Table 1 Dates of first killing frost and harvest schedule at Lancaster, Arlington, and Marshfield, WI, in 1996 and 1997
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Standing forage organic matter was mechanically harvested at Arlington and Marshfield. Harvests were made using a rotary (lawn) mower with an attached bag to collect forage from a 1.5- by 0.5-m area from the center of the plot. The plots were cut to an 8-cm height and then to a 2.5-cm stubble by adjusting mower-blade height, and the total accumulation was calculated as the sum of OM from both cutting heights. We hypothesized that as grass remains standing in the field over winter, it tends to lodge from wind and snow cover. Weathering and leaf senescence over winter would change biomass distribution from more biomass above an 8-cm stubble in October to an increasing amount present in the 2.5- to 8-cm height by March. To test this hypothesis, vertical distribution of biomass within the plant canopy was computed as the percentage of OM above 8 cm.
At Lancaster, three randomly selected subsamples per plot were clipped to a 2.5-cm stubble before and after grazing in a 0.2-m2 frame using electric grass shears (Model GS300, cordless, 8-cm blade, Black and Decker, Towson, MD). The pregrazing samples were equated with SFOM. Animals were fasted for 12 h before grazing the plots. Harvest date strips in each block were mob-grazed in 1 d with 500-kg Angus x Holstein cows (Bos taurus) at a high stocking density ranging from 300 to 700 animals ha-1. Grasses were offered free-choice to the animals. Disappearance of the stockpiled forage was calculated as the difference between pre- and postgrazing biomass measurements.
All samples were dried in a 55°C forced-air oven for 1 wk. Due to soil contamination in the samples from the low cutting heights and harvest dates, all forage mass was reported on an OM basis. Organic matter was determined by ashing forage for 5 h in a muffle furnace at 500°C. Arlington and Marshfield data for SFOM and biomass distribution were analyzed separately for each year using the analysis of variance (ANOVA) model in Table 2
. Years were analyzed separately because of computational difficulties associated with missing values (SAS Inst., 1985). Lancaster data for forage disappearance were analyzed by the ANOVA model in Table 2, with two exceptions: the location effect was excluded and the year effect was included as a split-plot-in-time factor (Steel et al., 1996). All effects in both ANOVA models were assumed to be fixed, except for blocks. Comparison between means was made using Fisher's LSD at P < 0.05.
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Results and discussion
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Harvest Date Effects
Stockpiling forage accumulated an average of 2.05 and 3.07 Mg OM ha-1 by October at Lancaster and Arlington, respectively (Table 3)
. Higher SFOM of 3.73 Mg ha-1 was obtained by December at Marshfield due to continued growth in October. A killing frost did not occur until 25 October in 1997, whereas forage was harvested on 9 October that year (Table 1). There were approximately two more weeks after harvest with unseasonably warm temperatures at Marshfield. Orchardgrass has been reported to continue to accumulate biomass through November (Archer and Decker, 1977) and tall fescue though December in more southern states (Archer and Decker, 1977; Dougherty, 1981). Marshfield also had more precipitation than Arlington and Lancaster during the months of forage accumulation (Fig. 2)
. Yield potential was lower at Lancaster that at Arlington or Marshfield due to a combination of lower precipitation, lower soil fertility, and relatively less soil depth.
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Table 3 Mean standing forage organic matter of stockpiled grass at Arlington, Marshfield, and Lancaster, WI, on three off-season harvest dates on four N treatments. Means are averaged over seven grasses, 2 yr, and four replicates
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Fig. 2 Total monthly precipitation from June through October at Lancaster, Marshfield, and Arlington, WI, during 1996 and 1997
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Standing forage organic matter decreased 22 and 31% from fall killing frost to March at Lancaster and Arlington, respectively (Table 3). This is consistent with studies on tall fescue in Kentucky and Missouri (Ocumpaugh and Matches, 1977; Taylor and Templeton, 1976). Larger SFOM losses at Marshfield occurring beyond December to March (55.2%) may reflect the longer duration of snow cover at Marshfield (Fig. 3)
. Ocumpaugh and Matches (1977) suggested that SFOM losses can be attributed to a combination of respiration, leaching of cell contents upon freezing, as well as decay and desiccation, which increase leaf brittleness and loss. All of these factors are intensified by wind, rain, snow, and freeze–thaw cycles. Low December SFOM at Arlington was due to heavy, wet snow that fell before the December harvest in each year, which flattened the forage and resulted in incomplete collection of the SFOM.
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Fig. 3 Total monthly snowfall from November through March at Lancaster, Marshfield, and Arlington, WI, during the winters of 1996–1997 and 1997–1998. From late November through February, there was generally between 2.5 and 12.5 cm of snow cover on the ground all month
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Nitrogen Effects
It has been well established that N is the first limiting nutrient in cool-season grass growth (Ludwick, 1979; Sheehy et al., 1996). By adding 67 kg N ha-1 on 1 August, SFOM increased by 54 to 107% at all sites averaged across harvest dates (Table 3). The greatest N response was at Marshfield, where N was applied just before August rainfall (Fig. 2). Similar increases in yield of stockpiled grass have been reported with applications of 67 kg N ha-1 in other regions (Balasko, 1977; Gardner and Hunt, 1955). Earlier-season N application [F168(2) and F168(3)] had no beneficial effect on fall forage regrowth (Table 3).
Species Response to Stockpiling
Species rankings were generally the same across all sites and harvest dates. Either tall fescue or the early-maturing orchardgrass ranked highest in SFOM at each harvest date and site (Table 4) . The late-maturing orchardgrass usually ranked third. Premachandra et al. (1993) suggested that consistently high autumn forage yields for orchardgrass are due to increased cell membrane stabilization, decreased leaf water potential and osmotic potential, and increased turgor potential with decreasing temperatures in autumn. All of these factors contribute to an increase in the plant's tolerance to freezing conditions. Tall fescue yielded more than reed canarygrass in autumn in Iowa (Bryan et al., 1970; Wedin et al., 1966). Reed canarygrass ranked second highest in forage yield; orchardgrass, third; and smooth bromegrass, fourth (Wedin et al., 1966). Smooth bromegrass and quackgrass had the lowest late-summer SFOM, and thus are not suited for stockpiling.
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Table 4 Mean standing forage organic matter of seven stockpiled grasses on three off-season harvest dates at Arlington, Marshfield, and Lancaster, WI. Means are averaged over four N treatments, 2 yr, and four replicates
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Grasses responded somewhat differently to the N treatments (Table 5) . Without added N, timothy ranked second or third to tall fescue at Arlington and Marshfield, while late-maturing orchardgrass ranked among the lowest in SFOM at all three sites. Early-maturing orchardgrass and tall fescue had the greatest response to a single application of N on 1 August [F67(1)], with an average increase of 1.37 and 1.21 Mg OM ha-1 (82 and 65%), respectively, across sites. However, in other regions, orchardgrass yields increased from 35% (Archer and Decker, 1977) to 75% (Reynolds, 1975), while tall fescue yields increased 25% due to added N (Archer and Decker, 1977; Reynolds, 1975). Smooth bromegrass and quackgrass consistently ranked lowest in SFOM with or without applied N.
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Table 5 Mean standing forage organic matter of seven stockpiled grasses on four N treatments at Arlington, Marshfield, and Lancaster, WI. Means are averaged across three off-season harvest dates, 2 yr, and four replicates
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Grass species' fall growth responses to spring-applied N in addition to the 67 kg ha-1 applied at the onset of stockpiling were negligible. Early-maturing orchardgrass and tall fescue had the greatest average responses to F168(2), but were not consistent across sites, ranging from a 0.92 Mg OM ha-1 increase at Lancaster to a 2.14 Mg OM ha-1 increase at Marshfield over the control. However, the increment of SFOM increase over the 67 kg ha-1 applied at the onset of stockpiling by the addition of one application of N in the spring was rather small and inconsistent. Smooth bromegrass and reed canarygrass were highly consistent in yield response across sites, generally showing no differences between the three added-N treatments. Splitting the 168 kg ha-1 N rate into three applications [F168(3)] generally reduced SFOM for most species–site combinations compared with two N applications [F168(2)].
There may be an economic incentive to apply N at the start of stockpiling to some grasses more than others. With N cost at $0.45 kg-1 ($30 ha-1), and hay prices at $70 Mg-1, increased net revenue from adding fertilizer totaled $60 to $70 ha-1 for tall fescue and orchardgrass. However, increased net revenue from N application was less than $25 ha-1 for timothy, smooth bromegrass, reed canarygrass, and quackgrass. Therefore, it is less expensive to add N at the start of stockpiling tall fescue and orchardgrass, thereby increasing SFOM, than to buy hay for winter feed. Rainfall and soil water status will affect the N-fertilizer response (Onillon et al., 1995). For example, at Lancaster and Arlington, where rainfall was generally lower in August and September than at Marshfield (Fig. 2), there were smaller N-rate responses across species (Table 5).
Accessibility and Utilization of Stockpiled Biomass
For all species, added N increased the proportion of biomass above 8 cm by an average of 48% (17.6 percentage points; Table 6) . Nitrogen increased leaf area and leaf number and decreased the number of senesced leaves in tall fescue (Belesky et al., 1984), possibly explaining the effect of added N on biomass above 8 cm in our study. In Tennessee, yields of orchardgrass above 8 cm increased by increasing N levels from 112 to 336 kg ha-1 (Fribourg and Reynolds, 1968). The late-maturity orchardgrass had the greatest response to added N, with an increase of 75% (24.6 percentage points).
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Table 6 Mean percentage of biomass above 8 cm of seven stockpiled grasses on four N treatments at two sites in Wisconsin. Means are averaged over three off-season harvest dates, 2 yr at Arlington, 1 yr at Marshfield, and four replicates
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When grasses were ranked for greatest percentage biomass above 8 cm, the ranking was similar to that for SFOM, with the exception that reed canarygrass ranked similarly to tall fescue and orchardgrass. Rankings were not affected by applied N treatment, nor did these treatments affect biomass distribution.
All species had more than 50% of their biomass above 8 cm at the October harvest, and all but quackgrass and smooth bromegrass exceeded this value at the December harvest (Table 7)
. The two orchardgrass varieties ranked first and second in biomass above 8-cm height at the first two harvest dates. Losses in biomass above 8 cm between October and December were smallest for early-maturing orchardgrass, reed canarygrass, and tall fescue (7%). Winter losses of biomass significantly changed species' ranking in biomass above 8 cm (Table 7). Early-maturing orchardgrass, reed canarygrass, and tall fescue ranked highest in biomass above 8 cm at the March harvest due to losses from October to March of 24 to 38%, compared with losses of 50 to 59% for the other species.
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Table 7 Mean percentage of biomass above 8 cm of seven stockpiled grasses on three off-season harvest dates at two sites in Wisconsin. Means are averaged over four N treatments, 2 yr at Arlington, 1 yr at Marshfield, and four replicates
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Species characteristics influencing vertical distribution of biomass will determine their adaptation to stockpiling systems. Tall fescue is well-suited and commonly used for stockpiling. Its upright growth pattern maintains its biomass above 8 cm, possibly reducing the number of leaves at ground level and thereby reducing leaf rot as winter progresses. Similarly, the stiff sheaths of orchardgrass and the jointed stems of reed canarygrass may allow these grasses to remain more vertical and accessible over winter, more so than other species, which may be flattened under the weight of snow. Tall fescue, reed canarygrass, and early-maturing orchardgrass are more adapted to stockpiling systems in which grazing may occur at any time during a southern Wisconsin winter. It would be appropriate to graze the late-maturing orchardgrass and timothy soon after frost, before snow cover limits their accessibility. Quackgrass and smooth bromegrass are not suitable for stockpiling.
Herbage removed by grazing declined 28% from October to December, with no further decline beyond December across all species except late-maturing orchardgrass (Table 8)
. This early-winter decline likely resulted from reduced forage accessibility due to compression of the forage against and frozen to the ground. Both orchardgrass varieties, tall fescue, and reed canarygrass were observed to be less susceptible to compression and therefore more accessible than the quackgrass, smooth bromegrass, and timothy in December. Additionally, quackgrass, smooth bromegrass, and timothy may have been trampled to a greater extent than the grasses with higher SFOM, as the former may not have been found under the snow as easily as the latter.
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Table 8 Mean forage disappearance (as a percentage of total available forage) of seven stockpiled grasses on three off-season harvest dates at Lancaster, WI. Means are averaged across four N treatments, 2 yr, and four replicates
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Nitrogen application did not affect forage disappearance (data not shown). Cameron (1966) similarly reported that during the growing season, forage disappearance was not affected by increasing the N level from 0 to 112 kg N ha-1. To the contrary, the addition of N increased the percentage of forage removed by grazing of timothy and Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) in a study measuring palatability (Beaumont et al., 1933).
The early-maturing orchardgrass maintained a first or second ranking in forage disappearance across all three harvest dates, while quackgrass ranked the lowest at all three harvest dates (Table 8). It was observed that reed canarygrass turned brown in early November, while tall fescue and orchardgrass remained green longer into the winter; all grasses were brown at the March harvest. In Iowa, reed canarygrass sampled through late November had crude protein levels of near 16% and digestibility of 59%, similar to tall fescue, and voluntary intake by steers was higher than tall fescue (Bryan et al., 1970). Similarly, our study would indicate that grass color had little impact on forage disappearance.
Species ranking for forage disappearance was generally the same at each harvest date with the exception of timothy and smooth bromegrass, and late-maturing orchardgrass in late winter. Timothy and smooth bromegrass ranked low in disappearance, with quackgrass, in October and December, but both ranked as high as early-maturing orchardgrass in March. The rank of late-maturing orchardgrass was also reversed by March, when it was as low as quackgrass and reed canarygrass. Disappearance of late-maturing orchardgrass declined by 40% (26.2 percentage points) between October and March, the highest reduction of all species. Late-winter SFOM loss of late-maturing orchardgrass vs. early-maturing orchardgrass may be explained by a more recumbent growth habit of the former than of the latter.
Disappearance of quackgrass, smooth bromegrass, and timothy declined from October to December from 46 to 54% of the October mean (15.5 to 24.5 percentage points), compared with forage disappearance declines of only 10 to 30% of the October mean (8.3 to 21.5 percentage points) for the other species. Physical differences, which affect accessibility between the former and latter groups, may account for these differences in forage disappearance. Grass frozen to the ground is less available to the grazing animal. Furthermore, trampling may have a greater effect on those species that are lying closer to the ground under snow.
Disappearance of timothy, smooth bromegrass, and quackgrass in March doubled from the forage disappearance in December. At the spring harvest date, forage may be drier and may have sprung up after the snow has melted, as suggested by Ocumpaugh and Matches (1977). It may also have been the result of early spring growth in late March of these three species (Riesterer et al., 2000).
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Conclusions
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Stockpiling forage is an effective method to extend the grazing season in the upper Midwest. Stockpiled tall fescue, early-maturing orchardgrass, and reed canarygrass can be grazed anytime during the winter, due to good SFOM and high biomass availability above 8 cm throughout the winter. Timothy and late-maturing orchardgrass should be grazed by December because SFOM declines rapidly throughout the winter. Smooth bromegrass and quackgrass are poor choices for stockpiling due to low SFOM accumulation in late summer. This means that the majority of upper Midwestern pastures, which have never been seeded and consist mostly of smooth bromegrass and quackgrass, have poor forages for stockpiling. Greater stockpiled forage would result if pastures to be stockpiled were seeded to higher fall-yielding species. Fall N fertilization is essential when stockpiling to increase the vertical distribution of biomass above an 8-cm height for all species and to increase the SFOM, especially for orchardgrass and tall fescue.SAS Institute 1985
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NOTES
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1 Trade names are mentioned for the reader's convenience and do not imply endorsement by the University of Wisconsin. 
Received for publication July 1, 1999.
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TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
