ANIMALS MUST CONSUME AT MINIMUM AS MUCH ENERGYTHAN THEY SPEND TO KEEP THEMSELVES ALIVE. WHENEVER ENERGY INTAKE EXCEEDS ENERGY EXPENDITURE, SURPLUS ENERGY MAY BE USED TO INCREASE BODY MASS OR PRODUCE OFFSPRING. IF WE KNOW BOTH COMPONENTS OF THIS ENERGY BUDGET (I.E., BOTH ENERGY INTAKE AND EXPENDITURE), WE CAN PREDICT MULTIPLE MEASUREMENTS OF ANIMAL PRODUCTION (E.G., WEIGHT GAIN). THEREFORE, OUR OVERARCHING HYPOTHESIS IS THAT ANIMAL PRODUCTION IS DETERMINED BY HOW MUCH FOOD AN ANIMAL CONSUMES, HOW MUCH ENERGY THEY SPEND TO KEEP THEMSELVES ALIVE (I.E., METABOLISM), AND HOW MUCH ENERGY THEY SPEND ON OTHER BEHAVIORS (E.G., MOVEMENT). TO EXAMINE THIS, WE WILL PERFORM THE FOLLOWING OBJECTIVES:1. COLLECT COMPREHENSIVE DATA ON FORAGE QUALITY AND ABUNDANCE, MOVEMENT, BEHAVIORS, AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS IN 2 EXPERIMENTAL GRAZING SYSTEMS IN MISSISSIPPI AND OKLAHOMA;2. FIT A PREDICTIVE MODEL OF ANIMAL PRODUCTION AS A FUNCTION OF FORAGE CHARACTERISTICS, MOVEMENT, AND BEHAVIORS USING MISSISSIPPI DATA; AND,3. TEST THE MODEL AGAINST IDENTICAL AND INDEPENDENT DATA FROM OKLAHOMA.OURDATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES (1) WILL PRODUCE OVER 250BILLION DATA POINTS RELATED TO ANIMAL MOVEMENT, SPACE USE, FORAGING BEHAVIOR, AND BODY CONDITION AND TEMPERATURE. OUR MODEL (2) WILL ESTIMATE HOW MUCH FORAGE INTAKE CONTRIBUTES TO ANIMAL PRODUCTION, AND HOW MUCH MOVEMENT AND METABOLISM TAKE AWAY FROM ANIMAL PRODUCTION. TESTING THE MODEL USING INDEPENDENT DATA (3) WILL LET US EVALUATE HOW ACCURATE THE MODEL IS WHEN APPLIED TO NEW DATA (I.E., DO WE HAVE A GOOD MODEL?). WE ANTICIPATE THAT THESE RESULTS WILL PROVIDE NEW INSIGHT INTO HOW ANIMAL BEHAVIOR AND PHYSIOLOGY COMBINED DETERMINE ANIMAL BODY QUALITY AND PRODUCTION. THIS WILL ENABLE PREDICTION OF ANIMAL PRODUCTION IN ANY GRAZING SYSTEM WHERE THE FORAGE QUANTITY AND QUALITY IS KNOWN. THESE PREDICTIONS MAY THEN BE USED TO OPTIMIZE CATTLE STOCKING DENSITIES AND ROTATIONS THROUGH PASTURES (I.E., HOW MANY CATTLE CAN I PUT IN AN ALFALFA/BERMUDA PASTURE OF A GIVEN SIZE WITHOUT HAVING TO PROVIDE SUPPLEMENTAL FEED?).