“…In contrast for method 2, the number of plucks taken and thus the amount of herbage collected, depends mostly on pasture area for method 1, however, no data is available on how magnitude of the herbage sample affects PLC results (Couvillion, 1993). Herbage samples collected by plucking contain more soil, which hinders L 3 recovery and identification (Crofton, 1954) and which can lead to unrepresentative larval counts, originating from the soil reservoir (Al Saqur et al, 1982;Callinan and Westcott, 1986;Demeler et al, 2012). Comparison of PLC obtained by tracer calves, the assumed golden standard, might be required to confirm a biological relevant difference between sampling methods.…”