Behaviour of sheep in three different types of paddock in karst region of Slovenia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31914/aak.1790Keywords:
small ruminants, sheep, animal behaviour, pastureAbstract
Forty sheep and ten goats were reared on three different types of paddock (grass paddock, woody, and partly woody paddock). Behaviour of the ten marked sheep was observed during the time of day light (between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m.). Frequency of the following activities was monitored: grazing, drinking, salt consumption, aggressive behaviour, comfort behaviour and resting (in lying position, in standing position and resting in the flock). On average, the animals were grazing 10.5 hours per day. Circadian rhythm of grazing was different, depending on the type of paddock and on average daily temperature. Drinking frequency was very low. On average, each animal drank 0.99 times per day. Salt consumption, frequency of aggressive behaviour and comfort behaviour were most frequent in woody paddock. Two types of resting (in lying position and resting in the flock) had almost the same percent of the total resting time (46–47%), while the third type of resting (in standing position) had the lowest percent in all three types of paddock (about 7%).
References
Champion, R. A., Rutter, S. M., Penning, P. D., Rook, A. J. (1994). Temporal variation in grazing behaviour of sheep and reliability of sampling periods. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci., 42(2), 99–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/0168-1591(94)90150-3
Cunder, T. (1998). Zaraščanje kmetijskih zemljišč in ukrepi za preprečevanje opuščanje pridelave. Letno poročilo 1998. Ljubljana, Ministrstvo za znanost in tehnologijo Republike Slovenije, 59.
Cunder, T. (1999). Zaraščanje kmetijskih zemljišč in ukrepi za preprečevanje opuščanje pridelave. Letno poročilo 1999. Ljubljana, Ministrstvo za znanost in tehnologijo Republike Slovenije, 10–32.
Fraser, A.F., Broom, D.M. (1990). Farm animal behaviour and welfare. 3rd ed. Bailliere Tindall, London, 437.
Hecker, J.F. (1983). The sheep as an experimental animal. Academic Press, London, 134.
Kermauner, A. (1996). Prehrana in krma za drobnico. In: (Ed. Savina Dreu), Reja drobnice. ČZD Kmečki glas, Ljubljana, 77–135.
Lynch, J. J., Hinch, G. N., Adams, D. B. (1992). The behaviour of sheep. Biological principles and implications for production. CSIRO Publications, Wallingford, 237.
Statistični urad Republike Slovenije: Statistični letopis, (2002). Republika Slovenija, Ljubljana: 659.
Vidrih, T. (1996). Paša drobnice in gospodarjenje s travinjem. In: (Ed.Savina Dreu), Reja drobnice. ČZD Kmečki glas, Ljubljana, 137–186.
Vidrih, T., Kompan, D., Kermauner, A., Pogačnik, M., Kotar, M., Kotnik, T. (1996). V kolikšni meri paša na kraški ruši lahko zadovolji prehranske potrebe drobnice. In: Zbornik. Možnosti razvoja reje drobnice v Sloveniji. Kmetijska založba, Slovenj Gradec, 39–44.
Woodward, S. J. R. (1997). Formulae for predicting animals' daily intake of pasture and grazing time from bite weight and composition. Livest. Prod. Sci., 52(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0301-6226(97)00021-3
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2006 Danijela Bojkovski, Ivan Stuhec, Dragomir Kompan
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
