Selecting and feeding behaviour of grazing animals
Keywords:
behaviour of grazing animals, number of bites, espohagus fistulaAbstract
The costs of feeding play an important role in animal husbandry, therefore quality of forage has a major impact on economic position of ruminant animal breeding. Different animal species have different requirements regarding the composition of plants on grasslands. If possible, animals make a selection between plants by their preferences.
Between 1976 and 1996, investigations were carried out by our research group at the Department of Grassland Management at the University of Gödöllő to study selection behaviour of grazing animals, using three different methods. In the case of single species plots, the number of bites of beef cows was counted. In the case of sheep and horses, the time spent with grazing were examined in each plot. In natural grasslands diet selection was determined using esophageal fistulated sheep. Plant samples were analyzed by microhistological technique.
As expected, animals preferred grasslands containing mixed species. However, it was surprising that sheep consumed papilionaceous cotyledons (conditional weeds) in an amount of app. 35 %. The relationship between the quantity of nutrients in plants and the preference of certain species was proven by correlation analyses. Usually preference of a plant species was strongly affected by digestability of organic matter and crude fibre content.
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