Intake and ingestive behavior of goats on marandu-grass pasture

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to evaluate the influence of Marandu-grass (Brachiaria brizantha) pasture height (30, 40, 50 and 60 cm) on the canopy structural traits and grazing behavior and forageingestion process by goats. Six goats were used to evaluate behavior during grazing, and four were used to evaluate the ingestion process - all goats were Anglo-Nubian. The adopted experimental design was completely randomized, with two replicates in space and two replicates in time. Increase in the canopy height resulted in an increase in the masses of forage, leaves, stem, and dead material and tiller density, and reduction in leaf/stem ratio. Grazing time increased and idle time reduced as the canopy height was elevated. The correlation between canopy height and bite depth was positive and linear (r = 0.99). The mass of consumed forage, the intake rate, and the bite mass were higher at 60 cm. The correlation between pasture height and bite rate was negative, whereas the correlation between pasture height and the time per bite was positive. On Marandu-grass pastures, the greatest efficiency in forage harvesting by goats occurs at a canopy height of 60 cm.

Keywords

• Bite mass; Bite rate; Goats; Grazing time; Pasture height