Comportement alimentaire des taurillons Girolando sur deux types de pâturages cultivés en zone subéquatoriale

Abstract

Zoffoun, A. G., Babatounde,S., Houinato, M., Mensah, G. A. and Sinsin, B. 2011. Eating behavior of the Girolando cattle on two types of cultivated pastures in the subequatorial zone. Can. J. Anim. Sci. 91: 675-683. The eating behavior of the Girolando dairy cattle on the artificial grazing pastures of Panicum maximum and Panicum maximum var. C1 was studied in the subequatorial zone of Benin. Sixteen young male cattle were distributed into two groups of eight animals each. Group 1 was fed on Panicum maximum and group 2 on Panicum maximum var. C1. The animals were followed with direct observation of the different grazing activities according to the hand-plucking method.Animals fed Panicum maximum spent 66.7% of the time grazing, 9.9%in rumination, 18.1% resting, and 5.3% watering; those fed Panicum maximum var. C1 spent 54.3% of the time grazing, 12.0% in rumination, 28.4% resting and 5.3% watering. The most elevated values of voluntary ingestion were obtained on Panicum maximum pasture. On average, animals...