Daily Variation in Feeding and Ingestive Behaviour of Sheep and Goats Grazing and Browsing on Grass- Legume Pastures

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the feeding and ingestive behaviours of sheep and goats grazing on grass-legume pastures. Three 2-year female Nguni x Boer goats and three 3-year female Damara sheep were randomly allocated to grass-Lespedeza cuneata (grass-Lc) and grass-Leucaena leucocephala (grass-Ll) pastures. Times spent on browsing, grazing and idling were recorded from 0700 to 1600 h every 2 minutes for 3 consecutive days. Ingestive behaviour of each animal was observed for 10 minutes at 1000, 1200 and 1400 h for 6 days. Bite count and bite weight were used to determine intake rates during browsing. Goats spent 3.24 and 3.93 times longer than sheep in browsing, while sheep spent 2.75 and 2.27 times longer in grazing than goats on grass-Lc than grass-Ll pastures, respectively. Goats idled for longer periods than sheep on both pastures. Sheep had faster bite rates than goats, while Lespedeza cuneata elicited lower bite rates than L. leucocephala. Fastest feeding and bite rates were observed at mid day (1200 h) and lowest during the afternoon (1400 h). Intake rates of fresh herbage are higher at mid day than in the morning and afternoon. In conclusion, based on time spent browsing, L. leucocephala is better preferred as a forage browse compared to L. cuneata.