Food and Feeding Behaviour of Cattle and Ponies in the New Forest, Hampshire

Abstract

(1) Foraging behaviour auad composition of diet of free-ranging cattle and ponies were investigated in the New Forest in Hampshire. Both cattle and ponies are preferential grazers and spent most of their time feeding on the various natural and improved grasslands of the Forest. (2) Cattle showed a relatively constant pattern of use of habitat throughout the year with heavy emphasis on improved and streamside grasslands (70-80%/0 of foraging observations) and extensive use of heathland (wet heaths in summer, dry heath in winter). Feeding use of other communities was slight. (3) Species composition of the diet of cattle was also similar throughout the year. Grasses (and supplementary hay or straw in winter) constituted 70-80%/0 of the diet in all months, with the balance made up of heather (both Calluna vilgaris and Erica spp.). No other items contributed more than 3%/0 of the diet at any time. (4) By contrast, ponies showed marked seasonality in their use of vegetation. Improved grasslands were important throughout the year, but wet heaths, bogs and natural acid grasslands showed a clearly seasonal pattern of use, matching the time of growth of Molinia caerulea in each community. Ponies made increased use of browse materials during winter and thus increased their foraging use of gorsebrake and deciduous woodland at that time. (5) Diet of the Forest ponies also showed seasonal variation. Summer diet, like that of cattle, was primarily of grasses (80-90%/0) but Molinia caerulea, a species scarcely eaten by cattle, contributed to 20%/, of the diet at this time. Over the winter, percentage of grass in the diet declined to c. 50%10; a compensatory increase was noted in the amount of browse consumed, notably gorse (Ulex europaeus) and holly (Ilex aquifjlium). (6) During the growing season, species composition of pony diet was significantly correlated with productivity and digestible nitrogen content of forage species. It is suggested that ponies can adjust their diet to ensure maximum intake of digestible dry matter of high nutritional quality at any season. Lack of similar flexibility in the diet of New Forest cattle may be related to ruminal physiology and social constraints.