Abstract
The ingestive behavior of hoggets was assessed under intermittent grazing method with three days of paddock occupation. These animals remained exclusively on Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam) pasture or on ryegrass pasture and receiving 1.2% of DM in relation to body weight of rice paddy, corn grain or whole rice bran as a supplement during the vegetative, pre-flowering and flowering phenological stages of ryegrass. The experimental design was a randomized split-split plots wherein the types of supplement were considered as main plot, phenological stages as subplot and the days of occupation as sub-subplots. The hoggets grazed for a longer time when kept exclusively on ryegrass pasture. The hoggets grazed for less time in the vegetative stage of ryegrass and on the third day of paddock occupation. Feeding behavior of hoggets is changed when supplementation is provided in different phenological stages of the grass and days of paddock occupation.
Highlights
The diurnal grazing pattern of herbivores involves decisions such as the timing and the frequency of meals and the distribution of grazing periods (GREGORINI, 2012)
In ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.), as well as in other forage species, the intermittent grazing method can change the relationship of herbivore with the pasture by means of changes occurring in the structure of the canopy
This study evaluated the ingestive behavior of hoggets under intermittent grazing exclusively on ryegrass pasture or when given different supplements
Summary
The diurnal grazing pattern of herbivores involves decisions such as the timing and the frequency of meals and the distribution of grazing periods (GREGORINI, 2012). In ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.), as well as in other forage species, the intermittent grazing method can change the relationship of herbivore with the pasture by means of changes occurring in the structure of the canopy. In this method, these changes are abrupt, occur in short time, interfering with the behavioral patterns of. In the intermittent grazing method, possible reductions in the forage intake rate and increased grazing time can occur every paddock occupation day, when the canopy becomes more heterogeneous, with a consequent increase in selectivity by the herbivore (STOBBS, 1973)
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