Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• El Aich, A.
• Touibi, M.
• Rittenhouse, L.R.

Titel

Food intake by free-grazing sheep and resource productivity

Ist Teil von

• Applied animal behaviour science, 1989, Vol.24 (3), p.239-245

Ort / Verlag

Elsevier B.V

Erscheinungsjahr

1989

Quelle

Elsevier Journal Backfiles on ScienceDirect (DFG Nationallizenzen)

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• A study was conducted in the Middle Atlas Region, Morocco, to investigate habitat use by free-grazing sheep during December 1985, and May, July and September 1986. Movements of free-grazing sheep were observed and recorded. With advance in season, grazing time per unit area (GTA) varied among plant communities. GTA in plant communities was as high as 72 min ha −1 and as low as 3 min ha −1 ( P < 0.05). Intake (g dry matter per ewe per day) was different among the 11 patches and depended on season ( P < 0.05), i.e. 815, 1249, 1279 and 968 in December, May, July and September, respectively. Ingestion parameters, i.e. rate of biting and mass per bite, varied according to plant communities ( P < 0.05) and season ( P < 0.05). Sheep tended to compensate for a decrease in the availability of feed by changing the rate of biting and bite size.