Dietary selection and ingestive behaviour of fallow deer and sheep grazing on adjacent monocultures of white clover and tall fescue
| Autor: | Elena Saccà, Stefano Bovolenta, Edi Piasentier |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2007 |
| Předmět: |
dietary selectivity
n-alkane method geography Herbivore geography.geographical_feature_category biology yearling small ruminants Fallow deer intensive grazing systems average daily grazing time biology.organism_classification Pasture Food Animals Agronomy Grazing Herd Trifolium repens Animal Science and Zoology Monoculture Festuca arundinacea Legume |
| Popis: | The experiment compared dietary selectivity, in terms of both herbage intake and feeding behaviour, of fallow deer and sheep grazing on two types of pasture consisting of adjacent, one-area monocultures of Trifolium repens (C), at low standing mass availability (SM = 0.6 t DM ha−1) and compressed sward height (CSH = 4.5 cm), and Festuca arundinacea (F) in two proportions by ground area: 25%C:75%F (pasture type 1) or 75%C:25%F (pasture type 2). A split plot design was carried out in two blocks, each comprising two 0.50 ha plots of different pasture type. Every plot was grazed sequentially by two herds of six 1-year-old animals of either Dama dama (live weight (LW) = 28.5 kg) or sheep (LW = 47.4 kg), for two consecutive 9-day grazing periods. A total of four herds were used, by moving over the herds grazing on the same type of pasture from block to block, at the end of the first grazing period. The grazing measurements were recorded on the last 3 days of every grazing period. The time spent grazing either grass or legume was evaluated from a visual scan of each animal, while dietary composition, herbage intake and digestibility were estimated by the n-alkane method, after correcting the faecal patterns of markers by their individual recovery, evaluated in a companion trial for fallow deer. Application of the n-alkane method provided an estimation of dietary selectivity, for both deer and sheep, coherent with well-established principles of herbivore nutrition. Indeed, under the conditions of vegetation geography and herbage abundance mentioned above, which would have allowed animals to gather monospecific diets on both pasture types, mixed diets were selected, largely dominated by the most extensive plant species. Deer grazed higher proportions of clover than sheep (53% versus 37%; P |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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