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We conducted this study to describe the intermediate-term periodicities in percentage juniper (Juniperus spp.) in goat diets and to develop optimal sampling schemes to estimate individual animal variation in juniper consumption. Fecal samples were collected from 12 multiparous female Angora goats on Monday and Thursday for a 24-mo period. Percentage juniper in the diet was determined using fecal near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy. Spectral analysis was used to determine the presence and length of cyclic variation in juniper consumption during growing and dormant season periods. Significant periodicities were found for 37% and 68% of the goats in the dormant and growing seasons, respectively. Cycle lengths varied from 9 d in the dormant season to 7 or 8 d in the growing season. The simple coefficient of determination between a two-sample moving average and the mean of all observations on individual goats was highest during a 3-mo period in the spring, which indicates that samples collected in the spring provided the best estimate of the yearlong percentage juniper in the diet. Monte Carlo simulations for 7-d cycles showed the root mean squared difference between estimated and population mean for two samples with 2 or 3 d between samples was only 1% greater than the root mean square difference for three or four samples collected every other day. The optimal sampling strategy for determining the dietary percentage of a species is to collect two samples separated by one-half of the cycle length.

The potential for winter supplementation to increase juniper intake by goats on rangelands in the Edwards Plateau region of Texas was assessed in two experiments. The first experiment evaluated the effect on juniper intake of either no supplementation (negative control) or supplementation with corn, alfalfa, or cottonseed meal fed at an isonitrogenous protein level of 1.5 g · kg body weight−1 for 12 days. Redberry juniper (Juniperus pinchotii Sudw.) consumption by individually penned Spanish, Boer × Spanish, Spanish × Angora, and Angora goats was measured on days 11 and 12. Each goat received each supplement in a complete 4 × 4 Latin square design. Juniper intake increased for goats supplemented with alfalfa and cottonseed meal (P = 0.001), but not for those supplemented with corn (P = 0.944). Boer × Spanish goats did not differ in levels of consumption (P = 0.085) from the other breeds. A second study investigated the effect of either no supplementation or soybean meal supplementation on juniper...