Buğday Hasılı Ve Doğal Mera İle Farklı Otlatma Yoğunluklarının Sağmal Keçilerin Bazı Davranış Özelliklerine Etkisi.

Pasture use and management are of importance to ensure the sustainability of pastures and to meet the need for food which increases in the spring in dairy goat husbandry. Some behavioral and performance traits of goats in the types of pasture with different grazing intensities were determined in this study. For this purpose, totally 24 Turkish Saanen goats were followed in 6 pasture plots consisting of natural and wheat pastures of 3 different sizes for 3 months. In the natural pasture where the rates of species of Poaceae, legumes and other families were 67%, 4% and 29%, respectively, the grass yield had values close to those of the wheat pasture in the period corresponding to early April, while it decreased as time passed. It was determined that all of the behavioral traits under consideration varied by type of pasture, plot size, date of observation, and observation period (P≤0.039). The goats in the wheat pasture group displayed 31% fewer grazing behaviors, 50% fewer walking behaviors and 20% fewer lying behaviors than the goats in the natural pasture plots, whereas they displayed 73% more ruminating behaviors and 49% more standing behaviors (P≤0.0001). The behavioral traits significantly varied by plot size, while it was determined that the variation did not display any linear tendency (P=0.0480). The levels of live body weight and milk yield were higher among the goats in the wheat pasture throughout the experiment. It is thought that the wheat pasture is a convenient pasture for the lactating goats which provide the required food by grazing and walking for a shorter period and that it might be useful to reduce the pressure on the natural pasture undergoing the early sprouting period. On the other hand, it turned out that the natural pasture was inadequate for the lactating goats and that natural pasture grazing management should be formed with detailed studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]