Round-day behavior of ewe-lambs at grazing - INRAE - Institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement
Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2018

Round-day behavior of ewe-lambs at grazing

Résumé

An experiment was conducted in the springtime with the objective of characterizing the behavior of Romane ewe lambs under the changing grazing and weather conditions of La Fage INRA Farm (France). Fifteen ewes (38.1 ± 2.2 kg BW; 11 mo) were submitted to a rotational grazing system during 2 mo (stocking rate: 15 ewes/ha). The 1 ha pastureland (mix of grass-legume; Table 1), was divided in 27 paddocks (~290 m2) with grazing stays of 2 to 3 d/paddock. The biomass availability and its nutritive value (NV) increased and decreased with time, whereas average temperature and rainfall were 14.7°C and 2.24 mm/d, respectively. Four equidistant days were scheduled to record the time spent for grazing (GRZ), ruminating (RUM), walking (WALK), resting (REST), standing (STD), urinating (URI) or defecating (DEF). Visual observations were made by 2 operators every 10 min. during 24-h. Notations combined 2 behaviors if required (e.g., GRZ while WALK) and were based on the % of animals in one or another activity each time. The MIXED procedure, with repeated measures, of SAS was used for data analyses. Ewe behavior was significantly modified by biomass quality. As the experiment advanced, NV was affected and more time was spent for GRZ, which normally started after dawn (~0500 h), with peaks at 0540, 0930, 1550, 1740 h, and finally from 1920 to 2100 h. The GRZ-REST cycles were coordinated. The 100% ewes were in REST from midnight until dawn. The REST was significantly related to RUM, mainly during the morning and afternoon. The URI and DEF peaks were at noon and during the night. These results are original as minimal literature is available regarding detailed 24-h diurnal behavior of grazing sheep. These data provide new opportunities for improving flock management and the efficiency of using the available biomass based on the combined dynamics of individual and mob-based grazing behaviors during the day.
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Dates et versions

hal-02735946 , version 1 (02-06-2020)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-02735946 , version 1
  • PRODINRA : 432822

Citer

Eliel González García, Moutaz Alhamada, André C.C. Souza, Z. Holubova, Gregory John Bishop-Hurley. Round-day behavior of ewe-lambs at grazing. 2018 American Dairy Science Association, Jun 2018, Knoxville, United States. 116 p. ⟨hal-02735946⟩
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