Diet selectivity of Boer and Tswana goats as affected by season, time of the day and period of browsing

作者：Lebopa C K^*; Boomker E A; Chimonyo M; Mokoboki H K

来源：Asia Life Sciences, 2012, 17-28.

• nutritive value
• Range Tswana goats
• Range Boer goats
• season
• diurnal variation
• Africa

The study was aimed at investigating the effect of season, breed, time of the day and period of occupation of a grazing/browsing camp on the nutritive value of the diets selected by free ranging oesophageal fistulated goat does in the False Thornveld of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The oesophageal fistula valve technique was used to collect extrusa samples of the diet as selected by the goats during winter (cool dry season) and summer (hot wet season). Extrusa samples were analysed for nitrogen (N), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre (ADF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL). The diets selected by the goats differed between the seasons in terms of CP (winter 5.4%, summer 9.5%), NDF (winter 48.2%, summer 53.8%) andADF (winter 34.3%, summer 37.5%). ADL content showed no change (winter 18.0.%, summer 19.5%). Goats selected diets higher in CP, NDF and ADF during summer. No breed differences were found in the CP (Tswana 7.7%, Boer 7.2%) and NDF (Tswana 52.4%, Boer 49.5%) contents of selected diets. There were however breed differences in both the ADF (Tswana 37.0%, Boer 34.8%) and ADL (Tswana 20.0%, Boer 17.5%) contents of selected forages. Nutrient content of selected diets decreased in quality with advancing period of occupation of a camp. Dietary CP was adequate to meet goat requirements only in summer. During winter, both Tswana and Boer goats selected diets with insufficient crude protein to meet their maintenance requirements. A regime of CP supplementation must be considered during winter.

• 出版日期2012-12
• 单位西北大学