Diet Selection by Grazing Animals

Grazing behaviour and diet selection by Dorper sheep.

The grazing behaviour and diet selection by Dorper sheep, as well as other related aspects (pasture intake, walking habits and trampling) is reviewed. It was clear that Dorper sheep are less-selective grazers, compared to Merino-type breeds. Dorpers utilised shrubs and bushes to a greater extent, but grass to a lesser extent in relation to Merino sheep. The Dorper also utilised a larger number ...

Diet selection by animals: theory and experimental design.

Diet Selection by Cattle under High- Intensity Low-Frequency, Short Duration, and Merrill Grazing Systems

A study was conducted to evaluate standing crop of forage and cattle diets for a ‘I-pasture high-intensity low-frequency (HILF) grazing system, and a ‘I-pasture short-duration grazing (SDG) system on the same area. A epasture, 3-herd (Merrill) deferred rotation grazing system was sampled as a standard for comparison. Standing crop of forage was highest for the HILF grazing system compared to th...

1st Conference on Resource Selection by Animals

Although all habitat-suitability modelling methods are inherently linked to the Hutchinsonian definition of the ecological niche, those based on the environmental envelopes are its direct geometrical application. Their common principle is to model in the environmental space, a hyper-surface, the envelope, encompassing all or part of the observation points. This paper compares four such methods:...

Validation of the alkane technique to estimate diet selection of goats grazing heather-gorse vegetation communities

The effect of n-alkane faecal recovery on the accuracy of diet composition estimates, when increasing the number of diet components, was studied. Seven dietary treatments, composed of different proportions of herbaceous (Lolium perenne and Trifolium repens) and woody species (Erica umbellata, Erica cinerea, Calluna vulgaris, Erica arborea and Ulex gallii) were offered to 28 goats housed in meta...