BEHAVIOURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF GOATS WITH DIFFERENT MILK PRODUCTION

Dubravska, Jarmila
Gyarmathy, Egon
Department of Animal Husbandry
Slovak Agricultural University
Nitra, Slovak Republic

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ABSTRACT

Three groups of goats with different milk production were compared. The goats were milked twice per day and they were in the pasture from morning until evening. Each group consisted of six goats. The first group of goats had the least milk production, approximately one litre of milk. The third group had the highest milk production. The goats were observed in the pasture and also in the building. Observed activities were: moving, standing, standing and ruminating, grazing, grazing and passively moving, lying, lying with ruminating, sleeping and drinking. Differences between groups existed but they are not significant.

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INTRODUCTION

Goat breeding has a tradition in the Slovak Republic. In the past there were small herds of goats. From 1990 the situation started to change. The big goat farms are increasing. Previously, the animals were bred mainly in the pasture, and we had little experience. That was the main reason for starting research in this part of goat breeding. The goat is an animal that needs connection with other animals of the same species, or has contact with other animals of different species. The differences between goats and sheep are visible. The goats prefer to graze in small groups compared with sheep that are try to be in one big herd. They prefer shrubs and weeds, but without control they can destroy the land (Yugoslavia); that is why they are used to liquidate shrubs and weeds in the pastures in Australia and New Zealand. Holecy (1989) followed a group of goats on the pasture to find their preferences in pasture. The preferences of animals depend upon the kinds of plants growing there (Nudd 1980, Westby 1980, Malachek and Provenza 1983). The activities of grazing animals depend on social dominance of the animals (Fournier and Festa-Bianchet 1995). The horns play a very important role in the hierarchy of herd, then the age of the goats and size of the animal body. Kids are more often associated with similarly aged animals then their mothers or other adult females during their first 15 weeks following parturition (Lickliter 1987).
MATERIALS AND METHODS

The private farm where the research was conducted is situated in the middle part of the Slovak Republic. Animals were milked twice a day. Milk was produced in the milking factories for cheese production. During the days goats grazed in the pasture; during evenings and nights they were in the buildings. We selected three groups of goats with different milk production. Every group consisted of six goats. The first group had milk production of less than one litre per day, the third group produced more than 2 litres and the second group between 1 and 2 litres. Groups consisted of two year old animals of a white short-haired breed. We observed such activities as moving, grazing and moving, grazing and standing, standing, standing and ruminating and positions as lying, lying and ruminating and sleeping of goats on the pasture; activities and positions were recorded in three minute long intervals.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The activities of goats are recorded in Table 1 and passivity in Table 2. There were observed differences between groups. The most active animals were of the third group with a total of 92.47 percent (the highest milk production); the least was the first group of goats (90.55 percent in total). Grazing and moving and grazing in one place were the most in animals with the highest milk production and in the first group with the least milk production. The best animals did the least ruminating in the pasture, compared with the first group which did the most lying and ruminating in the pasture.
The grazing of the goats depends on the quality of the pasture and climate. They were very active during the first 30-50 minutes when they were moving and searching. The most active group consisted of the goats with the highest milk production, and which did the most grazing in the pasture but the least ruminating. The observed differences were not significant.

Table 1. Activities of the goats on the pasture in percentage

Table 2. Passivity of the goats during pasture in percentage

REFERENCES

Fournier, F. & Festa-Bianchet, M. 1995. Social dominance in adult female mountain goats. In: Anim.Behav. 49:1449-1459.
Holecy, B. 1989. Pasienkarstvo a zivotne prejavy koz. (vedecka praca), Bratislava, Priroda, c.20, s.185-193.
Lickliter, R., E. 1987. Activity Patterns and Companion Preferences of Domestic Goat Kids, In: Appl. Anim. Behav. Science, 19:.137-145.
Malachek, J.C.&- Provenza, F.D. 1983. Feeding behaviour and nutrition of goats on rangelands. In: World Anim.Rev. 47:38-48.
Nudd, D.T. 1980. Forage "preference": Theoretical consideration of diet selection by deer. In: J.Wildl.Manage. 44:735-740.
Westoby, M. 1980. Black tailed jack rabbit diets in Curlew Valey, Northern Utah. In: J.Wildl.Manage. 44:942-948.