Intake behaviour of sheep on tifton 85 pasture (Cynodon ssp) at Northeast of Brazil.

Abstract

An experiment was carried out to evaluate the grazing behaviour of sheep on Tifton- 85 pasture (Cynodon ssp), at Northeast of Brazil. The experimental design was a completely randomized experimental design with three categories (lambs, ewes and sheep) as treatments, each one with five repetitions. The experiment had during 40 days, being 25 for adaptation of animals and 15 for evaluations, that consisted of three replicates, with duration of 12 hours each, in intervals of five days. The Tukey test demonstrated that for the time of grazing, the lambs and the sheep grazing for a larger time than ewe, though significant differences were not observed for the rumination times. Differently, the time of permanence in leisure went larger for the ewes. There was not significant difference for the bite rate of lambs and ewes, being the smallest value observed for the sheep. It was evident that the lambs grazed more intensely when compared with both lambs and ewes.