Nutritional potential of woody vegetation for local goats in Israel
1997
Kababya, D. (Ministry of Agriculture, Tel Aviv (Israel). Sheep and Goat Department) | Landau, S. | Perevolotsky, A. (Agricultural Research Organization, Bet Dagan (Israel). The Volcani Centre. Dept. of Natural Resources) | Bruckental, I. (Agricultural Research Organization, Bet Dagan (Israel). The Volcani Centre, Dept. of Animal Science)
Direct observations (n equal to 390) were carried out on local Mamber goats, in a commercial flock located in Northern Galilee on a Mediterranean woodland in Israel. Diets eaten by goats were simulated by hand plucking of vegetation. On a yearly basis, goats spent less time at handling and ingesting herbaceous, as compared with ligneous (tree and shrub leaves) vegetation (40 per cent and 60 per cent, respectively; P less than 0.05). This was found at all seasons with the exception of the spring (April-May). Some environmental factors affected the grazing behaviour: (i) on rainy days there was a significant trend toward selection of more ligneous vegetation and (ii) during morning hours goats spent more time ingesting ligneous vegetation than later on during the day. Herbaceous vegetation and Quercus calliprinos were the main components of diet throughout the year, and approximately 50 per cent of the annual eating time was devoted to their consumption. Crude Protein (CP) concentration in the diet ranged between 3.5 to 15.3 per cent of DM, but levels of CP in the selected diet varied between 9.1 to 14.7 per cent of DM. 9 to 18 per cent of the CP was linked to the ADF fraction. Condensed Tannin (CT) concentration on the range varied between 0.13 per cent to 12.21 per cent of DM, as compared with 3.52 to 4.74 per cent of DM in the selected diet. Although the variation in CP and CT levels in the different species was large, their concentration in the selected diet remained quite constant throughout the year.
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