An environmentally friendly keeping technology for the grazing of geese

Through experimentation with hundreds of geese in model trials, several thousands of geese in experiments conducted under conditions of semi-industrialization and several tens of thousands of meat-geese kept under industrial conditions, the authors' objective was to work out an environmentally friendly grazing and keeping technology for geese, as well as to study their grazing habits and the varieties of grasses prefer. Digestibility trials was conducted with mixtures with 5-8 percent fibre content. The feed conversion coefficients showed that any addition to the fibre content increased the utilization of organic matter, of nitrogen-free extract (NFE) and minerals. However, at the same time, it had a negative effect on the digestion of fats and fibre. The grazing experiment proved that the crucial issue involved in the technology is conducting seriatim grazing; this can be perfectly ensured by using an electrical fence; the best quality grazing is provided by 5-15(20) cm tall stalks of grass preceding panicle-emergence; geese will not graze on grasses taller than 15-20 cm which have developed their seedstalks and will only stamp them down flat; vegetation shorter than 2-5 cm must not be grazed in that the geese, which graze by plucking at the grass, will eat the grasses they like down to the clustering point. This in turn will deplete the rhizome, kill the grassland and leave the area exposed to weeds, which raises issues concerning environmental protection; traditionally highly valued grasses in the range indicated below will unquestionably be grazed on by geese; geese will avoid grasses that qualify as weeds, especially thorny weeds and most other types found on pastureland; looking after the grassland and preventing the maturing of the seeds of plants not eaten becomes particularly important in the grazing of geese; through careful grazing, the quality of grasslands can be maintained and may be improve as a results of fertilizer application