Behaviour of horned and hornless goats in loose housing in the feeding area and in the lying area

It has been compulsory for organic farms to keep their animals in loose housing systems since 1 January 2002 (with a transitional period to 2010). The change from tie-stalls to loose housing can make the animals very restless and aggressive. Many farmers are sceptical, particularly as they consider horned goats too aggressive to be kept in loose housing. However, for various reasons, they are unwilling to disbud the goats. The purpose of this work was to examine whether there are differences in the feeding and lying behaviour of horned and hornless goats, and whether horned goats make different demands on space requirements and the design of feeding and lying areas. One experiment was conducted in the feeding area and one in the lying area of three goat farms. Each experiment comprised four groups of ten horned and ten hornless goats each. The number of feeding places in the feeding area was reduced from an initial 20 to 15 and 10. The proportion of time spent feeding, distances between the goats at the feeding barrier and aggression rates were recorded. The lying space in the lying area was reduced from an initial 2 m2 to 1.5 m2 and 1 m2 per animal. The proportion of time spent lying, distances between the lying animals and aggression rates were recorded. For both experiments, the ranking was determined and the groups divided into high ranking, middle ranking and low ranking animals. The data was analysed using an ANOVA with repeated measurements. In all three feeding place arrangements, the horned goats spent significantly less time feeding and showed significantly smaller distances at the feeding barrier than the hornless ones. This was due to behavioural changes in the low ranking horned animals, which only reached the feed for one third of the whole feeding period when ten feeding places were provided. The hornless goats spread out more evenly at the feeding barrier, even when the number of feeding places was restricted. There was no significant difference in the aggression rate between horned and hornless groups. The fact of having horns affected neither the lying distances nor the proportion of time spent lying, whereas restriction of the available lying area led to a reduction of the time spent lying, particularly with a lying area of 1 m2 per animal. There was also no difference in the aggression rate between horned and hornless goats. The results allow to draw the following conclusions: The feeding place restriction was problematical for the low ranking horned animals in particular, and resulted in their not having sufficient time for feeding. The lying area restriction had less serious consequences for the low ranking animals than the feeding place restriction. Nevertheless, a lying area of 1 m2 per animal is adjudged to be very tight, due to the reduced lying time observed in small groups of less than 15 - 20 animals.