Goat grazing for weed control in paddy levees
2009
Takayama, K.(Kagoshima Univ. (Japan)) | Iwasaki, Y. | Fukunaga, D. | Nakanishi, Y.
The objective of this study was to obtain basic information on the effective use of goats in the sustainable vegetation management of agricultural land. The first experiment was conducted to prove the influence of one goat (40 kg BW) in a set grazing area on weed control in paddy levees (3.9a) over a period of about 100 days from May to August in 2007. In the paddy levees under study, there were 28 grass species including 16 families, the most dominant species being Miscanthus sinensis Anderss. At the end of the grazing period, the sward height of Miscanthus sinensis Anderss. was significantly smaller in the grazing plot than that of the closed area of the control plot (P0.01). In addition, the herbage mass of the grazing plot was tended to be smaller than that of the control plot (P0.10). The second experiment was carried out to examine the effect of tethering 2 goats, both of an average body weight of 30 kg on weed control in the paddy levees (4a) over a period of about 45 days from June to July in 2007. In the paddy levees, the most dominant species was Artemisia princeps Pamoan.. At the end of grazing period, both the sward height of Artemisia princeps Pamoan. and the herbage mass were significantly smaller in the grazing plot than that of the control plot (P0.05). It is concluded that both set grazing and tethering of goats can be applied to weed control in paddy levees.
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