Adaptation of goats feeding system to the adverse economic...
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Innovation for Sustainability in Sheep and Goats Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, 3-5 October 2017 Adaptation of goats feeding system to the adverse economic conditions by changing the grazing management practices Manousidis T. 1 , Kyriazopoulos A.P. 2 , Semenzato P. 3 , Sturaro E. 3 , Ramanzin M. 3 , Ragkos A. 4 and Abas Z. 1 1 Department of Agricultural Development, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece 2 Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece 3 Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE), University of Padova, Italy 4 Department of Agricultural Technology, Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, Greece
Transcript of Adaptation of goats feeding system to the adverse economic...
Innovation for Sustainability in Sheep and Goats Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, 3-5 October 2017
Adaptation of goats feeding system to the adverse economic
conditions by changing the grazing management practices
Manousidis T.1, Kyriazopoulos A.P.2, Semenzato P.3, Sturaro E.3, Ramanzin M.3,
Ragkos A.4 and Abas Z.1
1 Department of Agricultural Development, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece 2 Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece
3 Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment (DAFNAE), University of Padova, Italy 4 Department of Agricultural Technology, Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, Greece
Introduction
The sustainability of intensive sheep and goats
farming systems in the Mediterranean region is
threatened by the current economic crisis.
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These limitations are less strong in extensive
production systems.
Shepherds can modify the grazing system, the daily
grazing duration and the supplementation
management etc.
Introduction
Extensive goat farming is the dominant farming
system in Greece.
Woody rangelands are essential forage resources for
goats.
Goats are very effective in utilizing woody plant
species.
Goats are considered as browsers and their grazing
behavior affected by various factors associated with
animal and environmental characteristics.
Grazing behavior is also indirectly affected by the
shepherds’ management.
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Introduction
Purpose
The purpose of the study was to investigate the shepherd’s grazing management
practices and the movement characteristics of a flock of goats in a communal
rangeland in response to different economic constraints.
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Materials and Methods
Study area - Vegetation map
• Open oak forest in Megalo Dereio (Evros prefecture, Northeastern Greece).
• Altitude: 380 m a.s.l
• Climate: Sub-Mediterranean
• Woody communal rangeland
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Materials and Methods
Experimental flock & Goat flock management
A flock of 650 Greek local breed adult goats
The production system was the traditional sedentary
extensive
A shepherd led the flock to the rangeland during the
grazing period and managed:
• direction of flock’s routes
• duration of the daily grazing time
• the supplementary feeding
Goats were hand-milked twice per day
Lactation stage: March - August.
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Materials and Methods
Goat flock management
Spring Summer Autumn
20
10
Milking twice per day
Milking twice per day
No milking
Supplementary feeds Supplementary feeds Without supplementary feeds
400 g/ animal corn grains 400 g/ animal corn grains
400 g/ animal wheat grains 400 g/ animal wheat grains
20
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Milking twice per day Milking twice per day No milking
Supplementary feeds Without supplementary feeds Without supplementary feeds
400 g/ animal alfalfa hay
400 g/ animal corn grains
400 g/ animal wheat grains
Table. Flock management and feed supplement schedule.
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Spring Autumn Summer
Autumn Summer Spring
2010
2011
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Materials and Methods
Experimental Design - GPS tracking
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• Collars with GPS data loggers
• 10 animals in 2010 and 20 animals in 2011
• Four consecutive days per test period
Materials and Methods
GIS tool (Quantum GIS 2.16, www.qgis.org)
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Metrics of goats’ trajectories:
Duration (h/ d)
Distance (km/ d)
One-way ANOVA.
Multiple comparisons for all pairs of means (Tukey–Kramer HSD test)
The significance level: P< 0.05.
JMP software, version 8.0 (SAS Institute Inc, Cary, North Carolina).
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Materials and Methods
Measurements - Statistical analysis
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Results and discussion
Metrics of trajectories
2010 Season P-
value Spring Summer Autumn
Tracks (n) 19 24 31
Duration (h d-1) 8.37±0.88A 2.44±0.39B 8.03±0.76A ***
Distance, total (km d-1) 9.98±2.71B 3.18±0.53C 13.88±2.21A ***
2011 Season P-
value Spring Summer Autumn
Tracks (n) 70 74 67
Duration (h d-1) 3.26±0.25C 9.81±0.79A 7.95±0.42B ***
Distance, total (km d-1) 4.97±0.89C 11.44±1.48A 9.40±1.44B ***
Table. Metrics describing goats’ trajectories in 2010 and 2011. Data show mean ±standard deviation.
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Means in the same row followed by the same letter are not significantly different (P≤ 0.05).***P< 0.001
Results and discussion
Fig. Goats’ trajectories and movement patterns in the study area during 2010 and 2011.
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Conclusions
Movement behavior
The movement patterns of goats significantly differed among seasons and years.
Shepherd essential affected the characteristics of the goats’ trajectories.
Management practices
The shepherd modified the management practices to respond to the economic
constraints dictated by the trade-off between the milk price and the cost of
supplementary feeding.
This allowed flexibility to adapt feeding and grazing management practices in
accordance with adverse economic conditions.
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Thank you for your attention!!!!
