A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF GRAZING BEHAVIOUR OF TEDDY GOATS VERSUS THALLI SHEEP

Experiment involved range vegetation classified into three major classes: Xerophytic trees, shrubs and grasses. Among them samples of major plant species were collected and analysed for chemical composition. The experimental animals 20 each of Thalli sheep and Teddy goats, located at Livestock Experiment Station Rakh Kharewala district Layyah (Pakistan) were randomly drawn from the main flock. The grazing pattern data were collected from one animal of each species. The observations regarding the grazing behaviour, breeding efficiency and carcass quality were also determined. It was found that overall preference index of Teddy goats were higher for Khabble (Cynodon dactylon) indicated by percent of the total number of bites made on different plant species, while the bites on Lumb (Aristida plumose), Mahabbat booti (Cenchrus biflorus), Dhaman (Cenchrus ciliaris) and Karera (Elionorus hirsutus) were found to be 1.28, 6.74, 0.32 and 3.87 percents. The browsing species as a whole were utilized more during the draught period. Among the grasses, sheep heavily utilized Khabble grass, with overall bite percentage of 89.27. Within browsing species Wan (Salvadora oleoides) and wind fallen dry leaves of Wan were considerably picked by the sheep showing 1.19 and 3.49 overall bite percentage respectively. The overall daily growth rates & dressing percentage for Teddy goats and Thalli sheep were 48.33, 39.00 and 51.00, 46.00 percent respectively. Moreover, among the experimental animals 50 percent goats exhibited signs of oestrus where as none of the sheep came into heat during the study period.