Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T19:52:00.244Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Some aspects of competition between sheep for supplementary feed

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

G. W. Arnold  and
R. A. Maller
G. W. Arnold
Affiliation:
CSIRO, Division of Land Resources Management, Private Bag, PO., Wembley, WA 6014, Australia.
R. A. Maller
Affiliation:
CSIRO, Division of Mathematical Statistics, Private Bag No. 1, Glen Osmond, SA 5064.
Get access

Summary

Competition for oat grain between sheep grazing on scant, poor quality pasture was studied in three flocks of sheep. A daily feed of 450 g per head was fed in troughs with the space per sheep varying from 4 to > 50 cm. Records were taken of sheep behaviour during the first 3 min of feeding.

There was no fighting in the competition for feed, but dominance of individuals and of groups of sheep occurred. With abundant trough space, certain sheep led the way to the feed trough and were termed leaders, but ‘leadership’ was a characteristic unrelated to competitiveness during feeding. With restricted trough space most sheep raced to the feed trough at feeding time. The rate of disturbance of the sheep from the feed trough increased with decreased space per sheep, particularly below 12 cm/sheep. As the rate of disturbance increased a progressively greater proportion of sheep stopped competing for feed and became non-feeders. Neither the rate of disturbance of the sheep nor the proportion not feeding was related to body weight, but these were largely individual characteristics of sheep.

In a flock of mixed age Merino wethers, the 1-year-old and 7-yearold sheep were the least competitive, while in a flock of wether sheep of seven different breeds but of similar age, Merinos were least competitive.

From these experiments it is suggested that a minimum trough space of 16 cm be allowed when daily grain supplements are fed to grazing sheep.

Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , December 1974 , pp. 309 - 319
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Arnold, G. W. and Bush, I. G. 1968. Observations on non-feeding in groups of handfed sheep. CSIRO, Div. PL Ind. Fid. Stn Rec. 7: 47–58.Google Scholar
Beilharz, R. G., Butcher, D. F. and Freeman, A. E. 1966. Social dominance and milk production in Holsteins. J. Dairy Sci. 49: 887–892.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beilharz, R. G. and Mylrea, P. J. 1963. Social position and behaviour of dairy heifers in yards. Anim. Behav. 11: 522–528.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bouissou, M. F. 1972. Influence of body weight and presence of horns on social rank in domestic cattle. Anim. Behav. 20: 474–477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cochran, W. G. 1954. Some methods for strengthening the common x2 tests. Biometrics 10: 417–451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duncan, D. B. 1954. Multiple range and multiple F tests. Biometrics 11: 1–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, R. F. 1966. Home range behaviour in hill sheep. In Grazing in Terrestrial and Marine Environments (fid. Crisp, D. J..) Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford.Google Scholar
Schein, M. W. and Forhman, M. H. 1955. Social dominance in a herd of dairy cattle. Br. J. Anim. Behav. 3: 45–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, J. P. 1948. Social behaviour, organization and leadership in a small flock of domestic sheep. Comp. Psychol. Monogr. 18: 1–29 (Series No. 96).Google Scholar
Wagnon, K. A. 1965. Social dominance in range cows and its effect on supplemental feeding. Bull. Calif, agric. Exp. Stn, No. 819.Google Scholar
Wagnon, K. A., Loy, R. G., Rollins, W. C. and Carroll, F. D. 1966. Social dominance in a herd of Angus, Hereford and Shorthorn cows. Anim. Behav. 14: 474–479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar