Feed Intake of Small Ruminants on Spring and Summer Pastures in the Mongolian Altai Mountains (original) (raw)
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Journal of Arid Environments, 2019
According to the social changes in the 1990s, livestock population in Mongolia is rapidly increasing, resulting in overgrazing and subsequent degradation of the grasslands. However, little is known about the quantitative food habits of Mongolian livestock. We evaluated the food habits of horses, cattle, and sheep and goats in the forest-steppe zone of northern Mongolia by fecal analysis. We compared fecal compositions at a valley (Place 1) and a riverside (Place 2). Place 1 consisted mainly of Stipa-dominated slopes (93%) while Place 2 comprised Stipa-dominated slopes (77%) and Carex-dominated alluvial flats (23%). Horse feces were dominated by graminoids (60%-70% graminoids), with a high percentage of Carex (30%-40%). Stipa accounted for about 20%-40% in the cattle feces. Sheep and goat feces contained about 30% Stipa and about 40% culms. These results suggest that the food habits of the livestock were affected more by animal characteristics than habitats. The high Carex content in the horse feces occurred because horses roamed freely and could visit Carex swards. Cattle moved near the gers (tent houses) and returned every evening, and it was difficult for them to visit far away Carex swards. Sheep-goats were herded and often grazed on steeper slopes than cattle and horses, explaining the large proportion of culms and small proportion of Carex in the feces. Quantitative food habit studies of livestock is useful for the grassland management of arid regions.
Journal of Animal Science, 2016
INtRODUCtION Grasslands cover about 68% of Inner Mongolia, P.R. China, and have been extensively used for pastoral sheep and cattle production for centuries (Kawamura et al., 2005). Since the 1950s, transformations in the political framework have induced a shift from nomadic to sedentary livestock keeping (Jiang et al., 2006). Besides, pastoralists currently graze their sheep and cattle only on grasslands located close to their farms and use their distant areas for haymaking. An expansion of cropland and growing human and livestock populations have greatly reduced the grassland available per animal (Tong et al., 2004; Yu et al.,
Resource partitioning between large herbivores in Hustai National Park, Mongolia
2009
Reintroduced Przewalski horses in Hustai National Park, Mongolia could suffer from food competition with other herbivore species through food resource depletion. Diet composition of the Przewalski horse (Equus ferus przewalskii), red deer (Cervus elaphus) and four livestock species (sheep, goat, cattle and horse) were studied, using micro histological analysis of faecal samples in the summer of 2005 and winter of 2006-2007. We expected that herbivores become less selective in food choice in winter regarding to summer, resulting in a larger diet breadth, a larger similarity in diet and a larger dietary overlap in winter, potentially triggering exploitative competition by depletion of shared resources. Vegetation biomass decreased during winter, and the different herbivores species in HNP changed their diet from summer to winter. As expected diet breadth, diet similarity and dietary overlap were significantly larger in winter in comparison to summer. The existence of competition by resource depletion between the different species cannot be ruled out. Vegetation biomass was probably not a limiting factor according to the correlation between annual rainfall and herbivore species biomass, however the forage quality may be limiting, triggering competition.
Livestock Science, 2009
High grazing pressure during the last decades caused severe ecological problems in the steppe of Inner Mongolia, China. The objective of the present study was to determine the effects of grazing intensity of sheep on herbage mass (HM) and intake, chemical composition and digestibility of herbage, and on live weight gain (LWG). A grazing experiment with six different grazing intensities (1.5, 3.0, 4.5, 6.0, 7.5, and 9.0 sheep/ha) was conducted in the growing season of 2005 in the Xilin River Basin. HM decreased from 1.5 t DM/ha at the lowest grazing intensity to 0.6 t DM/ha at the highest grazing intensity. NDF content of the herbage was high (N700 g/kg DM) and relatively constant, whereas acid detergent lignin (ADL) content increased with grazing intensity and with proceeding grazing season. Digestibility of organic matter ingested (DOM) tended to decrease with grazing intensity as well as intake of organic matter (OMI) and of digestible organic matter (DOMI) per sheep (P =0.090 and P= 0.065, respectively), whereas LWG per sheep decreased with increasing grazing intensity (P = 0.018). DOM and OMI were negatively related to ADL content. However, herbage intake and LWG per ha increased with grazing intensity (P b 0.001) and reached their maximum at 9 and 7.5 sheep per ha, respectively. This observation confirms the current farmers' practise of high grazing pressure ignoring long term grassland productivity and ecological problems. Therefore, the studies are continued to provide further information on long term effects. This study could show pronounced effects of grazing intensity on animal and grassland productivity and the suitability of the methods applied to measure intake and digestibility of herbage in a large scale grazing experiment with sheep.
Heavy grazing constraints on foraging behavior of Mongolian livestock
Grassland Science, 2009
We investigated the effects of overgrazing on the foraging behavior of livestock on a Mongolian steppe, by quantifying some behaviors of cattle, sheep and goats foraging in a lightly and a heavily grazed area in summer and winter. All animal species showed higher walking velocity and tended to show higher step/bite ratio when they foraged in the heavily grazed area than in the lightly grazed area. The effect of overgrazing on the step/bite ratio was greater in sheep and goats than in cattle, and the effect on the walking velocity was stronger in winter than in summer. The results indicate that heavy grazing altered the foraging behavior of animals imposing higher foraging costs, which varied among the animal species and between the seasons. The declined quantity of preferred species in the heavily grazed area required high searching efforts and decreased the bite rate, for selecting acceptable plants and better feeding sites. The stronger effects on sheep and goats than on cattle and in winter than in summer may reflect different foraging behavior potentials among the animals and different food availabilities between the seasons. We suggest that the ongoing increase in the number of goats in Mongolia is problematic not only from the viewpoint of grassland deterioration but also from feeding cost of whole livestock animals.
2016
In order to evaluate the effects of concentration of livestock in villages in Mongolia, we compared the body weights of female sheep and goats of different management: a usual “nomadic herd” and an experimental “sedentary herd”. The body weights of the sheep increased from June, peaked in November/December, and declined until March-May. During the decline, the sedentary herd lost more weight than the nomadic herd. In goats, the sedentary herd was heavier at the start in June, but was caught up by the nomadic herd in July. In March of the next year, the nomadic herd became heavier than the sedentary herd. The results showed apparent negative effects of sedentary grazing on body weight of sheep and goats, and suggest the validity of traditional nomadic grazing. It seems an example of traditional ecological knowledge to avoid deterioration of the steppe by overgrazing.
Grazing Behavior of Livestock in Settled and Nomadic Herders Households in Mongolian Plateau
In this study, we investigated the effects of settled grazing in Inner Mongolia and traditional nomadic grazing in Mongolia on grazing behavior of livestock using GPS satellite tracking. In summer of 2011 and 2012, we fitted GPS loggers to sheep and goats to quantify the behavior of livestock in Inner Mongolia and in Mongolia. We discovered that the mean grazing velocity (km/h) of sheep in Inner Mongolia was 0.65±0.07 (km/h) and in Mongolia was 0.54±0.30 (km/h). The result indicated a higher grazing velocity and longer moving distance of sheep in Inner Mongolia than that in Mongolia. However, the grazing area of the sheep in Inner Mongolia was smaller than that in Mongolia. The grazing area in Inner Mongolia was 214.88 ± 149.73 (ha/day) and 246.03 ± 197.36 (ha/day) in Mongolia. This may be a result of limited area due to the presence of fences in Inner Mongolia. We also calculated vegetation volume (height (cm) × coverage (%)) of each plant species. The vegetation survey showed that the mean volume of palatable species in Inner Mongolia was 87.5 ± 174.9, and 106.1 ± 202.6 in Mongolia. Therefore livestock have to spend more time grazing, increasing their step rate and moving longer distances. These results indicate that fencing associated with the settlement system of Inner Mongolia has created a new hot spot of land degradation and a new source of Asian dust storm outbreaks.
The Journal of Agricultural Science, 2014
The grassland steppe of Inner Mongolia is traditionally used for sheep grazing. However, overgrazing reduced vegetation cover in winter, thereby increasing soil erosion and consequently, degradation of the steppe vegetation. Grazing intensity (GI) is still the most important factor in pasture management. Hence, the aim of the current study was to evaluate the effect of GI on grassland and sheep performance. A grazing experiment was conducted from July until September in 2005, 2006 and 2007 in which six different GI ranging from very light (GI 1), light (GI 2), light-moderate (GI 3), moderate (GI 4) and heavy (GI 5) to very heavy (GI 6) were tested. Each GI treatment comprised two adjacent plots that were alternately used for grazing or hay-making each year. Variables measured included herbage mass (HM) and chemical composition, digestibility of ingested organic matter (dOM), organic matter intake (OMI) and live weight gain (LWG) of sheep. The HM decreased significantly with increasing GI from 1·01 t (GI 1) to 0·45 t dry matter (DM)/ha (GI 6). There were only minor effects of GI on chemical composition and digestibility of standing herbage. Moreover, dOM, OMI and hence, digestible OMI did not differ between GI. Across all study years, LWG of sheep was not influenced by GI so that LWG per hectare increased with increasing GI, reaching a maximum of 730 g/d at GI 6 compared with 181 g/d at GI 1. However, a strong decrease in LWG per sheep with increasing stocking rate was found in 2005 when annual rainfall was less than half of the long-term average, resulting in a similar LWG per hectare across the range of tested stocking rates. The results therefore show that intensive grazing does not reduce growth of individual animals in most years, but increases LWG per unit of land area and thus, income of farmers. The alternating use of pastures for grazing or haymaking might have mitigated the negative effects of heavy grazing on herbage and animal performance. Nevertheless, high GI may negatively affect grassland productivity in the long term and the lack of HM on offer on heavy grazed pastures in dry years will require supplement feeding at the end of the vegetation period or the untimely sale of animals.