Behaviour of goats, sheep and cattle on natural pasture in the sub-humid zone of West Africa

Ouédraogo‐Koné, Salifou; Kaboré-Zoungrana, Chantal Yvette; Ledin, Inger

doi:10.1016/j.livsci.2006.06.010

Cited by 62 publications

(55 citation statements)

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“…Despite this long-distance travelling and comparatively shorter grazing days in the dry season, cattle herds covered the longest distances during the rainy season, when water availability was no problem. This contrasts with the results of the vast majority of studies in arid environments, which report the furthest distances travelled in the dry season (Butt 2010b;Ouédraogo-Koné et al 2006;Schlecht et al 2006). Especially for the plateau, this divergence may result from the more heterogeneous landscape and stronger seasonal variation of the vegetation in comparison with the coastal site, which offers more choice for selecting pasturing areas with better availability of forage and water and to move the herds more frequently to a new productive grazing ground (Brottem et al 2014;Little and McPeak 2014;Scoones 1995).…”

Section: Spatial and Seasonal Differences In Movement Patternscontrasting

confidence: 91%

“…In contrast, the daily distances travelled by goat herds clearly exceeded those measured by Ouédraogo-Koné et al (2006) in West Africa and Akasbi et al (2012) in southern Morocco, though the latter obtained his results in a mountainous region where the animals had to spend a substantial part of their energy on vertical movements. During a survey conducted by Rabeniala et al (2009) in a coastal area north of our study region, flocks of small ruminants only walked between 4.7 and 6.2 km d −1 in the rainy season but 13.7 km d −1 when visiting a water point in the dry season.…”

Section: Spatial and Seasonal Differences In Movement Patternsmentioning

confidence: 66%

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Analysis of GPS trajectories to assess spatio-temporal differences in grazing patterns and land use preferences of domestic livestock in southwestern Madagascar

Feldt

Schlecht

2016

Pastoralism

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In order to investigate spatial and temporal characteristics of the purely grazing-based livestock husbandry system in southwestern Madagascar, individual animals from 12 cattle and 12 goat herds that were equally distributed across four villages were fitted with GPS tracking collars and their behaviour during pasturing was directly observed to identify seasonal variations in land use and movement patterns along the regional altitude and vegetation gradient. Monitoring occurred at regular intervals of two months over a two-year period to capture inter-annual variability. Herds of both species from the inland limestone plateau covered longer distances and were found further away from their home corrals than those from the coastal plain. Patterns of feeding behaviour and utilization of grazing areas mostly reflected the spatial occurrence of specific land cover classes around the villages and differed significantly between seasons and sites. Seasonal water shortage was one of the key factors affecting dry season livestock movements on the plateau but played a minor role in the coastal plain where livestock keeping proved to be more limited by feed availability. While on transhumance, mobile cattle herds were vulnerable to disadvantages such as limited access to pastureland and water sources nearby their temporary homesteads. The recent problem of armed cattle raids along with emerging land use conflicts compel livestock owners to utilize fewer grazing areas, which threatens to destabilize the region's animal husbandry system.

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Section: Spatial and Seasonal Differences In Movement Patternscontrasting

confidence: 91%

Section: Spatial and Seasonal Differences In Movement Patternsmentioning

confidence: 66%

Analysis of GPS trajectories to assess spatio-temporal differences in grazing patterns and land use preferences of domestic livestock in southwestern Madagascar

Feldt

Schlecht

2016

Pastoralism

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“…There is an increasing interest in the characterization of African small ruminant populations because of their major role in the maintenance of genetic resources as the basis of future improvement at both the production and the genetic levels (Dossa et al, 2007;Nsoso et al, 2004;Ouédraogo-Koné et al, 2006). Studies devoted to the morphological characterization of West African sheep are scarce and the average values obtained in this study for body measurements cannot be easily compared with others in the literature.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Multivariate characterization of morphological traits in Burkina Faso sheep

Traoré

Tamboura

Kaboré

et al. 2008

Small Ruminant Research

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a b s t r a c tA total of 6440 female sheep from Burkina Faso were scored for seven body measurements and four qualitative morphological traits. Sampling included the three main environmental areas and sheep breeds of Burkina Faso: the Sahel area (Burkina-Sahel sheep), the SudanSahel area (Mossi sheep) and the Sudan area (Djallonké sheep). Canonical analyses showed that differences in body measurements between the Sudan and the Sudan-Sahel sheep were small even though most body traits showed higher average values in the Burkina-Sahel sheep: the shortest Mahalanobis distance was found between the Sudan and the SudanSahel populations (1.54), whilst that between the Sudan and the Sahelian populations was the largest (7.88). Discriminant analysis showed that most Sudan (Djallonké) individuals (60.85%) were classified as Sudan-Sahel (Mossi) individuals whilst most Burkina-Sahel individuals were classified into their environmental area of sampling (89.46%). Correspondence analyses indicated that the Burkina-Sahel sheep population clustered together with dropping ears, black and brown colour patterns and presence of wattles, the Sudan sheep were closely associated with long hair and vertical and curled ears and that the Sudan-Sahel sheep did not have clear associations with qualitative phenotypic traits. At the morphological level, the Sudan-Sahel (Mossi) sheep population can be considered a geographical subpopulation belonging to the Djallonké breed, showing some particularities, namely larger body size, due to the particular environmental condition of the area in which it is managed and a continuous gene flow from Sahelian sheep, The information reported in this study will be the basis for the establishment of further characterization, conservation and selection strategies for Burkina Faso sheep.

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“…In particular, it explains the smaller forage deficit gap that goats and sheep have during the months of January to March (often the dry season) compared to the larger deficits for cattle during the same period. Goats and sheep have close feeding habits (browsing) following decline in forage resources during the dry season (Ouédraogo-Koné et al 2006;Sanon et al 2007). The deficit was slightly larger in sheep (refer to Figure 3a, b, c to see the tail-like appearance between the months of January and March).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drivers of forage availability: An integration of remote sensing and traditional ecological knowledge in Karamoja sub-region, Uganda

et al. 2015

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Low-input pastoral production systems provide up to 90 % of livestock and livestock products consumed in Uganda. However, pastoral communities are increasingly faced with the challenge of meeting their livestock needs in terms of forage, a situation exacerbated by climatic variability. The study identified the patterns of forage availability and quality, compared perceived patterns of forage availability with normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and determined drivers of forage availability in Karamoja sub-region. Over a 12-month period, 75.3 % of the respondents perceived forage to be sufficiently available with differentiated availability in the livelihood zones and between livestock species (goats, sheep, cattle, donkeys and camels). A similar pattern was observed with regard to perceived forage quality. A significant relationship between perceived forage availability and long-term mean monthly NDVI dynamics was observed. A lag time of 2.9 months existed between rainfall and vegetation response peak periods. Mean monthly rainfall pattern was found to be correlated with perceived forage availability. The length of residence by a livestock keeper, frequency of grazing, number of kraals, presence of governing rules, and presence of conflicts and knowledge of pasture locations, restricted movement and ease of access to grazing areas significantly (P ≤ 0.05) were the major perceived drivers of forage availability. Therefore, we find that pastoral communities in Karamoja have detailed traditional ecological knowledge of forage status and their perceived determinants. There is a need to conduct nutritional analysis of key forage species available in the different livelihood zones. Finally, there is a need to constantly monitor socio-political conditions that have potential of creating 'artificial' forage shortage in the sub-region.

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Behaviour of goats, sheep and cattle on natural pasture in the sub-humid zone of West Africa

Cited by 62 publications

References 10 publications

Analysis of GPS trajectories to assess spatio-temporal differences in grazing patterns and land use preferences of domestic livestock in southwestern Madagascar

Analysis of GPS trajectories to assess spatio-temporal differences in grazing patterns and land use preferences of domestic livestock in southwestern Madagascar

Multivariate characterization of morphological traits in Burkina Faso sheep

Drivers of forage availability: An integration of remote sensing and traditional ecological knowledge in Karamoja sub-region, Uganda

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