Differences in grazing behavior of horses and cattle at the feeding station scale on woodland pasture

Abstract

In this study, grazing behavior of mares and cows was compared on woodland pastures, in the context of foraging hierarchy. A horse-group (12 native Hokkaido horses) and a cattle-group (5 Hereford cows) were grazed on the woodland pastures of 13.3 ha and 5.8 ha, respectively. They grazed mainly on Sasa nipponica. Grazing behavior at a feeding station (FS) scale was recorded for three focal animals in each group. Mares took one bite per FS at a high percentage of FSs (24.3%) and cows took one, two and three bites per FS at high percentage (20.3%, 19.2% and 15.4%, respectively). Although feeding patch (FP) scale for both animals could be defined as a group of FSs, the length of FP and grazing behavior at FP scale were similar for both animals. The number of steps taken between two adjacent FSs or FPs for mares was larger than that for cows. The results suggested that both horses and cattle had similar foraging hierarchy from bite to FP scale but grazing behavior of horses at the FS scale was different from that of cattle, suggesting that grazing behavior of large herbivores has greater similarity in larger foraging hierarchies.

Seasonal and interannual variations in feeding station behavior of cattle: effects of sward and meteorological conditions

“…These two variables were negatively related ( Figure 2a) and received opposite effects of the three predictors (equations (1) and (2)). The present results agree with previous observations in that step is generally a minor component of feeding station behavior compared with bite in terms of the number (Murray, 1991;Lazo and Soriguer, 1993;Hirata et al, 2008), with the majority of feeding station-to-feeding station movements as single-step moves (Roguet et al, 1998b;Ogura et al, 2004;Shingu et al, 2010). The bite/step ratio in animals is likely to decrease as vegetation becomes scarce and discretely distributed (Murray, 1991).…”

“…The animal is considered to move to a new feeding station at the cost of taking steps when intake rate from the current feeding station falls below the threshold level under repeated bites (Searle et al, 2005;Gregorini et al, 2011). Bite number, residence time and intake per feeding station, feeding station number per unit foraging time and step number between feeding stations are major feeding station behavior variables, which reflect profitability or unprofitability of feeding stations (Ruyle and Dwyer, 1985;El Aich et al, 1989;Roguet et al, 1998b;Gregorini et al, 2007Gregorini et al, , 2009Gregorini et al, and 2011Hirata et al, 2008;Shingu et al, 2010). The cost-benefit concept of the feeding station behavior is useful for a better understanding of foraging behavior of animals (Roguet et al, 1998b) and adjusting management strategies of various grazing systems ranging from an intensively managed small paddock of a sown pasture to an extensive rangeland across a landscape (e.g.…”

“…Ruyle and Dwyer, 1985;El Aich et al, 1989;Gregorini et al, 2011). However, previous studies have focused mainly on relatively short-term (<1 day to about 30 days) variations in feeding station behavior in order to investigate the effects of forage availability (Ruyle and Dwyer, 1985;Roguet et al, 1998b), sward structure (Gregorini et al, 2009), plant species (Hirata et al, 2008), grazing management (Gregorini et al, 2011), animal species (Shingu et al, 2010) and rumen fill (Gregorini et al, 2007). Relatively little information has been reported on how grazing animals modify feeding station behavior seasonally and interannually in response to varying environmental conditions (El Aich et al, 1989;Jiang and Hudson, 1993).…”

Effects of the presence of grazing‐experienced heifers on the development of foraging behavior at the feeding station scale for first‐grazing season calves

“…; Shingu et al . ). Few studies have analyzed the development of foraging behavior using foraging activity at the FS scale.…”

Recent progress in the study of behavior and management in grazing cattle

“… Schematic model of foraging hierarchy (made by the author according to a discussion with Shingu et al . 2010).…”