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Implications of restricted access to grazing by cattle in wet season in the Sahel

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Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/3931/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2007.06.006
 
Title Implications of restricted access to grazing by cattle in
wet season in the Sahel
 
Creator Ayantunde, A A
Fernandez-Rivera, S
Hiernaux, P H
Tabo, R
 
Subject Others
 
Description To address the problem of restricted access to grazing by cattle in wet season in the Sahel, a grazing trial was conducted to study the effect of duration of grazing and grazing method on cattle nutrition and performance. Twenty-four intact steers weighing 259 kg (SD ΒΌ 62) were randomly allotted to four treatments to study the effect of the combination of grazing method (tethering and close herding) and grazing duration (6 and 9 h per day) on diet selection, faecal output, forage intake, grazing behaviour and weight changes in the wet season. Three esophageally fistulated steers were used in a cross-over design to sample diet selected by tethered and herded animals. Extrusa samples from esophageally fistulated steers and faecal output from intact steers were collected in weeks 6 and 9 of the experiment and grazing behaviour of the intact steers was observed in week 6. Tethered animals selected diets of lower organic matter digestibility (OMD) but tethering had no significant effect on crude protein. Close herded steers consistently consumed more forage than those tethered in both periods. Both grazing method and duration had significant effect on ingestion rate by the steers. Tethered
steers had lower average daily gain than those herded. The results demonstrate that the common practice of tethering
sedentary cattle in the wet season in the southern Sahel in West Africa reduces forage intake and consequently average
daily gain
 
Publisher Elsevier
 
Date 2008
 
Type Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
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Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/3931/1/JournalofAridEnvironments_72_4_523-533_2008.pdf
Ayantunde, A A and Fernandez-Rivera, S and Hiernaux, P H and Tabo, R (2008) Implications of restricted access to grazing by cattle in wet season in the Sahel. Journal of Arid Environments, 72 (4). pp. 523-533. ISSN 0140-1963