GRAZING BEHAVIOR OF AWASSI SHEEP IN REFERENCE TO PLANT SURVEY IN THE SOUTHERN PART OF JORDAN | ||||
| Assiut Journal of Agricultural Sciences | ||||
| Article 2, Volume 39, Issue 2, June 2008, Page 13-28 PDF (611.82 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/ajas.2008.269687 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Authors | ||||
| K. I. Z. Jawasreh; Y. Al-Satari; O. Alqaisi; A. Al-Nsoor | ||||
| ional Center for Agricultural Research and Extension (NCARE), Livestock and Rangeland Research Program, Al-Baq’a – Jordan. | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| This study was carried out at Twana Reserve in Al-Tafilah district. About 40 hectares were selected at the reserve which is about 200 km to the south of Amman the capital. During May, 2007 grazing behavior of Awassi sheep was recorded through day light for nine days from at 8:00 am up to 18:00 sheep behavior was recorded each 6 minutes interval. Sheep were grouped into three different intensities (light (L), moderate (M) and heavy (H) grazing). Selected sites were surveyed for vegetation species. Plant list was prepared; vegetation coverage percentage, species frequency, abundance, density, relative density and shanon diver’s index were calculated. Plant productivity was determined. Allowable productivity and stocking rate were calculated. Non-significant differences were observed between the grazing behaviors of the three groups, while M group have the highest (p < .001) browsing, ruminating and drinking behaviors, the H group was significantly (p < .001) the highest in lying behavior, while the L group was observed to behave the highest (p < .001) in standing. Grazing and browsing behavior was significantly (P< 0.01) differ between the hours of observations. Morning grazing was shorter significantly (p < .0001) than evening grazing, the browsing behavior was observed to be highly significantly (p < .001) affected by parts of day light. Evening browsing behavior was longer than morning, Morning was longer (p < .0001) than evening in lying period while evening was longer in ruminating. Non-significant differences were observed between morning and evening drinking and standing behaviors. The allowable productivity was 422.5 kg/ha. Stocking rate was 9.38, 18.75 and 28.13 head/ha for the light, moderate and heavy grazing, respectively. Results on plants survey showed that 76 species belongs to 19 families were identified. The best represented families were Cruciferae and Compositae they encountered the highest species number 15 and 14 species, respectively. The most dominant species were Carex divisa, Sisymbrium irio L., Torularia torulosa and Astragalus spp. The total coverage percent was estimated by 40%. The percentage of vegetation cover use was 21%, 60% and 68% while dry matter use was 47%, 57% and 60% for low, moderate and heavy grazing, respectively. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Awassi sheep; plant survey; grazing behavior | ||||
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