Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-swr86 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-22T22:56:25.183Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A note on the possible use of goats in hill sheep grazing systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

A. J. F. Russel
Affiliation:
Hill Farming Research Organisation, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian, EH26 0PY
T. J. Maxwell
Affiliation:
Hill Farming Research Organisation, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian, EH26 0PY
G. R. Bolton
Affiliation:
Hill Farming Research Organisation, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian, EH26 0PY
D. C. Currie
Affiliation:
Hill Farming Research Organisation, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian, EH26 0PY
I. R. White
Affiliation:
Hill Farming Research Organisation, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian, EH26 0PY
Get access

Abstract

A pilot study was conducted to investigate the possibility of using goats to manipulate the amount and composition of indigenous and improved vegetation on hill land in the west of Scotland.

Two vegetationally similar plots, each of approximately 0·6 ha, were used. Approximately 0·45 of each plot comprised sown ryegrass-clover pasture, the remainder being indigenous vegetation (principally Calluna vulgaris, Eriophorum and Tricophorum spp. with some Deschampsia, Molinia and Carex spp.). One plot was stocked with 14 yearling Anglo-Nubian goats and the other with seven mature Blackface sheep, the total weight of livestock on the two plots being the same (500 kg).

On the reseeded areas the proportions (± s.e. of difference) of ryegrass grazed by sheep and goats after 2, 5 and 8 weeks were 0·65 and 0·11 (0·075), 0·68 and 0·42 (0·112), and 0·77 and 0·58 (0·149), respectively; corresponding values for proportional clover cover were 016 and 0·45 (0·071), 0·16 and 0·38 (0·070), and 0·10 and 0·35 (0·070), respectively. The goats also actively grazed clumps of Juncus spp. and invading indigenous species which were not eaten by sheep.

On the indigenous areas the sheep grazed a higher proportion of Calluna than did goats (0·08 and 0·05) but grazed less E. vaginatum (0·07 and 0·13), E. angustifolium (0·04 and 0·11), and other indigenous species (0·21 and 0·36), respectively. The degree of utilization of grazed indigenous species by goats was also greater than that by sheep for all species except Calluna.

The results suggest that goats may have a use in some sheep production systems as an aid to the management of the varied plant communities of hill land, and particularly in the maintenance and further improvement of reseeded pastures.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Devendra, C. 1978. The digestive efficiency of goats. Wld Rev. Anim. Prod. 14(1): 922.Google Scholar
Grant, Sheila A., Lamb, W. I. C., Kerr, C. D. and Bolton, G. R. 1976. The utilization of blanket bog vegetation by grazing sheep. J. appl. Ecol. 13: 857869.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lambert, M. G., Clark, D. A. and Rolston, M. P. 1981. Use of goats for coarse weed control in hill country. Proc. Rmkum Farmers'Conf., pp. 167171Google Scholar