Grazing time and pattern of Kedah-Kelantan cattle and its crossbreds on open pasture system

K. Musaddin, M. A. Dollah and O. Mohamad Ariff

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine the grazing time and pattern of Kedah-Kelantan ( KK) and its crossbreds namely, the Brahman-KK(BK), Friesian-KK (FK) and Hereford-KK (HK) bulls in an open pasture system. A clock-driven vibracorder was mounted onto the upper neck of each of the four KK, BK, FK and HK bulls to record their grazing time and pattern for 2 weeks. These bulls were selected randomly from a herd of 40 animals aged about2 years old. Three peaks in grazing activity were observed in all four breed types. The peaks occurred during0 200-0300h , 1000-1100 h and 1800-2000 h. The HK bulls recorded the longest (p <0.01) total daytime grazing period of 8.88 h followed by FK (7.30 h), KK (7.03 h) and BK (6.95 h). Night time grazing by FK (5.m h), HK (4.73 h) and KK (4.65 h) was longer (P <0.01) than that of BK bulls (3.28 h). The total grazing  time in a 24-h period for the four breedtypes ranged between 10.2 h and 13.6 h. The HK bulls had the longest (p <0.01) total grazing time while the BK bulls recorded the shortest (P <0.01). Results of this study indicated that shelters as shed or shade trees are required to provide shade during midday and early afternoon when the environmental temperature is high and not conducive for grazing. Cattle that are herded into the shed at night must be released early in the morning as the earliest peak of grazing activity occurs between 1000 h and 1100 h.

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