Production and feeding behavior of sheep in grazing under silvopastoral systems conformed for Leucaena leucocephala and Cynodon plectostachyus

Abstract

The dynamics of the ingestive behavior in grazing animals is especially dependent on the variety and variability of forage in the pasture. The objective of this work was to determine the productive and feeding behavior in hair sheep grazing in silvopastoral systems with Leucaena leucocephala and Cynodon plectostachyus in the humid tropics in Yucatan, Mexico. The silvopastoral system was evaluated in the rainy season (June to September of 2014) and dry season (December to February of 2015). The ingestive behavior of sheep grazing by direct observation of 7 to 17 hours, recording the time to grazing Cynodon plectostachyus (GCP), grazing of weeds (GW), browsing of Leucaena leucocephala (BLl), rumia standing (RS), rumination in the lying position (RL) and water consumption (WC). The grazing behavior of hair sheep was not affected by the time of year neither by the time of day (p>0.05). Similar behavior was observed (p>0.05) in the consumption of C. plectostachyus, L. leucocephala, weeds and the RS. Similarly, the time of day (morning or afternoon) did not affect the behavior of the sheep (p>0.05). However, most of the grazing time was devoted to the consumption of C. plectostachyus, weeds, RS, rest and water consumption at any time of the day in the two seasons evaluated. Was obtained DWG of 16.80 g and 28.35 g in the dry season and rainy season, respectively. It is concluded that the silvopastoral system with Leucaena leucocephala and Cynodon plectostachyus increases the time devoted to grazing of grasses and help maintenance of weight.