Grazing behavior of Ankole and Boran cattle in an improved herding production system

Sammanfattning: To be able to provide the growing human population with food, the productivity of the animals as well as land use needs to be improved and intensified. Hence, understanding the behavior of animals is crucial both for animal welfare and productivity as well as the management of the cattle. There are many factors affecting the grazing behavior of cattle in tropical conditions, such as human-animal interactions, herd management, breed, season and temperature. The purpose of this study was to investigate the grazing behavior of two tropical cattle breeds, Ankole and Boran cattle. Kenyan Boran belongs to a zebu type of cattle and is preferred to many other breeds due to the higher productive and reproductive capacity and adaptability to tropical conditions. Ankole cattle are a stabilized crossbred of Bos indicus (Zebu) and Bos taurus cattle characterized by large horns and a large umbilical flap. It is an indigenous breed of the central and eastern parts of Africa, and is well adapted to harsh climate and environments with diseases and parasites. The study was carried out at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. Different behaviors were recorded in intervals of 10 minutes on 18 adult non-lactating cows of each breed during the first five hours of the pasture time. Ankole cattle spent more time resting (4.9 %) than Boran cattle (1.95 %) (p=0.001). Ankole cows also spent more time in shade than Boran cows (p=0.03). The distance to the nearest cow was higher in Ankole cattle than in Boran cattle (p<0.001) as was the distance to herder (p=0.003). Both breeds spent most of their pasture time grazing; Ankole 63.23% and Boran 66.07 % followed by walking with 30.1% in both breeds. Grazing was most common during the second and fifth hour, and walking during the first, third and fourth hour, probably due to the herding management. These findings indicate that the large horns of Ankole cattle restrict their grazing to some extent. Also, it might influence the herd structure by increasing the distance between the cows, which was larger in Ankole. Boran cattle seemed to use the available pasture time more efficient on grazing, and hardly any time on resting. This study is to be considered as a pilot study and further investigation and research needs to be done on this subject.