Diurnal Pattern of Feeding Behaviour of Karan Fries Calves Under Two Housing Conditions During Spring and Summer

摘要

An experiment was conducted to study diurnal pattern of feeding behaviour of crossbred calves for assessing the behavioural response to two different housing conditions during spring and summer. Twelve apparently healthy Karan Fries (Tharparkar X Ho/stein Friesian) male calves of 2.5 months old (average weight 41.9 Kg) were divided randomly in to two groups of six calves each. Group A was provided with open and covered area where as group B was kept in open area throughout the experiment. Feeding andruminating bouts of all the animals are recorded at 5 minute interval for 24 hours. Recording of behavior was repeated four times in each season at weekly interval. There was no significant difference in the time spent on feeding by both the groups during spring. The calves of group A spent almost same time in feeding activity during spring and summer, where as, the calves of group B spent significantly less time on feeding during summer as compared to spring. Calves of both the groups showed more feeding activity during day hours as compared to night during spring. However, the calves kept constantly in open area spent almost equal time on feeding during day and night in summer. Group A and group B spent 26.73% and 26.56% of 24h respectively in rumination during spring. In summer, the corresponding values were 27.78% and 24.48% for group A and group B. Approximately, the animals of both the groups, during spring and summer, showed 58-62 percent of total rumination activity during night time.