Diurnal Behavior and Activity Rhythm of He′nan Dairy Goat under Definite Management

This experiment was designed to study the behavior and activity rhythms of Henan dairy goats.Instance scan sampling,focus animal sampling and all-occurrence recording methods were used to observe the goats behavior.The goats were divided into three groups,which were young group,pregnant group and lactating group.The results showed:(1) The goats devoted 22.35%of their time to moving and 29.13%to resting and 21.44% to feeding,and 25.59% to ruminating and 1.49% to doing somethings such as drinking water,defecation,modified,sniffing,standing and pronunciation,etc.(2) There are significant difference(P0.01) of feeding time among three different physiological condition of dairy goats;crouch behavior have also a significant difference(0.01P0.05);the difference of movement,rumination and other behavior among three groups were not significant(P0.05).(3)The peaks of activity were at 8:00-11:00 and 16:00-19:00.It took about six hours for grazing and there were two feeding peaks(8:30-10:30 and 16:00-18:00),two grazing peaks were at 13:00-15:30 and 23:30-2:00.Resting often occurred at night,and was accompanied by a ruminant.Other behaviors occurred time and time in day,but the defecation was found during the grazing.It was concluded that the behavior and activity rhythms of Henan dairy goats have to do with grazing condition and the way of feeding and management.