Behaviour of cattle in an agro-forestry system

Abstract

Objective of the present study was to understand the behaviour of dairy cattle tethered underagro-forcstry systems. Three genetically uncharacterized, indigenous, non-lactating cows and twobulls (mean live weight 199±29) were tethered close to a water stream in an agro-forestry system.The vegetation of the agro-forestry system comprised of teak, coconut, mahogany and shrubs. Animalshad enough foraging materials around the place they were tethered. One observer was assigned toeach animal. The behaviour of the animals was observed for five hours from 1000 1500 hrs. Themean temperature and the relative humidity of day of the study were 28°C and 79% respectively.Frequency and the duration of the time spent on nine behaviours were recorded. The behaviouralactivities studied were drinking, feeding (ground level and upper level), lying, standing, walking,urination, defecation, vocal ization and interactions (cattle-cattle and cattle-other an irnals ). Feedingwas the most prominent behaviour of the animals. The time spent on feeding and the frequency offeeding during the 300 minutes study period were 252 min and 23, respectively and thus the feedingbehaviour accounted for 84% of the total time budget. The frequency (15) and the time spent onground level grazing (234 min) were significantly higher (p<O.OOI) than the frequencies and the timespent on upper level feeding. Though not statistically significant, animals spent more time on standing(18.9min or 6.3% of the total time) than on Laying (14.6 min or 5% of the total time). The frequencyof standing (5) was also significantly (p<O.OO I) higher than that oflying (I). May be due to tethering,cattle spent less time (8.3 minutes or 2.7% of the total time) on walking. The frequency of drinking(2) and the time spent on drinking were (3 min or 1% of the total time) unexpectedly low. Cattledefecated and urinated twice during the five- hour study period. Vocalization was the least prominentbehavioural activity. It is concluded that cattle highly engage with feeding particularly, on groundlevel when they are tethered under agro-forestry systems. Further researches are needed to determineas to why the drinking behaviour is suppressed when tethered in agro-forestry systems.