Grazing behavior and ingestive goats in silvopastoral system

This work evaluated the effect of the different ages of regrowth of Leucaena leucocephala, associated with forage grasses on forage intake and the goats behavior in silvopastoral system. We adopted a completely randomized design with three treatments and five replications. Reviewed by three regrowth ages of leucaena 45; 60 and 75 days, with five days of occupation. The herbaceous layer was managed aged 30 days of regrowth; females were crossbred Anglonubian the race, whose behavior in grazing was observed every ten minutes, from 8h to 17h. During the activities of the animals as rumination, idle, movement and grazing, was identified which the food supply if leucaena or herbaceous. Every two hours were measured bite rate, taking into account the time spent by the animals to carry out 20 arrests. For the evaluation of consumption was carried out grazing test in three days of paddock occupation. The grazing time was the most activity performed by animals with 7,34h and did not differ significantly (P>0.05) between the ages of regrowth, followed by travel times (1,36h), rumination (0,51h) and leisure (0,39h). There was no significant difference (P>0.05) for the bite rate, mass total forage intake rate, and daily consumption. The management of regrowth ages of leucaena in silvopastoral system contributes to the satisfaction of the production of forage grasses and leucaena and does not interfere with grazing behavior and ingestive goats. The grasses are in the most preferred component of the diet of goats in silvopastoral system: leucaena-grass forage.