Abstract

Four scrub-pasture associations containing different proportions of grass, white clover and gorse were developed by grazing with different ratios of goats and sheep. The ratios were: 100% goats (Goat 100), 66% goats and 34% sheep (Goat 66), 33% goats and 67% sheep (Goat 33) and 100% sheep (Sheep 100). These associations were then grazed by oesophageally fistulated goats and sheep in each season for 2 years. Grass was the principal feed of sheep in all associations (77% of diet) and of goats (62%). Sheep ate white clover in proportion to its presence in the sward (14%) whereas it was rejected by goats (2%). Gorse was a preferred feed for goats (20%) but the principal feed only when gorse >10% of the association; sheep ate very little gorse (0.1%). Dietary overlap between goats and sheep was greatest on the Goat 66 association (0.89), which was grass dominant. It was less on the ?Goat 100 (0.69) where sheep ate more legume, and the Goat 33 (0.66) where goats ate more gorse. On the Sheep 100 association it was the lowest (0.12) because goats ate mainly gorse and sheep mainly grass and white clover.

PG, Floyd

Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production, Volume 42, , 149-152, 1982