GRAZING BITES PER DAY OF GOATS ON SOME TROPICAL GRASS PASTURES AND THE INFLUENCE OF SWARD CHARACTERISTICS

The number of grazing bites per day of Japanese Saanen goats was measu red on 3 species of tropical grass pastures, fingergrass (Digitaria ad scendens H.B.K. Henry), Rhodesgrass (Chloris gayana Kunth) and green p anic (Panicum maximum Jacq. var. trichoglume Eyles) In addition, green panic pasture at different stages of growth (vegetative, booting, hea ding and mature) was used to examine the relations of the grazing bite s to structural measures (plant height, herbage yield per unit area an d cell wall components) and nutritive measures (crude protein, in vitr o dry matter digestibility and digestible energy) of the pasture. The number of grazing bites varied among species or growth stages of the p asture, ranging from 46,200 to 95,100. The grazing bites in the mature stage of the pastures tended to be higher than those in other growth stages. The grazing bites were positively correlated with the structur al measures of green panic and negatively correlated with the nutritiv e measures. Especially herbage mass had a close association with the g razing bites, being expressed by quadratic regression (R'=0.905). The results obtained indicate that sward structural and nutritive characte ristics affect the daily grazing bites.