A method to record the feeding behaviour of goats

We developed a method to record the feeding behaviour of up to four stall-h oused goats simultaneously. It consists of a series of tests to monitor int ake, rumination and idling in Alpine and Saanen dairy goats. We used two co mplementary systems to record simultaneously jaw movements and the weight o f the ingested quantities. The recording apparatus was composed of a portab le electronic device connected by a flexible pipe to another softer pipe fi xed on the inside part of the lower strap of the halter, between the halter and the mouth of the animal. The portable device was placed on the back of the animal, fixed on a basal plastic part which neither disturbed the anim al nor changed its behaviour. The portable device transforms air pulses gen erated from the compression of the halter pipe into binary signals recorded every 2.5 s. Weighing machines, fixed under the feeding pans of the four g oats, transmit weights to an adapted electronic memorizer able to store dat a every 2 min. The results showed very little discordances between the two sets of recorded data. Video recordings were performed to test the reliabil ity of the systems. Comparisons between filmed and recorded behaviours show ed a non-significant difference which did not exceed 1% when the goats were clearly seen. This method seems well adapted to stall-housed goats and pro vides complete and exact data on intake, rumination and idling over a conti nuous period (48 h in our case) and also on intake level and rate, (C) Publ ished by 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.