The feeding behaviour of the water buffalo monitored by a semiautomatic feed intake recording system

Records were made on the feeding activity of eight water buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis) individually penned in the animal house at Nanjing Agricultural U niversity during June-August 1996, fed ad libitum with Leymus chinensis hay . The weight of the feed container suspended from load cells was continuous ly monitored for 30 days through a portable computer reading data from a mu ltiplexed serial analog-to-digital converter. Processed records provided a list of meals for each buffalo on each day. Meals taking place over many da ys for each animal at similar times of day were grouped into clusters by ma ximizing the distance between clusters and minimizing the distance within. Intake parameters analyzed in each cluster included number of meals, starti ng time, meal duration, meal weight, rate of eating, hunger ratio; and sati ety ratio. All the individuals showed a strong stimulation of intake at the time when fresh hay was offered, taking a first meal which lasted an avera ge of two hours at the highest intake rate of the day. Just before a night- time resting period a second big cluster was found. Satiety ratios were sho wn to increase as the day proceeded, reaching a maximum in the evening. It is concluded that cluster analysis is a useful tool for summarising feeding behaviour and that the feeding behaviour of buffaloes is similar to that o f cattle kept under similar conditions.