Effect of early weaning of calves on the grazing behavior of female yaks in the Qinghai Lake Area

doi:10.11686/cyxb2016056

Abstract

Abstract: The aim of this research was to study the effect of early calf weaning on the grazing behavior of female yaks. Twenty-six yak dams with calves were used in this experiment. Thirteen yak dams weaned their calves early, and the other 13 did not (control). Three randomly selected yak dams from each group were tagged with a GPS3300 from August 22 to November 15, 2015. The experiment included three periods: weaning inchoate (1st to 15th day after weaning), weaning metaphase (16th to 38th day after weaning), and weaning anaphase (59th to 82nd day after weaning). The weaning inchoate period was divided into phase I (1st to 6th day after weaning) and phase Ⅱ (7th to 15th day after weaning). The results showed that: 1) the daily moving distance of the early weaning group was higher than that of the control group in phase Ⅰ of the weaning inchoate period (P<0.01), but there was no significant difference during the other three phases (P>0.05). The daily moving distance of the early weaning and control groups differed among the four phases. The early weaning group’s daily moving distance was significantly higher than that of the control group on the weaning day. The early weaning and control group showed different daily grazing patterns in the different weaning phases. 2) The grazing space distribution pattern was not significantly different between the early weaning and control group in weaning inchoate phase Ⅰ, weaning inchoate phase Ⅱ, and weaning metaphase. The early weaning and control groups’ grazing ranges were larger in weaning metaphase than in the weaning inchoate phases. The grazing space distribution pattern differed between the two groups in weaning anaphase. These results indicate that early weaning can affect the grazing behavior of yaks in the short term, but the dams soon adapt to the absence of their calves. The yak dams with calves and those without calves should graze separately in periods of forage shortage.

LIU Pei-Pei, ZHANG Jiao-Jiao, LIU Shu-Jie, DONG Quan-Min, ZHENG Wen-Ming, ZHAO Suo-Nan, ZHOU Yu-Qing, JING Xiao-Ping, HU Rui, SHAO Ya-Qun, PEI Zhao-Xi, DING Lu-Ming. Effect of early weaning of calves on the grazing behavior of female yaks in the Qinghai Lake Area[J]. Acta Prataculturae Sinica, 2016, 25(12): 84-93.

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