Behavior and distribution patterns of Katahdin rams in southern-pine silvopastures with cool-season forages

Selection of a suitable grazing livestock is a key for successful management of silvopasture systems. Previous studies have pointed out some damaging behavior of Kiko, a meat goat breed, wethers on pine trees in mixed-pine silvopastures, thereby indicating the need for identifying alternative animal species for this system. Our objective was to determine the diurnal behavior and distribution patterns of Katahdin, a hair sheep breed, rams in southern-pine silvopastures during the cool-season grazing period. The study was conducted during the spring of 2017 at the Atkins Agroforestry Research and Demonstration Site, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama, USA. Three 0.4-ha longleaf (Pinus palustris Mill.)-loblolly (Pinus taeda L.) mixed-pine silvopasture plots were planted with three different combinations of coolseason forages in separate subplots. Forage samples were collected before bringing animals into the plots, and analyzed for productivity and quality. Six Katahdin rams (12–15 months old, 72.7 ± 4.80 kg live weight) were rotationally stocked in the study plots, and their diurnal (dawn-dusk) behavior and distribution patterns were observed. Grazing was the most dominating behavior (44%) of rams followed by lying (39%) and loafing (10%). Rams used tree shade while resting and stayed in shelters during the rain. There was no pine debarking by rams throughout the observation period. Rams in silvopastures spent more time grazing during morning (dawn-1100 h) and post-midday (1500 h-dusk) periods, and lying during the midday (1100–1500 h) period. They mostly stayed together irrespective of where they went, resulting in a small value of distribution evenness index. Katahdin rams were found safe to graze in mixed southern-pine silvopasture systems consisting of 12-year-old trees during the coolseason grazing period.