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Feeding of feral goats before live export by ship
Author(s) -
GHERARDI SG,
JOHNSON TJ
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
australian veterinary journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.382
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1751-0813
pISSN - 0005-0423
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-0813.1995.tb06196.x
Subject(s) - hay , agriculture , geography , library science , citation , agricultural economics , history , political science , zoology , law , archaeology , biology , economics , computer science
SUMMARY Feral goats were lot-fed for either 7 or 14 days before a simulated shipping voyage of 20 days, to examine whether period of lot-feeding affected the proportion of goats that ate pelleted feed and the subsequent liveweight changes. During the period from the start of lot-feeding to the completion of the simulated voyage, liveweight losses were similar and underestimated true losses because of the removal of goats which lost more than 20% of their initial liveweight to days 7 or 14 of simulated shipping. Also period of lot-feeding had no effect on either the proportion of non-feeders during the simulated voyage or the proportion of goats that completed the voyage. It was postulated that the failure of the goats to eat in the feedlot was a likely cause for their poor performance. The results of this study suggest that there was no advantage in increasing the period of lot-feeding of feral goats from 7 to 14 days. However, further studies are required to define the optimum period of lot-feeding of feral goats before live export