The aim of this thesis was to obtain and evaluate information from behavioural monitoring of beef cattle herd (cows, bull, calves) reared in the suckler system in the year-round grazing. The beef herd situated in the Pilsen region near Přeštice and is owned by private breeder was chosen for observation. Basic herd consisted of 20 cows with calves and one Charolais sire. There were three ethological observations, two observations in 2014 and one observation in 2015, duration of observations was 24 hours. The course of each category of behaviour was recorded by interval group method with interval length of 5 minutes. Activities as feed intake, rest, standing and movement. It was also reported comfort, sexual and maternal behaviour within the herd. The longest period of cows feed intake was recorded at the end of the grazing season (30.56% of the day, i.e. 7.33 hours). In contrast, feed intake took cattle in the winter months only 28.31% of the day (6.8 hours). Values in the standing category were not substantially different during the year. The longest standing time in the spring and autumn (5.97 hours respectively. 5.95 hours), standing time in the winter was shortened to 5.56 hours. Locomotion activity of animals in the spring reached 7.78%, i.e. 1.87 hour and due to the fact that cattle was still fed hay, but also first low vegetation started to grow in some areas and animals on its wintering actively sought it. In contrast, in the autumn the value was only 2.43%, i.e. 0.58 hours of the day due to sufficient suitable pasture. In the winter due to bad weather conditions, the value also decreased to 7.8%, i.e. 1.88 hours of the day. The longest representation of rest category in form of laying was recorded in the herd in autumn at level of 10.13 hours of the day (i.e. 40.22% of the day). In the spring rest category took 9.00 hours (i.e. 37.48%). The form of animal husbandry at the farm was in correspondence with the natural biorhythms of the animals and allowed them to freely demonstrate natural instincts and behaviour. Based on the findings it is possible to judge that the system of suckler beef herds is useful in terms of ensuring animal welfare and Charolais breed is exercisable under those conditions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nusl.cz/oai:invenio.nusl.cz:203369 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | LEVOROVÁ, Silvie |
| Source Sets | Czech ETDs |
| Language | Czech |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
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