Diet Selection by Sheep and Goats on Upland Rangelands (North Alborz) Case Study: Javaherdeh Rangeland of Ramsar

To reach the desirable ecosystem management, determining the animal dietselection, which is one of the components of rangeland ecosystem, is important. Therefore, inorder to determine the grazing behavior and diet selection of sheep and goat, the uplandrangeland of northern part of Alborz was selected. In this study, the first weeks of July andAugust of 2009 were chosen for the grazing period of the animals. Range value and rangetrend method and the help of trend balance determined the range conditions and plantcompositions in these two periods. Using the bite counting method, the grazing behavior ofanimals (sheep and goat) was observed from 0.5-2m via half an hour focus on each one andcompleting hundred records. Data collected and analyzed through the analysis of variance.Results showed that the bite counting method is a useful tool for determining the dietselection of sheep and goat. The animals have selected different layers of vegetation cover;therefore, range conditions have an effective role on the diet selection of animals within agrazing period. It has also shown that consumption rate was different in daily grazing inwhich sheep preferred to graze the forbs and goat browsed the bushy tree and shrub species ifthe grazing conditions were normal without any tension. Knowledge of the conditions ofanimals’ diet selection in each area could have an effective role on the production ofrehabilitation and development programs.