Diet Selection by Goats on Rangeland of North Kordofan State, Sudan

This study was conducted at El Demokeya forest, North Kordofan State, Sudan. The objective was to evaluate goat diet botanical composition as an indicator for pasture quality. Bite counts were obtained from seven goats in protected and open rangeland sites. Percent plant cover in the two range sites were 81.9% and 87.5% respectively. Density was 260.9 and 181.9 plants / m2 respectively (P \u3c 0.05). At flowering, goat diet contained 10.8% ± 1.12 and 11.8% ± 5.94 CP in protected and open sites respectively. At seed set CP% was 8.1 ± 1.32 and 8.2 ± 3.01 respectively (P \u3e 0.01). Diet CP% was higher in diet than in forage biomass vegetation. At flowering, in protected range Acacia senegal (26.6%), Echinocloa colonum (11.34%) and Zaleya pentandra (9.08%) were the browse, grasses and forbs most selected, respectively. In the open range site Acacia senegal was 22.58%, Eragrostis tremula 13.78% and Zaleya pentandra 11.05% of the diet. At seed set, in the protected range site, the diet contained 18.36% Justica kotschyi, 15.02% Acacia senegal and 4.28% Eragrostis tremula.While in open range site Eragrostis tremula was 52.92%, Acacia senegal 25.58% and Chrozophora brocchiana 1.62%. Grasses and forbs with highest relative preference indeces (RPI) at flowering in protected range site were Cenchrus biflorus (RPI=2.05) and Justica kotschyi (RPI=7.93). In open range site the grass and forb with highest RPI were Echinocloa colonum (RPI=1.17) and Zornia glochidiata (RPI=6.7) respectively. Diet botanical composition is an indicator of plant preference and is useful in selecting plants for reseeding of deteriorated range and in identifying key species for range management