Grazing behavior of the greek breed of sheep »Serres« in lowland and mountainous pastures

Abstract. The grazing activities of indigenous sheep of the greek breed »Serres« was investigated in a typical lowland, and in a mountainous pasture in northern Greece during the vegetative period (April–October) of 2008. Grazing time, resting and ruminating time, distance travel and air temperature in relation to pasturing month and altitude were examined. It was remarked significant effect (P<0.001) of the pasturing month on grazing time, and resting time of sheep. Mean grazing time was greater in the lowland (315.71 min/day ±4.57) than in the mountainous pasture (283.57 min/day ±4.79). On the contrary, the resting time and the distance travel of sheep were shorter in the lowland pasture. The resting time had significant (P<0.01) positive relationship to air temperature (r=0.777).