Table 1.
Forage availability (kg DM/ha), bite rate (bites/min), intake rate (g DM/min), and diet diversity (index) of goats browsing a Southern Mediterranean forest rangeland during 2016 and 2017.
| Year | Season | Availability | BR 1 | IR 2 | Diet Diversity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Spring | 2064 A,3 | 16.9 C | 4.41 A | 0.27 B |
| Summer | 1289 B | 19.8 B | 3.21 B | 0.46 A | |
| Fall | 1018 C | 22.1A | 3.32 B | 0.41 A | |
| SEM 4 | 33.1 | 0.753 | 0.240 | 0.030 | |
| p-Value (S) | <0.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 | |
| 2017 | Spring | 2590 A | 13.9 C | 5.10 A | 0.21 B |
| Summer | 1670 B | 18.5 B | 4.03 B | 0.40 A | |
| Fall | 1328 C | 22.8 A | 4.25 B | 0.43 A | |
| SEM | 38.1 | 0.993 | 0.370 | 0.044 | |
| p-Value (S) | <0.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 | 0.001 | |
| 2016–2017 | |||||
| Season (S) | p-Value | <0.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 |
| Year (Y) | p-Value | <0.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 |
| Y*S | p-Value | 0.007 | 0.026 | 0.465 | 0.015 |
1 BR: bite rate; 2 IR: intake rate; 3 For the same year, means with different superscripts (A–C) within the column indicate significant differences (p < 0.05), 4 SEM: standard error of the mean.