Got Brush? Need Goats?

Overview

Objectives/Goals The goal for this project is to discover which browsing plant goats like the best and their least favorite plants. The hypothesis for this project is if two goats are offered the following browsing plants: pine, madrone, manzanita, tan oak, black oak, grass, cedar, and blackberry, then the goats will go to the madrone first every time. The hypothesis was incorrect because one of the goats didn#t go to madrone first every time, only one goat went to madrone first every time. Methods/Materials The materials used in this project included 2 pygmy goats, 2 fenced pens, pine needles, madrone leaves, manzanita leaves, blackberry, cedar, grass, black oak, tanoak, paper, pencil, clipboard, and halters. The method of this project was that the goats were put into a different enclosure, away from the plants. The plants were separated into piles in a line in the other enclosure, so the goats could see all the plants. Then catch one goat with the halter and brought it into the pen with the plants. Then let the goat sniff each plant but did not let it eat any plants. Then let the goat go and write down what the goat went to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th and repeat the steps with the other goat. Results The result of this project was that the highest plant chosen was madrone and the lowest plant that was chosen was grass. Each goat had different preferences. One of the goats chose tanoak almost every time and the other goat chose madrone first almost every time. Both goats chose grass last every trial. Conclusions/Discussion The results did not support the hypothesis because only one of the goats chose madrone first and the other did not. The benefit of this project is to discover what plants goats like and what they prefer to eat. People could use use this project to find goats that will clear away the brush they want cleared. For example some people might want pine needles cleared and they could use this project to find goats that clear pine needles.

Competition history

• CSEF 2014 Mammalian Biology · Entry J1227

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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