Movements of dams milked for fermented horse milk production in Mongolia

Airag, (Fermented horse milk) is a traditional milk product in Mongolia. Herders separate foals from their dams and tie them at a milking site during the daytime to produce airag. To evaluate the effects of horse management on the movement of dams, we tracked three dams in a herd in camp 1 during summer and camp 2 during autumn of 2013 and analyzed their movements during the milking (daytime) and non-milking (nighttime) periods in an area famous for its high-quality airag. Dams were gathered every 1.7 ± 0.0 h between 07.46 and 15.47 hours at the milking sites and milked 4.6 ± 0.2 times/day during the study period (86 days). Daily cumulative and maximum linear distances from the milking sites were longer (P < 0.01) during the non-milking period than during the milking period. Daily home ranges were 91 and 26 times greater during the non-milking period (P < 0.001) in camps 1 and 2, respectively. The greater range during the non-milking period would reflect the spatial distributions of water, salt and forage. The dams initially used similar areas and gradually shifted their daily home ranges after several days. This shift suggests that the dams grazed farther afield as forage availability declined around the milking site. For better airag production and sustainable pasture use, our results provide insights useful for evaluating the effects of milking management on vegetation and soil in those pastures, for selecting the appropriate milking times and frequency, and for choosing the right timing to shift milking sites.