Performance of Purunã beef calves subjected to different weaning systems

Abstract

The study was developed at Fazenda Modelo an Experimental Station belonged to the Instituto Agronômico do Paraná - IAPAR, in the city of Ponta Grossa, PR, from June to November 2011. The objective was to evaluate the performance of calves subjected to different weaning systems. 161 calves crossbred Purunã were divided into three groups: calves subjected to early weaning (DP), weaned at an average of 75 days old; calves subjected to controlled nursing system (AC) with 75 days of age, exposed to suck only once a day during the duration of the breeding season (85 days) and; the control group, calves submitted to the system of conventional weaning (DC), were kept together with cow, without interfering in breastfeeding until the end of the breeding season (85 days). Calves fed the DP had lower mean (P<0.05) average daily gain (0.56 kg) during the experimental group compared to the AC and DC (0.95 kg and 0.88 kg, respectively) which did not differ (P<0.05). Thus, the DP had calves at the end of the breeding season, 32.36 kg and 26.48 kg unless the AC group (167.44 kg) and DC (161.56 kg), respectively. The system controlled breastfeeding does not provid damage on the performance of calves at 150 days of age. Already early weaning at 75 days cause decrease of 19.6% in weight of calves at 150 days of age compared to suckler calves.