Productive and nutritional performance of grazing beef heifers supplemented in the dry season and/or in the dry-rainy transition season
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5433/1679-0359.2014v35n4Suplp2655Keywords:
Forage, Heifers, Supplementation, Weight gain.Abstract
The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of supplementation with multiple supplement or mineral mixture in the dry season (phase 1) and/or dry-rainy transition season (phase 2) on nutritional variables and productive performance of beef cattle in Uruchloa decumbens pasture. 40 heifers at initial age and average weight of 8 months and 200 ± 3.74 kg, respectively in a complete random design with four treatments and 10 replicates, were used. In the phase 1, two groups of animals were fed multiple supplement and the other two groups were fed only mineral mixture ad libitum. In the second phase of the experiment, the two groups that received multiple supplements, one continued to receive multiple supplements and the other was receiving only mineral. Regarding the two groups fed only mineral mixture in the phase 1, one continued receiving mineral mixture in phase 2 and the other receiving supplement in phase 2. In the phase 1, supplemented animals presented higher daily average gain (DAG), the supplementation increased intake in kg/day of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), CP, non fibrous carbohydrates (NFC), digested dry matter (DDM), and total digestible nutrients (TDN) and it improved digestibility of all dietary constituents (P<0.10), except those of neutral detergent fiber (NDFap) and ether extract (EE) (P<0.10). The supplementation in the dry-rainy transition season (phase 2) increased intake in kg/day of DM, forage dry matter (FDM), OM, forage organic matter (FOM), CP, EE, DDM, digested neutral detergent fiber (DNDF) and indigestible neutral detergent fiber. There was an interaction effect on supplementation in the dry season and in the dry-rainy transition season on the DAG, NFC intake, on the coefficients of DM, OM, CP, NDFap and on the content of TDN. It is recommended the use of multiple supplements for grazing beef heifers in the growth phase in the dry season and in the rainy-dry transition period. Supplementation in the dry season improves performance of supplemented animals in the rainy-dry transition season.
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