Supplements for finishing sheep in Brachiaria brizantha cv. Marandu pasture

Abstract

The objective was to evaluate the supplementation on the productive response, nutritional parameters and the cost of production of sheep grazing grass Marandu. The experiment lasted 84 days and 20 lambs were used with age and initial body weight of 21.73 kg and four months, as well four rumen fitted sheep of 12 months and 55.00 kg of body weight, divided into four paddocks of 0.1 ha provided, with water and supplements dispenser, to evaluated the following treatments: mineral mix, soybean meal, soybean seed and cottonseed whole. For the average daily gain observed were of 0.061, 0.080, 0.060 and 0.080 kg day-1, respectively, for the mineral mix, soybean meal, soybean seed and cottonseed whole. The average pH values were 6.16, 6.18, 6.25 and 6.23, respectively, for the mineral supplements, soybean meal, soybean seed and cottonseed whole, and values for rumen ammonia nitrogen were 11, 10, 24.77, 22.31 and 29.37 mg dL-1 of rumen fluid, respectively. Supplements of soybean meal and cottonseed whole increased weight gain at 8.75% compared to animals maintained only with mineral salt, however, the mineral salt produced weight gain with lower cost.