Weight gain of steers on pastures of cameroon grass and braquiarão grass

Abstract

We evaluate pastures formed of Pennisetum purpureum cv.cameroon and Urochloa brizantha.cv. Marandu aiming at greater live weight gains per animal and per hectare. The animals were crossbred male half blood Tabapuã/Nellore live weight of 280 kg (9.3 kilos). Each grass was submitted to four stocking rates in a rotated grazing system with three days of grazing and 36 days of rest, resulting in a 39 days grazing cycle. In the summer the stocking rates were 2.64, 3.49, 4.34 and 5.09 UA/ha in and winter the rates were 164, 2.38, 3.26 and 3.89 UA/ha. In summer, the stocking rate of 4.34 UA/ha enabled best combination between weight gain per animal and per area with daily average gains of 0.560kg/animal and 2.99 kg/ha on cameroon grass and of 0.505 kg/animal and 2.79 kg/ha for braquiarão grass. However, in winter, the stocking rate of 3.26 UA/ha was the one which enabled greatest animal yield with daily average gains of 0.670kg/animal and 2.86 kg/ha on cameroon grass and 0.503 kg/animal and 2.10kg/ha on braquiarão grass. The weight gain per animal and per area is influenced by stocking rate. The cameroon grass provides greater weight than grass braquiarão gains, both animal as per area, in both rainy and dry seasons.