Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Efeito da taxa de lotação e da suplementação com silagem no crescimento de bovinos leiteiros em pastagem de capim-gordura

1982; Embrapa Informação Tecnológica; Volume: 17; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

1678-3921

Rodolpho de Almeida Torres, Miguel Simão Neto, Luciano Patto Novaes, Ronaldo Mendes de Souza,

Livestock Management and Performance Improvement

An experiment was carried out at the National Center for Research in Dairy Cattle in Coronel Pacheco, MG, to measure the liveweight gain of cross bred Friesian-Zebu heifers and steers during the periods July/77 to April/78 and April/78 to April/79 when grazing Molasses grass pastures at stocking rates of 0.4 (C 1 ), 0.8 (C 2 ) and 1.2 AU/ha (C 3 ), supplemented during the dry season with 0 (S 1 ), 15 (S 2 ) and 30 kg of maize silage/AU/day (S 3 ). Heifers were between ten and twelve months of age and initial weight of 167.4 kg and the steers had nine and ten months with an initial weight of 133.3 kg. Estimates were made of liveweight gain, daily intake of silage and every two months, the presentation yield of the pastures. In treatments C 2 /S 1 and C 3 /S 1 the pasture became completely degraded by the end of the first experimental period. Pasture availability remained stable in the C 1 stocking rate even at the S 1 level of supplementation. Larger liveweight gains were obtained from the treatment combinations C 1 /S 2 and C 1 /S 3 in both experimental periods, although higher gains per hectare were observed in the C 3 /S 3 and C 2 /S 2 treatments. In treatments C 1 /S 2 and C 1 /S 3 animals reached 300 kg and 320 kg liveweight in the first and second periods respectively, at an age of 22 months. Silage supplementation was most economic in treatments C 3 /S 3 and C 2 /S 2 in the first and second periods respectively.