Comportamiento de toretes en pastos tropicales suplementados con caña de azúcar y enzimas fibrolíticas

Abstract

Sugar cane as complementary forage to steers grazing bigalta grass was evaluated in different treatments. Thirty two steers (initial BW 220+- 63 kg) were used. Treatments were 1) Control, grazing + 1.0 kg concentrate animal day-1 2) grazing + 1.0 kg concentrate animal day-1+ saccharina, 3) grazing + 1.0 kg concentrate animal day-1+ whole sugarcane + urea (1.5% humid base) + fibrolytic enzymes (Fibrozyme) 15 g animal day-,1 and 4) grazing + 1.0 kg concentrate animal day-1 + whole sugarcane + urea (1.5% humid base). Steers receiving dietary supplements were housed in individual pens daily from 0700 to 1500, to determine individual feed intake, whereas animals in the control group remained in the paddock. No differences in forage DM intake and total DM intake between treatments were observed (P>0.05), nor in digestibility between treatments including sugar cane. Intake of sugar cane processed as saccharina was 1.04 kg day-1, being 1.13 kg and 1.07 for sugar cane with or without fibrolytic enzymes. Average daily gain was similar among treatments (P>0.05), with 566 g d-1 in control group, 580 g day-1 saccharine, and 584 and 559 g day-1 for sugar cane with or without enzyme. Sugar cane processed as saccharina or treated with urea with or without fibrolytic enzymes did not improve steers', performance in grazing conditions.