Concentrate levels for lambs grazing on buffel grass

Tadeu Vinhas Voltolini,Salete Alves De Moraes,Gherman Garcia Leal De Araújo,Luiz Gustavo Ribeiro Pereira

doi:10.1590/s1806-66902011000100027

Abstract

Use of concentrate for lambs grazing buffel grass may improve animal performance and animal traits. The objective of the present trial was to evaluate the final body weight, average daily gain, total weight gain and carcass traits (cold and hot carcass weights, cold and hot dressing percentages) of lambs grazing buffel grass and receiving different concentrate levels (0; 0.33; 0.66 and 1.0% of dry matter in relation to body weight). Forty lambs were used, ten animals by treatment, with 16.5 ± 2.0 kg of initial body weight, distributed in four groups. Experimental design was a completely randomized with ten replicates. Concentrate levels did not influence the final body weight, the average daily gain, total weight gain and cold and hot carcass weights. However, the increase of concentrate levels promoted higher cold and hot carcass yields.

Highlights

Sheep production is one of the most important economic activities of Brazilian semi-arid
Forage mass of buffel grass pastures found in this present study (FIG. 1) is in accordance to the results obtained by Moreira et al (2007) who evaluated productive potential of dormant buffel grass and reported forage mass values of 3,076 to 3,118 kg of dry matter (DM) ha-1 during November and December in Brazilian Northeast semi-arid
Santos et al (2005) evaluated morphological composition in extrusa samples of bovines grazing buffel grass in Brazilian Northeast semi-arid and reported a reduction in proportion of leaves (59.92% to 29.43%) and the increasing of stems (22.33% to 52.00%). These results obtained by Santos et al (2005) are in accordance the data observed in the present trial, indicating a drastic reduction of leaf and increase of stem and dead material in the forage mass, promoting a longer grazing time in the dry rainy transition period or in dry transition period

Summary

Introduction

Sheep production is one of the most important economic activities of Brazilian semi-arid. The production system in this region is characterized as extensive, showing low stocking rate of native pastures, low meat and milk yield, low reproductive efficiency and high mortality rate of herds, resulting in a low economic performance to farmers (MOREIRA et al, 2008; VOLTOLINI et al, 2009). In this region, there are few alternatives to produce feed to herds especially during dry rainy transition period or dry period of the year. In the dry rainy or in dry period of year this forage may show poor quality (MOREIRA et al, 2007) affecting productive performance of animals (SOUZA; ESPÍNDOLA, 2000)

Objectives

Methods

Results