Abstract
To mitigate the low animal performance on Mombaça guineagrass pasture during the dry period, feeding 2 types ofsupplement to 2 genetic groups was evaluated. The experimental design was a randomized block design following a 2 ×2 factorial arrangement with 4 replications. The treatments consisted of feeding 2 levels of supplement (0.25 and 1.0% of body weight; BW), named low-cost supplement (LCS; US$ 11.75/steer) and high-cost supplement (HCS; US$ 62.80/steer), respectively, for 130 days (July–October; dry season) to 2 genetic groups: Caracu and F1 Senepol × Caracu. The steers were supplemented daily and weighed every 28 days. Pastures were evaluated monthly to estimate the herbage accumulation rate, herbage mass (HM), leaf, stem and dead material percentages and nutritive value. HM, morphological components and nutritive value were independent of supplement type fed (P>0.05). There were decreases in HM (3,720 to 3,205 kg DM/ha), daily herbage allowance (14.0 to 9.4 kg DM/100 kg BW) and leaf percentage (33.4 to 21.2%) and increase in dead material percentage (53.3 to 67.7%) throughout the experimental period. In vitro organic matter digestibility (59.9%), crude protein concentration (10.0%), neutral detergent fiber (72.1%) and acid detergent lignin (2.9%) remained constant from July to September but increased markedly in October. Steers supplemented with HCS performed better (P<0.05) than those which received LCS (1.005 vs. 0.565 kg liveweight gain/head/day, respectively). Regardless of supplement type, F1 Senepol × Caracu steers had greater average daily gains than pure Caracu steers (0.88 vs. 0.71 kg/hd/d, respectively). Feeding HCS to steers in the dry season would produce better performance than LCS and could reduce time to reach slaughter weight but weight changes during the subsequent wet season should be monitored to assess the extent of any compensatory gain by the low-cost group during this period to reduce the weight advantage of the high-cost group.
Highlights
IntroductionSustainable technological advances to improve the quality of beef are required if Brazil aims to maintain its position as one of the most important players in the world beef market
Feeding high-cost supplement (HCS) to steers in the dry season would produce better performance than low-cost supplement (LCS) and could reduce time to reach slaughter weight but weight changes during the subsequent wet season should be monitored to assess the extent of any compensatory gain by the low-cost group during this period to reduce the weight advantage of the high-cost group
Herbage mass and daily herbage allowance were greater during July and August than in September and October (Table 2)
Summary
Sustainable technological advances to improve the quality of beef are required if Brazil aims to maintain its position as one of the most important players in the world beef market. Seasonality of forage production of tropical pastures remains a major constraint in having animals reach acceptable slaughter weights when still young This seasonality is characterized by marked reductions in forage quantity and quality during the dry season, with concomitant decrease in animal performance and increase in age at slaughter. Analysis of data on liveweight gains and feed conversion efficiency led the authors to suggest that modest supplementation contributed to the economic improvement of production systems, by lowering costs, and by increasing the efficiency of inputs, by maximizing the use of pasture. For this reason, feeding a modest amount of supplement during the dry period is quite common in Brazilian production systems. Supplements fed include a combination of non-protein nitrogen and a natural protein source, are reasonably palatable and provide discrete nutrients that are limiting in the available pasture
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