Abstract
This study was conducted to evaluate the physiological quality of forage seeds after passage through the gastrointestinal tract of cattle, as well as the emergence of seedlings derived from these seeds. Three Fabaceae species were used: tropical kudzu, leucaena and calopo. One hundred grams of seeds of each species were offered, separately, to five bovines. After the start of the dispersion, the faeces of the animals were collected every 6 hours, in a total of 72 hours, being taken to the greenhouse immediately after each collection. The study evaluated the total number of seedlings in the stool, the lengths of roots and aerial parts, as well as the natural and dry seedling weight thirty days after the disposal of the faeces in the greenhouse. The experimental design consisted of randomized blocks, with twelve treatments (sampling periods) and five replications (cattle). The best performance for the total number of seedlings in the faeces of cattle was observed in the kudzu species. The length of the root, length of the aerial part and dry matter seedling weight was observed in the leucaena species, followed by kudzu. The calopo showed low results for all variables due to the high degradation of the seeds.
Highlights
Domestic animals, such as bovines, contribute to the maintenance of ecosystems, providing services such asHow to cite this paper: Lima, R.V., Vieira, H.D., de Souza Guimarães, F., Rohem Jr., N.M., da Silva, T.O., Fernandes, A.M., Guimarães, C.P., Acha, A.J. and Deminicis, B.B. (2014) Germination, Vigor of Seeds and Emergence of Fabaceae Seedling in Bovine Faeces
The passage of the calopo seeds through bovine gastrointestinal tract (GIT) should not constitute a favorable medium to the initial growth of the seedlings, as can be seen by the values of natural and dry matters, whose lengths were smaller from control (Figure 3(d) and Figure 3(e)), bearing in mind the low or inexistent germination in such medium, which may be toxic to the seedlings due to pH variations and to nitrogenous compounds created by microbial activity
0.04 with the greatest percentage of seedling emergence (12.5%) regarding the amount of seeds available to the animals (1530). These results suggest that the leucaena seeds present larger resistance to the conditions encountered in bovine GIT due to the cutaneous hardness inherent to the species
Summary
Domestic animals, such as bovines, contribute to the maintenance of ecosystems, providing services such as. (2014) Germination, Vigor of Seeds and Emergence of Fabaceae Seedling in Bovine Faeces. The seeds that survive the passage through GIT are benefitted by the great amount of nutrients available in the faeces [6]. It is necessary to understand more deeply the behavior of seeds excreted by bovines in order to evaluate the dynamics of forage-seed dissemination [8] [9] According to these considerations, this research was conducted with the objective of evaluating the physiological quality of seeds of the forages: tropical kudzu (Pueraria phaseoloides Benth), leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala), and calopo (Calopogonium mucunoides), after the passage through GIT, as well as the emergence of seedlings from these seeds
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