Abstract
Abstract The objective of this research was to measure the ingestive behavior of steers finished exclusively with concentrate containing soybean hulls (ground) and/or white oat grain.We used 32 steers with Charolais or Nellore predominance.The animals were randomly distributed in the treatments, blocked according to genetic predominance, and allocated in individual pens. Diets were isonitrogenous, being the treatments: Soybean hulls; White oat grain or the Mixture (equal parts), plus limestone and protein nucleus. Steers that received the diet based on soybean hulls remained more time in idle compared to the ones that received the mixture, and these remained more time in idle than the steers that received the diet based on white oat grain. Steers that received the diet based on soybean hulls ruminated less time than the steers fed the mixture, and these less time than those fed white oat grain. Exclusively concentrate diets based on soybean hulls although presenting high soluble fiber content in neutral detergent, are not sufficient to promote an appropriate ingestive behavior of steers of Charolais or Nelore racial predominance.
Highlights
Measurement of ingestive behavior is a tool that preserves animal welfare and assists in nutritional management to improve the efficiency and productive performance of animals without economic losses
Steers belonging to treatment soybean hull spent more time ingesting food than animals that received the mixture, which, in turn, spent more time than animals that received white oat grain (P
This result is a consequence of the specific density (kg (m3)−1) of the soybean hull ingredient (Table 1), which provided the lowest bite rate
Summary
Measurement of ingestive behavior is a tool that preserves animal welfare and assists in nutritional management to improve the efficiency and productive performance of animals without economic losses. According to Van Soest[1], animals spend approximately one hour eating energy foods and six hours daily for low energy diets. In this sense, the proportion of concentrate in the diet may interfere with the amount of ingested food and ingestive behavior. According to Missio et al[2], as the proportion of concentrate in the diet increases, there is a decrease in the time spent feeding. These observed an inverse correlation (r = −0.77) between the concentrate level in the diet and time spent on feed intake
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