Abstract
To evaluate the grass B. brizantha cv. Marandu, under grazing, we use three sampling methods: total availability (TA), hand plucked (HP) and extrusa (EXT) in a completely randomized design with four replications. The hand plucked method was collected manually after observing the behavior of grazing animals. TA was determined by cutting at ground level, using a metallic square (0.25 m²) and EXT was collected by rumen evacuation. The values for dry matter (DM), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF), were 27.20, 88.52 and 43.70% in the treatment and HP, and 25.53, 87.70 and 45.50% in TA. The extrusa had the lowest DM content (15.88%) and higher crude protein (CP) (15.22%), possibly due to the presence of saliva. The levels checked for extrusa NDF, ADF and in vitro digestibility of dry matter were 81.98, 36.90 and 79.10%, demonstrating the selectivity of the animals. The high levels of FDA for TA reflect the composition of the forage with the high proportion of senescent material. The samples obtained by the total availability were not representative of the diet consumed by cattle. The different sampling methods influence the chemical composition of B. Brizantha cv. Marandu.
Highlights
The Brazilian cattle industry is mainly focused on the production of cattle, and most of these animals is sustained by tropical grasses, representing one of the most economical feed resources for animal production (SILVA et al, 2009a)
We evaluated three sampling methods: collection of the total availability of dry matter (TDM), hand plucking method (HP) and extrusa (EXT), obtained by ruminal emptying the rumen of steers
In this work the availability of dry matter and green were higher of the limits proposed by Silva et al (2009b) and Euclides et al (1992) as limiting the selective grazing
Summary
The Brazilian cattle industry is mainly focused on the production of cattle, and most of these animals is sustained by tropical grasses, representing one of the most economical feed resources for animal production (SILVA et al, 2009a). Marandu appears as an option for farmers, due to its agronomic and zoothecnic characteristics, such as nutritional value, less seasonality in production, higher leaf / stem ratio, pasture spittlebug resistance, adaptation to acid soils and high forage mass production (EMBRAPA, 1985). Ruminants are very selective in relation to available forage, eating green leaves in preference to stem and senescent material. Because of this selectivity, the greater difficulty is assessing the quality of forage
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