PSVI-22 Effect of Creep-Feeding on Feeding Behavior of Nellore Calves

Abstract

Abstract The study aimed to evaluate the effect of creep-feeding on feeding behavior of beef calves, during nursing phase. The experiment lasted 170 days; from December/2021 to May/2022, the calves were born in September/2021 and creep-feeding supplementation started from approximately 70 days of life until weaning. The feeding behavior was evaluated twice on d 70 and d 120 post creep-feeding). The experimental design used was a randomized block [blocked by body weight (BW) of calves]. The experimental units were the paddocks (8 units per treatment, ten replicates per paddock), totalling 156 pairs cow/calf (86 pairs of male calves and 70 pairs of female calves). Two paddocks per treatment and 8 pairs per paddock were sorted for behavior analysis, totalling 32 pairs cow/calf (16 pairs of male calves and 16 pairs of female calves). The treatments consisted of creep-feeding or not creep-feeding the calves: control treatment (CONT; mineral suppement ad libitum) and creep-feeding treatment (CREEP; energetic protein supplement; 5 g/kg of BW· animal-1· /day-1). There was mineral supplement ad libitum for all the dams. The pairs cow/calf were kept in an area composed of Urochloa brizantha cv. Marandu. and idleness, suckling, grazing and creep-feeding or mineral supplementation were evaluated. The data were analyzed using the SAS PROC MIXED. There was no difference in feeding behavior of calves at 70 days of creep-feeding for idleness (P = 0.80), grazing (P = 0.59) and suckling (P = 0.30; Figure 1). Creep-feeding calves spent 14 minutes longer on supplementation than non-creep-feeding calves (P < 0.01). At 120 days of creep-feeding (180 days of age), calves that received creep feeding supplementation spent less time grazing (difference of 67 min; P < 0.01), more time on supplementation (+28 min; P < 0.01) and idleness (+42 min; P = 0.05) and similar time on suckling (P = 0.76; Figure 2).There was no difference in any of the variables at different times (P >0.08) for the dams (Figure 3). Animals in creep-feeding spend less time grazing but suckling in a similar amount of time compared with those that consumed only mineral supplement, which corroborates with the results on milk yield of dams, which were similar for both treatments.