<b>Association of sugar cane bagasse, forage cactus and urea with different supplements in diets of Holstein heifers</b> - DOI: 10.4025/actascianimsci.v27i2.1229

Abstract

This work was carried out to study the effect of supplementation with wheat meal, soybean meal and cracked corn (1 kg/heifer/day), on the performance of Holstein heifers fed with forage cactus (69.8%), sugar cane bagasse (27.6%) and urea (2.6%) based diets. Twelve heifers, with an initial live weight of 224 kg were used. The supplements did not affect intakes of dry matter (kg/day and % of LW) organic matter, neutral detergent fiber (kg/day and % of LW), total carbohydrates and non fiber carbohydrates (7.79 kg/d; 3.30%; 7.27 kg/d; 3.34 kg/d; 1,41%; 6.15 kg/d and 2.81 kg/d, respectively). The heifers that received soybean meal as supplement, showed larger intake of crude protein, total digestible nutrient and average daily weight gain (1.31, 4.56 and 1,17 kg/day, respectively). The average daily gain were 0,71 and 0,24 kg/day for heifers supplemented with wheat meal and cracked corn, respectively