<b>Continuous and temporary grazing of winter cultivated pasture and energetic supplementation on calves per formance</b> - DOI: 10.4025/actascianimsci.v28i4.608

Abstract

The objective of the experiment was to evaluate calves performance, on continuous or temporary grazing with or without energetic supplementation. Fifty -two calves, predominantly Charolais (C) or Nellore (N), were studied, with average initial age of 10 months and live weight (LW) of 197 kg. The animals were distributed into four treatments: TPC – continuous grazing; TPT – temporary grazing; TPTF – temporary grazing + 0.8% of LW of integral rice bran, and TPTC – temporary grazing + 0.8% of LW of so ybean hulls. The pasture was composed of oat and ryegrass. The average availability of forage mass during experimental period was 1.52 kg of dry matter (DM) ha ^-1. The average stoking rate was 1.425 kg of LW ha ^-1. The supplement intake was of 2.02 and 1.96 kg of DM in the TPTF and TPTC. TPC animals showed average daily weight gain (ADW) of 0.18 kg day ^-1 lower (P<0.05) in relation to TPTC, and of 0.08 kg day ^-1 lower (P>0.05) in relation to TPTF. Among animals with supplementation, the ADW difference was of 0. 10 kg day^-1 (P>0.05), superior to TPTC. Animals with Charolais predominance showed higher final weight (P<0.05) and GMD (P<0.05) in comparison to Nellore predominance.