Steer finishing on dry-season pastures, using whole grain corn and soybean or ground corn and soybean meal

Abstract

The aim of this experiment was to compare 75% whole grain corn and 25% soybean supplement with 75% ground corn and 25% soybean meal supplement, using 50 steers, grouped in five categories (breed and/or live weight), on Brachiaria brizantha cv Marandu pasture, for two dry-season periods of 28 days. The supplement consumption was 7.2kg/animal/day. An interaction (P < 0.05) between supplements and periods was observed. The supplement with ground corn and soybean meal resulted in a higher gain in the first period (1.59kg/day) than in the second period (0.83kg/day) and the supplement with whole grain corn and soybean resulted in a higher weight gain in the second period (1.03kg/day) than in the first (0.97kg/day). The average final gain with ground corn and soybean meal supplementation was 1.21kg/day, differing (P < 0.05) from whole grain and soybean supplementation with resulted in 1.00kg/day gain. Processed grains provided a better performance than whole grains.