In order to study the effect of pH on defaunation in the rumen, four rumen fistulated steers were fed a basal roughage diet for a 4-week adaptation period followed by 17 weeks of feeding with three diets and two feeding levels of high concentrate diet. Rumen outflow fluid rate was evaluated in both ration levels. Rumen protozoa population was monitored weekly and when animals became defaunated, protozoa were reinoculated with rumen contents from one of the faunated steers. At every […]

Lactation curves were fitted from 1,340 lactations of F1 Holstein-Gyr, Holstein-Guzerat, Holstein-Nellore and Holstein-Undefined Zebu crossbred cows from two farms with milk controls carried out every 14 days. Nutritional management was based on pastures in the summer, and corn silage and sugar cane with urea during winter and concentrated rations in the milking, according to the production. Incomplet Gamma function was used for estimating parameters of curves, production during lactation peak and of the time from the beginning of lactation […]

Aiming to study alternatives to extensification, it was evaluated the effect of supplement supply reduction (levels of 100, 65, 45 and 20% of the total requirements for production) and the possibility of its substitution by kikuyu grass on milk production and composition. The trial was performed using a completely randomized block design with three replicates, using the continuous and variable stocking rate grazing method aiming to keep the sward height at 20 cm. Individual and per hectare milk production presented […]

The objective this study was to evaluate the diurnal ingestive behavior of Nellore steers on Brachiaria grass pasture submitted to protein and energy supplementation. It was used 40 Nellore steers, at initial weight of 373.7 ± 14.9 kg, and at 26 months of age, distributed in four levels of supplementation:mineral mixture, 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9% of body weight of energy and protein supplementation. The animals were visually observed by two 12-hour periods from 6:00 a.m. to 06:00 p.m. Grazing, ruminating […]

The aim of this experiment was to evaluate the effect of the duration of progestagen (P4) exposure and sexual maturity of prepubertal and pubertal heifers submitted to timed artificial insemination (TAI). A hundred and fourteen 16- month old Bradford heifers were classified, according treatment and sexual maturity, in 4 groups: PPLPG (prepubertal long exposure to P4, n=21), PPSPG (prepubertal short exposure to P4, n=19), PLPG (pubertal long exposure to P4, n=34) and PSPG (pubertal short exposure to P4, n=40). On […]

The objective of this work was to evaluate differences between silages produced from exclusive cultures or intercropped with corn and signal grass cultures in different sowing arrangements (two lines of signal grass in the corn inter-lines and hand-sowed signal grass in the corn inter-lines) The production of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP) and total digestible nutrients (TDN) for area was evaluated, as well as the qualitative variables of DM in the silages including CP, TDN, NDF, LIG, NFC, NH3, […]

The objective of this work was to evaluate the chemical characteristics of the whole plant and the leaf and stem fractions of signal grass in different sowing arrangements to determine the productive performance of the corn/signal grass intercrop. The production of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP) and total digestible nutrients (TDN) per area was evaluated, as well as the concentration of CP, digestible crude protein (CPD), neutral detergent insoluble crude protein (NDICP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), lignin (LIG) non-fiber […]

The influence of the relation among genotype and temperament of cattle on the direct and indirect gains for meat production. Seventy-nine steers with 19-20 mo old from eight genotype groups of Charolais x Nellore crossbred were evaluated: CH (100CH), ¾ CH1/4N (0.75CH), 11/16CH5/16N (0.69CH), 5/8CH3/8N (0.63CH), 3/8CH5/8N (0.38CH), 5/16CH11/16N (0.31CH), 1/4CH3/4N (0.25CH) e N (0CH) animals were kept in feedlot and were fed with diet containing 50:50 forage to concentrate ratio (%DM). The temperament was evaluated using are four methods […]

Providing feed is a major input cost in beef production, hence improvements in the efficiency of feed utilisation will reduce the cost of production. Residual feed intake (RFI) is a measure of feed efficiency, and is defined as the difference between an animal’s actual feed intake and its expected feed intake based on its size and growth. It is independent of the level of production, and the lower the value the more efficient the animal is. This paper examines the […]

Four lactating dairy cows with ruminal cannula and 155 DIM were allotted to a 4 × 4 Latin square and fed twice daily corn silage and concentrate (55:45, %DM) to evaluate the effect of monensin and soybean oil in the diet of lactating cows on the counting of ciliate protozoa beyond establishing correlations between number of protozoa with some parameters of digestion and ruminal fermentation. The treatments consisted of the inclusion of 33 ppm of sodium monensin or soybean oil […]