The objective of this study was to describe daily body weight (BW) changes in the first 100 days of lactation in confined dairy cows and to associate BW loss with productive and reproductive performance. Data included 26,344 daily BW measurements of 372 Holsteins calving between June 2011 and June 2012 in a commercial herd in the South of Brazil. Cows were automatically weighed and were assigned according to parity. Individual measurements were smoothed using cubic splines, generating nadir BW, days […]

The present study evaluated the relationship between different dietary net energy (NE) levels and body condition score (BCS) on performance of dairy goats during the prepartum period. Forty-eight pregnant goats were kept in individual cages during the last 30 days before parturition. The experimental design was a completely randomized design with a 2 x 3 factorial arrangement of treatments (two BCS and three levels of NE in the diet). Goats were assigned to one of two groups, based on body […]

The objective of this study was to evaluate nutrient intake, blood parameters and digestibility of nutrients on 20 feedlot Saanen goats (70.65±7.39 kg) at 21 days prepartum. Diets with the following energy levels and forage:concentrate ratios were fed: 2.95, 2.83, 2.70, 2.58, and 2.44 Mcal of ME/kg of DM and 40:60, 50:50, 60:40, 70:30, and 80:20, respectively. A completely randomized design with four replications per treatment was used. Animal body weight and blood samples were taken weekly. The different dietary […]

The objective of the present experiment was to evaluate the effect of three different dietary levels of cation-anion balance (DCAB) (+122.1; -8.8; and -110.4 mEq/kg DM) offered for four weeks to groups 1, 2 and 3, respectively, on the plasma levels of ionized calcium (iCa) and total calcium (tCa), the incidence of subclinic hypocalcemia and the urine pH. Twenty-one Holstein cows were assigned to a split plot in time design with seven replications; DCAB was effects in the main plot, […]