The objective of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of ruminal fermentation and enteric methane production in beef cattle subjected to different supplementation frequencies while grazing on Brachiaria brizanthacv. Marandu pastures. Nine cattle (325±65.7 kg BW) fitted with ruminal and duodenal cannulas were used in the ruminal fermentation study, and 12 cattle (399±32.6 kg BW) were used in the enteric methane production study. The treatments included supplementation once daily, supplementation once daily except Saturdays and Sundays, or supplementation on […]

The objective of this study was to evaluate the aerobic microbiota of the rumen fluid from Holstein cows and heifers fed different tropical forage in the north of Minas Gerais, Brazil. A total of 30 samples of rumen fluid from cows fed with sorghum silage were collected: 32 from cows fed Brachiaria brizantha, 12 from heifers that received sorghum silage and 11 from calves fed sugar cane foliage. The culture was carried out using the agar Sabouraud medium and the […]

In order to delineate efficient grazing systems it is important to periodically assess the herbage mass at the farm level. However, the knowledge concerning both, the number of samplings that should be performed and the quadrat (size and format) that should be used in these evaluations remains incomplete. In this context, three experiments were delineated to evaluate the effect of the number of samplings (varying from two to nine) and the dimension:format ratio of the quadrat (.25, 1.0, 2.0, and […]

The trial was carried out in a Tanzania grass (Panicum maximum) pasture, rotationally grazed by lactating cows, to estimate the dry matter intake. Three treatments were tested: crossbred cows fed 3 kg per day of concentrate and crossbred and Zebu cows (Gyr) without concentrate supplementation. The forage availability was 7,340.2 kg of dry matter (DM) /ha before and 5,639.5 after the 3rd grazing day. The Tanzania grass DM intake was 8.26 ± 5.66, 11.01 ± 5.37 and 9.55 ± 2.31 […]