The objective of the experiment was to evaluate the weight, the feed intake, the average weight gain and feed: gain ratio of culled cows, straightbreds (Charolais-C and Nellore-N) and crossbreds (½ CN and ½ NC) during the finishing phase as well as measuring the resulting heterosis. The cows were confined during 80 days, all of them fed with a 10% crude protein diet and forage: concentrate ratio of 65:35. The F1 cows were heavier at the beginning (402 vs. 362 […]

Productive and reproductive performance of a buffalo herd, located at Paracuru, west cost of Ceará State, were evaluated. Animals were raised in feedlot conditions, with two daily milking. Data from 87 Murrah dams breed, collected from 1984 to 1998 were analysed. The statistical analysis was carried out by GLM procedure (SAS, 1990), fitting a mixed linear model. The observed means for total milk yield, lactation length, milk yield at peak, age at first calving and calving interval, were: 2130.80+535.60kg, 301.41+49.30days, […]

The objectives of this study were to determine the importance of the effects of age of dam (AoD), sex (S) and age of calf (AC), month of birth (M) and the interaction between age of dam and sex (AoD*S) on visual scores (VS) for weaning conformation (WC), precocity (WP), muscling (WM) and size (WS) of Angus cattle, and to estimate correction factors for these effects. Data from 11,863 calves, controlled by the Beef Cattle Improvement Program (PROMEBO), between 1989 and […]

The water management for growth of Crioula alfalfa cultivar was evaluated in a field study, in order to assess the effects in the plant establishment up to the first cut, at 1977. The study was carried out in 1997. So that, the behaviour at three growth stages (E1 = early vegetative stage, E2 = full vegetative stage, and E3 = reproductive stage until harvest) in the presence of four water levels (A = 100%, B = 80%, C = 45-50%, […]

In order to evaluate the best period to collect royal jelly (RJ) from queen cells and study the larval development of Apis mellifera, RJ production and larval weight (LW) were analyzed in Ibimirim and Petrolândia, counties of the semi-arid region of Pernambuco, Brazil. The study was performed in May and June, 1995 and the experimental design was randomized blocks. The RJ collected and the LW after 24, 32, 48, 58 and 72 h in relation to larval transfer period were […]

Production and breeding records from 6,877 lactations of 4,673 cows were used to evaluate the effect of adjusting for previous days open on genetic evaluations. Predicted breeding values for kg of milk were calculated using three animal models. Model 1 – contained no adjustment for days open and accounted for the fixed effects of herd-year-season, genetic group, age of calving (covariate) and the random effects of animal, permanent environment effect and error; Model 2 – same as one with previous […]

Data of Large White (LW), Landrace (LD) and Duroc (DU) swine were used to estimate the genetic trends for adjusted weight at 70-days old (AW70) in kg, average daily gain (ADG) in g and backfat thickness (BT) in cm. The genetic trends were estimated by regression of the averages of trait genetic values in function of the animal birth year. The estimates of the genetic trend for AW70 (LW = -0.22; LD = -0.24; DU = -0.57) were negative, possibly […]

Carcass traits of steers from two breeding systems, straightbreds (S) and F1 crossbreds were studied. The S breeding system included the Charolais (C) and the Nellore (N) breeds and the F1 included 1/2 C + 1/2 N and 1/2 N + 1/2 C crosses. A total of 463 steers, born from 1984 to 1996 were used. The crossbred steers were superior to the purebreds in slaughter weight, carcass weight, conformation, carcass length, cushion thickness, arm perimeter, sidecut percentage, fat thickness […]

The microbial efficiency synthesis, the abomasum nitrogen compounds flow, the nitrogen compounds balance, the passage rate of ruminal digest, the ruminal ammonia concentration and ruminal pH in cattle fed diets containing Tifton 85 bermudagrass hay with different regrowth ages were evaluated. Four rumen and abomasum fistulated zebu cattle with average 340 kg LW were allotted in a 4×4 Latin square. All diets contained 60:40 forage to concentrate ratio. The forage was consisted in Tifton 85 bermudagrass hay with 28, 35, […]

The purpose of this work was to evaluate the effect of 8.4 g/day of rumen protected methionine (RPM) or 8.4 g/day of rumen non protected methionine (RNPM) or even of control cows on milk yield and compositon during 90 days of lactation. Six high yielding lactating Holsteins cows (>20 kg/day) in the first and second lactation, with 19 + 6 days of lactation were used in a duplicated latin square design. The cows were fed a total mixed ration composed […]