Substituição parcial do concentrado por feno de tifton na alimentação de bezerros Girolando

Abstract

The period from birth to weaning is the most critical phase in the farm, where the mortality rate can be high if the health and nutritional management of the herd is not adequate, so care with the growth and how the variation of the gain is required of weight. From this, the objective was to evaluate the Girolando calves growth curve from birth to weaning. Thus the objective of this study was to evaluate the development of Girolando calves from birth to weaning due to two types of solid diets. Eight calves of the Girolando breed with a mean age of one month, belonging to the Dairy Cattle Sector of the Animal Science Department / CCA / UFPB were used. The animals were housed in Argentine-type heifers, adapted to the local environmental conditions, where each animal has individual tropical houses. The treatments consisted of daily artificial feeding with 4 liters of milk replacer and a solid diet for 90 days. The animals solid diet consisted of two feed types based on concentrate and bulky. Diet 1 100% concentrate consisted supplied as a pelleted feed, the Diet 2 consisted in bulk in the form of milled Tifton hay and pelleted concentrate with a ratio of 50:50. Leftover diets were weighed daily in the morning and afternoon. The experimental period was 158 days, where each animal spent 90 days under evaluation. The evaluations were bi-weekly, where parameters of live weight (LW), thoracic perimeter (TP) and height of withers (HW) were measured in all animals, after which the daily and monthly weight gain was calculated. A completely randomized design (DIC) was used in subdivided plots. The animals live weight (LW) in both diets grew linearly, but there was no significant difference (P <0.001) between the kilograms gained by these animals in both diets. As with live weight, the height of the withers (HW) did not show influence (P <0.001) between Diets 1 and 2. The only measurement that presented significant difference (P <0.001) for Diet 1 was the thoracic perimeter, function of days. A 50% substitution of concentrate per hay did not affect the development of calves in the period from 30 to 90 days of age, reducing feeding costs.