Methane emissions, performance, carcass and meat characteristics of lambs fed with corn silage, grass and legume crop-livestock integration

• Grant number: 15/03641-2
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: October 01, 2015
• End date: November 30, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Production
• Principal Investigator: Rafael Silvio Bonilha Pinheiro
• Grantee: Rafael Silvio Bonilha Pinheiro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia (FEIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Ilha Solteira. Ilha Solteira , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Ciniro Costa ; Leandro Coelho de Araujo ; Marcelo Andreotti

Abstract

The production of cultivated grasses in a consortium, in the crop-livestock system, is one of the goals, provide food for animal production and can be used to enable the production of animal feed for the off season or for the production of silage, whereas in Brazil, the seasonality in the production of forage is one of the barriers mainly in the production of ruminants. Corn (Zea mays) is a grain most suitable for ensiling process, however does not show very high levels of protein. An alternative to overcome this deficit is the consortium with legumes, aimed at improving the nutritional value of the silage, especially in termination systems in lambs feedlot, where there is the interest of high weight gain. Therefore, this experiment aims to evaluate the effect of bulky, from a crop-livestock system on performance, digestibility, methane production, feeding behavior, carcass quality and meat lambs ½ Dorper ½ Santa Agnes finished in feedlot with diets consisting of concentrate and corn silage arising from single culture, concentrate and silage maize intercropped with Urochloa brizantha. MG-5 and concentrate and corn silage in consortium with Urochloa brizantha. Marandu and pigeon pea dwarf. The cutting height of the roughage for all treatment was 40 cm, in order to increase the nutritional value. In addition, there will be a economic analysis of termination of the lambs with diets containing different forages (AU)