Ingestive behavior and quantitative carcass traits of lambs supplemented with corn silage in integrated crop-livestock system

• Grant number: 12/04562-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2012
• End date: April 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Pastures and Forage Crops
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Roberto de Lima Meirelles
• Grantee: Márcia Pereira da Silva
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The recovery of degraded areas, the reduction of production costs and intensive use of the area throughout the year, are being made possible by cereals intercrop with forage. Despite of the sheep production systems have shown a considerable growth in recent years, the inclusion this animal species in crop-livestock integration systems is still small, requiring further studies. The research is composed of two sequential experiments conducted during two years on Botucatu city, São Paulo State. The experimental design of first experiment will be randomized blocks, with four replications, in factorial scheme 3x2, being three cultivation modalities of corn crop for silage (exclusively, in intercrop with Brachiaria brizantha cv. Marandu and Brachiaria brizantha cv. Piatã in the sowing row) and two silage harvest heights (20 and 45 cm in relation to the soil surface) with grain in stage 1/2 milk line. The experimental design of second experiment is the first experiment and all plots will be realized the over seeded of oat cultivar São Carlos (Avena bysantina) after the silage harvest. The experimental unit is the plot (piquet) which will be allocated three crossbred male lambs Santa Inês, with average initial weight of 23 kg and average initial age of 90 days, totaling 72 animals. The grazing method is the continuous stocking with stocking rate fixed, and the animals will be supplemented with ration constituted by silage the same treatment + concentrate. Will be evaluated the chemical composition of the silage, yield and chemical composition of the pasture, the ingestive behavior and the quantitative carcass traits of lambs over the two years of evaluation. Data will be analyzed for distribution normality and the results submitted to variance analysis by test F (P<0.05). Data will be compared by Tukey test (P<0.05).