Evaluation of different sources of energy supplements on the efficiency of nitrogen use in Nelore

• Grant number: 22/07414-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2022
• End date: August 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Nutrition and Feeding
• Principal Investigator: Ricardo Andrade Reis
• Grantee: Lucas dos Santos Del Vecchio
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Beef livestock is an important activity for the Brazilian economy, being developed predominantly in pastures. Employing strategies to improve the use of forage produced in these areas is of great relevance. The energy supplementation of the diet of animals kept in tropical grass pastures during the rainy season makes it possible to improve animal performance and potentiate the use of forages, becoming a strategy to increase the efficiency of use of excess soluble nitrogen of forage plants subjected to high doses of nitrogen fertilization and management based on light interception of 95% of incident radiation. The objective of this work is to evaluate the effects of three sources of energy supplement and the control treatment with mineral salt on the average daily gain and nitrogen use efficiency of Nellore bulls reared on Marandu grass pastures during the rainy season. The experiment will be carried out in the Forage Sector of the Faculty of Agrarian and Veterinary Sciences FCAV/UNESP, during the rearing phase of animals kept in Urochloa brizantha cv. Marandu (Marandu grass). Eight rumen-cannulated Nellore bulls will be used, with a mean initial weight (IWM) of 250 kg, distributed in a 4x4 double Latin square design. The treatments will be: 1 - energy supplementation at 0.3% of body weight (BW) with peanut skin; 2 - energy supplementation at 0.3% of BW with sorghum grain; 3 - energy supplementation at 0.3% of BW with soybean hulls; 4 - control, supply of mineral salt ad libitum. (AU)