Abstract

PINTO, A.P. et al. Behavior and ingestive efficiency of young bulls in feedlot with three different diets. Arch. zootec. [online]. 2010, vol.59, n.227, pp.427-434. ISSN 1885-4494.

To study the ingestive behavior of 36 young crossbred bulls in feedlot, 3 diets were evaluated: sorghum silage plus concentrate at 1.0% of the live weight, sugar cane plus concentrate at 1.0% or 1.2% of the live weight. The experimental period was of 100 days after 15 days for animal adaptation. The data were recorded during 24 h, divided in 4 intervals of observation, at 20, 35, 50 and 65 days after the beginning of the confinement with analysis of the time series every 15 minutes. Duration and frequency of feeding, rumination and idle, dry matter and neutral detergent fiber intake, feeding and rumination efficiency of dry matter and neutral detergent fiber and total chewing time, were evaluated. There were no significant differences (p>0.05) among the treatments for duration of feeding, rumination and idle, being the feeding efficiency higher for the animals fed with diets based on sorghum silage. The rumination efficiency did not differ between diets with sorghum silage and sugar cane with 1.2% of the concentrate. The feed intake was higher from 06:15 to 18:00 h and the animals spent more time ruminating (144.75±19.55 min) from 00:15 to 06:00 h. The duration of feeding and rumination are not a good indication of the real intake.

Keywords : Sugar cane; Feed intake; Idle; Rumination; Sorghum silage.

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