COMPORTAMENTO DE NOVILHOS CONFINADOS COM SILAGENS DE MILHO ORIUNDAS DE DIFERENTES ESTÁDIOS DE MATURAÇÃO E NÍVEIS DE CONCENTRADO NA DIETA

Abstract

The animal behavior of feedlot steers was evaluated. The animals were fed diets including silage ofmaize at maturation stages 25.6 and 32.6% of dry matter (DM), associated to the inclusion of concentrate levels of 40and 70% of the diet on a dry weight basis. There was an expressive effect of the concentrate level 40 and 70% on therumination activities (8.16 vs. 5.68 hours day-1, respectively) and idling (11.18 vs. 15.14 hours day-1, respectively).The use of maize silage at maturity stage of 32.6% DM influenced the animal behavior regarding feed intake (15.7 vs.12.8) and water intake frequency (9.6 vs. 7.2), if compared to the silage with 25.6% DM. Silage at the maturity stagepresenting 25.6% DM, showed higher content of physically effective fiber (peNDF), when compared to the silagewith 32.6% DM (5.7 vs. 5.3%). The concentrate levels on diets influenced the animal behavior regarding time spentruminating, idling, feed intake, water intake frequency, particle distribution and peNDF.

Keywords

• Harvesting time
• particle size
• physically effective fiber
• ruminating.