Acta Scientiarum: Animal Sciences (Dec 2017)

<b>Feeding behavior of categories of feedlot-finished beef cattle

  • Petrônio Batista dos Santos,
  • Hermógenes Almeida de Santana Junior,
  • Marcos Jacome de Araújo,
  • Aracele Prates de Oliveira,
  • Elizângela Oliveira Cardoso Santana,
  • Fabrício Bacelar Lima Mendes

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4025/actascianimsci.v40i0.35528
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 40, no. 1
pp. e35528 – e35528

Abstract

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An experiment was conducted to evaluate the feeding behavior of feedlot-finished bulls and cull cows in the Cerrado region of Piauí State, Brazil. Forty Zebu cattle were used, of which 20 steers averaging 283.0 ± 20.82 kg initial body weight and 30 months of age; and 20 cull cows averaging 296.1 ± 17.80 kg initial body weight and 100 months of age. Animals were grouped according to the following treatments: bulls and cull cows, using a completely randomized design. Feeding behavior was evaluated by means of visual observations every five minutes during 24h. Results were subjected to analysis of variance by the F test (p 0.05), showing that feeding behavior is influenced by the cattle category.

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