Spittlebug damage on tropical grass and its impact in pasture-based beef production systems

Spittlebugs are the main pest of tropical pastures and Marandu palisade grass ( Urochloa brizantha cv. Marandu) is the most representative cultivated pasture in the tropics. Our objective was to characterize Marandu palisade grass responses subjected to Mahanarva (Hemiptera: Cercopidae) attack and t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Scientific reports Vol. 10; no. 1; p. 10758
Main Authors:	Congio, Guilhermo Francklin Souza, de Almeida, Pedro Castro, Barreto, Tadeu Ruzza, Tinazo, Vitor Afonso, da Silva, Tiago Alves Corrêa Carvalho, Costa, Diogo Fleury Azevedo, Corsi, Moacyr
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	London Nature Publishing Group UK 01-07-2020 Nature Publishing Group
Subjects:	631/449/1736 631/449/2661 631/449/2661/2666 631/601/1466 704/844/685 Agricultural commodities Agricultural production Agriculture Animal Feed Animal Husbandry Animals Beef Beef cattle Body weight Calcium - chemistry Cattle Cercopidae Dry matter Entomology Experiments Female Fertilization Field tests Grasses Grazing Greenhouses Hemiptera - physiology Humanities and Social Sciences Linear Models Magnesium Magnesium - chemistry Mahanarava Meat production multidisciplinary Nutritive Value Pasture Pastures Phosphorus - chemistry Photosynthesis Poaceae Population density Potassium Productivity Rain Rainy season Red Meat Regression analysis Science Science (multidisciplinary) Seasons Soil fertility Sulfur Sulfur - chemistry Tropical environments Urochloa brizantha
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Summary:	Spittlebugs are the main pest of tropical pastures and Marandu palisade grass ( Urochloa brizantha cv. Marandu) is the most representative cultivated pasture in the tropics. Our objective was to characterize Marandu palisade grass responses subjected to Mahanarva (Hemiptera: Cercopidae) attack and to estimate the losses in terms of beef production from pasture-based systems. A set of five experiments were carried out. Three consecutive years of monitoring showed that Mahanarva spittlebugs increased their abundance after first rains with three to four peaks throughout the wet season. A decrease of 66% on herbage yield was observed in the greenhouse trial, with an average decrease of 61% on pools of calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, sulfur, potassium, crude protein, neutral-detergent fiber and in vitro digestible dry matter of Marandu palisade grass. Results from field experiments corroborated with greenhouse trial showing decreases on herbage yield varying from 31 to 43% depending on level of fertilization and grazing severity of Marandu palisade grass. Finally, an unprecedented 154-ha field experiment indicated that Mahanarva decreases 74% the beef productivity (i.e. kg body weight ha −1 ) of Nellore heifers grazing Marandu palisade grass.
ISSN:	2045-2322 2045-2322
DOI:	10.1038/s41598-020-67490-9