Nutritional planning for Nellore heifers post-weaning to conception at 15 months of age: performance and nutritional, metabolic, and reproductive responses

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of strategic supplementation in the dry period and dry/rainy transition period on the performance and nutritional, metabolic, and reproductive responses of Nellore heifers grazing Urochloa decumbens . Forty-eight Nellore heifers with age and bo...

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Published in:	Tropical animal health and production Vol. 51; no. 1; pp. 79 - 87
Main Authors:	de Almeida, Daniel Mageste, Marcondes, Marcos Inácio, Rennó, Luciana Navajas, Pereira Silva, Luiz Henrique, Martins, Leandro Soares, Marquez, David Esteban Contreras, Castaño Villadiego, Faider Alberto, Velez Saldarriaga, Felipe, Franco, Julian David Castaño, Moreno, Deilen Paff Sotelo, de Moura, Felipe Henrique, Paulino, Mário Fonseca
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-01-2019 Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:	Animal Feed - analysis Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena Animals Biomedical and Life Sciences Blood Glucose - metabolism Blood Urea Nitrogen Body Weight Cattle Cattle - physiology Diet - veterinary Dietary Supplements Digestibility Dry matter Esterification Experimental design Fatty acids Fatty Acids, Nonesterified - blood Female Fertilization Grazing Insulin Insulin - blood Life Sciences Metabolism Muscles Nitrogen - metabolism Organic matter Performance enhancement Poaceae - metabolism Pregnancy Pregnancy Rate Progesterone Progesterone - blood Proteins Random Allocation Regular Articles Reproduction Urea Veterinary Medicine/Veterinary Science Weaning Zoology Beef cattle Animal nutrition Supplementation Tropical pastures Heifers
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Summary:	The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of strategic supplementation in the dry period and dry/rainy transition period on the performance and nutritional, metabolic, and reproductive responses of Nellore heifers grazing Urochloa decumbens . Forty-eight Nellore heifers with age and body weight (BW) of eight months and 235 ± 3.3 kg, respectively, were used. The experimental design was a completely randomized design, with four treatments, all with 12 replications. The evaluated strategies were as follows: low supplementation (LOHI; 0.2% of BW/heifer/day) in the first 90 days and high supplementation (0.6% of BW/heifer/day) in the 90 days thereafter; average supplementation (AVER) with 0.4% of BW/heifer/day for 180 days; high supplementation (HILO; 0.6% of BW/heifer/day) in the first 90 days and low supplementation (0.2% of BW/heifer/day) in the 90 days thereafter; only mineral mix (MM) ad libitum during the 180 days. Data were evaluated using orthogonal contrasts. Supplementation improved the performance of the animals during of dry period ( P < 0.05) and dry/rainy transition period ( P < 0.05). Supplemented animals had higher longissimus muscle area (LMA) and subcutaneous fat thickness (SFT) at the end of the experiment ( P < 0.05). Multiple supplementation increased intake of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), and crude protein (CP) in kg/day throughout the experiment. The supplementation increased the digestibility of DM, OM, CP, apNDF, and TDN ( P < 0.05). Serum urea nitrogen (SUN), glucose (GLUC), insulin (INS), and progesterone (PROG) were higher in supplemented heifers ( P < 0.05). Supplementation reduced the concentrations of non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) ( P < 0.05) and increased conception rate ( P < 0.05). In summary, the supplementation strategies adopted in this study improve the performance, metabolic status, and carcass traits of heifers under grazing, allowing an improvement in the conception rate of 15-month-old Nellore heifers.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Undefined-1 ObjectType-Feature-3 content type line 23
ISSN:	0049-4747 1573-7438
DOI:	10.1007/s11250-018-1662-z