SUPLEMENTAÇÃO ENERGÉTICA ASSOCIADA OU NÃO À URÉIA E/OU MONENSINA SÓDICA PARA NOVILHAS DE CORTE

• Published in: Ciência animal brasileira Vol. 12; no. 4; pp. 642 - 652
• Main Authors: Pacheco, Paulo Santana, Restle, João, Kuss, Fernando, Menezes, Luis Fernando G., Rosa, Joilmaro Pereira, Brondani, Ivan Luiz
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal de Goiás 21-12-2011
• Subjects: Charolais; ionophore; Nellore; oat
• ISSN: 1518-2797; 1809-6891; 1089-6891
• DOI: 10.5216/cab.v12i4.11150

The effect of energetic supplementation, in the form of grounded oat grain (OT), associated with urea (OTU), with monensin (OTM), or with urea plus monensin (OTUM), on the performance of 116 Charolais (C), Nellore (N) and crossbreds with predominance of C (CN) or N (NC) heifers was evaluated during the end of summer (ES) and beginning of autumn (BA). The 15-month-old heifers, with initial weight of 243.1 kg, were kept on native pasture and supplemented with an amount of .7% of live weight. The average daily weight gain (ADG) was higher for heifers supplemented with the combination OTUM (538 g) in relation to OT (430 g) and OUT (380 g), however it was statistically similar to the combination OTM (488 g). Treatments that included monensin showed higher efficiency of converting the supplement into weight gain. During ES, the ADG was higher than during the BA (525 vs 394 g). For C, CN, N and NC heifers, the ADG during ES was 370, 517, 560 and 691 g and during BA it was 427, 398, 317 and 397 g, respectively. Nellore heifers showed lower live weight than the other genetic groups. Body condition score at the end of ES and BA was higher for CN heifers which did not differ from NC, with C showing intermediate score and N showing the lowest score. The monensin and urea association promotes weight gain of animals kept on native pastures and supplemented with oat grain.