Confinamento de vacas nelore alimentadas com dietas sem volumoso

Abstract

Twenty-four Nelore cull cows (average BW = 330 kg; age over 36 months) were confined in an intensive system and equally distributed into groups to evaluate the impact of replacing the roughage with whole grain or hydrated whole grain on performance and carcass quality. Control group 1 received corn silage and ground corn concentrate with soybean meal, group 2 received whole grain corn with protein-vitamin-mineral core, and group 3 received hydrated whole grain corn with protein-vitamin-mineral core. A randomized design was applied, and when the results were significant, the Tukey test 5% the probability. There was no difference between the diets studied for body weight and average daily gain. There was a significant effect for consumption data from the control group and hydrated whole corn. The control group had longer rumination time compared to the intact corn and hydrated intact corn groups. The diets did not influence the physiological blood parameters of the cows. Animals that received diets without roughage contained higher concentrations of circulating glucose. Hydrated corn presented 12.37% less albumin levels compared to the control diet and glutamic pyruvic transaminase. There was no significant effect of the proven feeding strategies on the characteristics evaluated during slaughter. The use of whole corn grain improves feed efficiency and reduces dry matter consumption, optimizes time spent on feeding and rumination, and preserves carcass quality, being a beneficial and efficient practice in feeding Nelore cows confined finally.