Impacto de la suplementación energético-proteica sobre el comportamiento ingestivo y características nutricionales de terneras lactantes alimentadas con forraje tropical.

Abstract

The present study was carried out in facilities of the Experimental farm Villa Marina, located in the municipality of Pamplonita, Norte de Santander department. This research aimed to evaluate the effect of supplementation on the ingestive behavior, consumption, digestibility, and nutritional characteristics of lactating calves in a medium tropical environment. Six lactating calves with an average weight of 123 kg and 5 months of age were used for developing this research project. Those were organized into two groups, an experimental group supplemented with 5 g / kg of body weight and a second group without supplementation called control, this selection process was carried out applying a random design. The management of the animals consisted of restricted suckling maintained in individual corrals with an area of 5 m², equipped with feeders and water troughs with unrestricted access to water and mineralized salt. Animals were fed with forage ad libitum allowing approximately 10% leftovers. Voluntary consumption and total digestibility of nutrients were estimated from day 21 to 26 of each experimental period. The ingestive behavior was evaluated by direct observation from day 21 and 22 of each experimental period for 12 hours. To estimate fecal excretion, it was developed a complete feces collection process on days 23, 25, 27 of each experimental period for 24 hours. The animals were weighed every 28 days in fast, always at 06:00 to accompany the achievement and adjust the amount of supplement that should be supplied to each animal. In this study, it was nor observed the effect of supplementation (P> 0.10) on voluntary consumption (kg/day) of dry matter (MS), milk dry matter (MSL), organic matter (OM), ethereal extract (EE), digested organic matter (MOD), the fiber in digested neutral detergent (FDND) and total digestible nutrients. On the other hand, a decrease in the consumption (kg/day) of grass dry matter (MSP), the fiber in neutral detergent (FDN) with supplementation was observed. The COMPORTAMIENTO INGESTIVO DE TERNERAS LACTANTES effect of supplementation (P> 0.10) on the total digestibility coefficients of MS, MO, PB, EE, FDN, and MOD content was not verified. In the evaluation of the diurnal behavior of the animals, no difference was observed (P> 0.10) in the time of evaluated daytime activities, except for the time destined for the grass consumption.