Consumo e comportamento ingestivo de ovinos em pastagens com capim-marandu com diferentes estruturas horizontais e mesma altura média

Abstract

Behavioral responses and forage intake by sheep tolerated in pastures, whose pastures have the same average height, but different variability of vegetation occupation, are not known. In this sense, the objective was to evaluate how different horizontal structures of marandu grass pastures maintained with an average height of 25 cm influence the feeding behavior and nutrient intake by sheep. The experiment was conducted at the Capim Branco Experimental Farm, belonging to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Federal University of Uberlândia, in Uberlândia, MG, from September 2019 to March 2020. Sixteen crossbred sheep of the Santa Inês and Dorper breeds were used, allocated in eight paddocks with marandu grass managed under continuous stocking and average height of 25 cm. The treatments were: 1) less heterogeneous pasture, with low coefficient of variation of plant height values (<15%); and 2) more heterogeneous pastures, with a high coefficient of variation of plant height values (>35%). The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design, with four paddocks and eight animals per treatment. The measurements carried out in the animals were intake, digestibility of nutrients and feeding behavior (time in grazing, time in rumination, time in idleness, time in meal, number of meals, interval of meals, number of intervals of meals and number of ruminations). The measurements carried out in the plant were forage mass, morphological components and bromatological chemical composition. All variables were subjected to analysis of variance, followed by the ANOVA mean test (F Test), at a 10% probability level for type I error. The more heterogeneous Marandu grass pasture promoted higher nutrient intake by grazing sheep (P<0.10). There was no effect of different horizontal pasture structures on the chemical composition of simulated grazing samples, nutrient digestibility and feeding behavior of sheep (P>0.10). It was concluded that in pastures of Urochloa brizantha cv. Marandu under continuous stocking and with the same average height, the greater spatial variability of vegetation promotes greater dry matter and nutrients intake by grazing sheep. Sheep grazing marandu grass in the summer with different horizontal structures graze during the day, with rumination and idleness occurring at night.