Resumen de Protein-mineral supplementation with and without additive for grazing tropical beef cattle
Lauriston Berteli Fernandes, Raul Franzolin
Protein-mineral supplementation with or without an additive (Premium Factor®) was evaluated with 16 Nellore growing beef steers grazing Brachiaria grass pasture in a completely randomized experiment, through the performance characteristics of animals and pasture at 31, 59 and 87 days of grazing from August to October 2009. The study included gain in liveweight and availability of forage dry matter in the form of leaves, stems and dead material. Rate of gain was satisfactory (278 g/d), in spite of the low availability and quality of the sward during the trial period. At 59 d of grazing animals supplemented with Premium Factor had an average weight gain 21.3% higher than those on the treatment without additive, indicating that use of the additive along with supplementation had a positive effect on animal performance under the conditions of this experiment.
