This study aimed to evaluate the production, the physical and nutritional composition of forage and silage, as well as the profitability and aerobic stability of different winter cereals harvested at the stage of floury grain. The experimental design was a 2x7 factorial randomized block design, with two forms of foods (fresh forage and silage) and seven genotypes, with four replications. The genotypes used were the white oat (Avena sativa) cv. URS Taura; barley (Hordeum vulgare) cv. BRS Brau and cv. BRS Cauê; wheat (Tricticum aestivum) cv. CD 1440; rye (Secale cereal) cv. BR 01; and triticale (X Triticosecale) cv. IPR 111 and cv. BRS Saturno. The materials were harvested during the stage of floury grain. In forage evaluation, rye showed the highest (P < 0,05) dry biomass production (7,100 kg ha-1), but with a higher percentage of stem (46.7%) in dry matter, implying higher ADF (44.69%) in relation to other cereals. The forage of the white oats cv. URS Taura and triticale cv. IPR 111 provided the best nutritional quality compared to the other evaluated cereals, but in the resulting silage, only triticale remained with forage-like characteristics. It was clear the superiority of barley cv. BRS Cauê, wheat cv. CD 1440 and rye cv. BR 01 regarding the maintenance of aerobic stability (160 hours), while the other silages lost their stability within 32 hours. Rye cv. BR 01 and triticale IPR 111 presented the highest production of recovered dry biomass (5,402 and 5,352 kg ha-1 respectively), barley cv. BRS Cauê and oat URS Taura provided higher cost of production per kg-1 dry biomass, both with R$ 0.29 and higher cost per kg of recovered dry biomass R$ 0.45 and 0.37 respectively. There are several factors to consider when choosing the winter species for silage production, and future studies can fully elucidate these factors.

RESUMO O objetivo do presente trabalho foi avaliar a conversão alimentar, a digestibilidade do amido, o comportamento ingestivo e o escore de sobras da dieta e de fezes de novilhos confinados, suplementados com doses do complexo enzimático (0; 2,5; 5,0 e 7,5g animal-1 dia-1) e alimentados com dieta constituída por 85% de grão de milho e 15% de núcleo proteico, vitamínico e mineral, na base seca, isenta de forragem. O delineamento experimental foi o de blocos ao acaso contendo quatro tratamentos e quatro repetições. Trinta e dois novilhos inteiros, ½ sangue Angus Nelore, com idade média de 12 meses e peso vivo médio inicial de 422kg, foram confinados por um período de 77 dias. Cada grama de inclusão de complexo enzimático melhorou a conversão alimentar em 0,1652%, reduziu a matéria seca das fezes em 0,4648% e o tempo de ingestão de água em 0,0068 horas dia-1. A máxima digestibilidade do amido foi alcançada na dose de 5,08g animal-1 dia-1. A inclusão progressiva do complexo enzimático à dieta de alta densidade energética promoveu melhoria na conversão alimentar, redução na matéria seca das fezes e diminuição do tempo de ingestão de água. A dose de 5g animal-1 dia-1 do complexo enzimático aumentou a digestibilidade do amido.

The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the in situ dry matter degradability and in situ crude protein degradability of soybean meal subjected to different treatments (thermal, chemical, tannins or saponins). The treatments were: conventional soybean (CON); soybean expeller (EXP); lignosulfonate-treated soybean meal (LIGS); condensed tannin-treated soybean meal (CTAN); hydrolysable tannin-treated soybean meal (HTAN) and Yucca schidigera extract-treated soybean meal (YUC). Samples of 5 g soybean meal were packed in nylon bags and incubated in the rumen of 2 fistulated cattle for seven incubation times (0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18 and 24 hours), in sequence were washed, dried and weighed. The ruminal kinetics parameters were calculated, and the experiment was completely randomized, with six treatments, four replicates each, with duplicates. The EXP and LIGS treatments showed lower crude protein disappearance (CPD) within 12 hours, the CON, HTAN and YUC treatments had the highest CPD, and the CTAN presented an intermediate value (41.84%) (P < 0.05). EXP had the lowest fraction “a” (soluble) of crude protein (CP) (10.1%) followed by LIGS and CTAN (average of 14.82%). EXP and LIGS had the highest rumen undegradable fraction of CP (57.35 and 51.62%), respectively. In addition, ruminal disappearance rates of dry matter and CP of the treatments ranged from 2.17 to 1.36% h-1 and from 2.63 to 1.2% h-1, respectively. The most efficient treatments to reduce ruminal protein degradation were EXP, LIGS and CTAN.

Functional additives, such as autolyzed yeasts, have been used to achieve greater production efficiency and animal health. These compounds are also alternatives to the use of performance-enhancing antimicrobials. The objective was to evaluate the productive performance, ingestive behavior, apparent digestibility of feed DM and the carcass characteristics of beef steers finished in feedlot receiving autolyzed yeasts in the diet. The experimental design was randomized blocks, consisting of three treatments and six repetitions, where each repetition was represented by a stall with two animals. 36 bulls, ½ Angus × ½ Nelore blood, from the same herd, with an average age of 11 months and an average body weight of ± 330 kg were used.The treatments were as follows: CON - yeast-free diet; Y4 - yeast diet (4 g animal day-1) and Y7 - yeast diet (7 g animal day-1). The product used is a functional ingredient containing the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The inclusion of autolyzed yeasts resulted in greater daily body weight gain and better feed conversion in the initial feedlot phase. The apparent digestibility of DM of diets containing autolyzed yeast was superior to the control diet, and its use did not interfere with the animal ingestive behavior. Supplementation with autolyzed yeasts at the inclusion level of 4 g day-1 promoted better results in the finishing of feedlot steers, and that the supplemented groups (4 g animal day-1 and 7 g animal day-1) achieved the same degree of carcass finishing, higher than the control group.

The experiment was conducted at the Animal Production Center (Núcleo de Produção Animal – NUPRAN) of the Center for Agrarian and Environmental Sciences of the Universidade Estadual do Centro-Oeste - UNICENTRO - CEDETEG Campus, Guarapuava, State of Paraná. This study aimed to evaluate biomass production, plant physical composition, chemical composition and dry matter contents of the plant and structural components of forage corn. The experiment was carried out in 5x5 factorial with five planting densities (80, 160, 240, 320 and 400 thousand plants ha-1), harvested in 5 times (40, 50, 60, 70 and 80 days after planting). The harvesting time caused a statistical difference for all parameters, and the planting densities factor only caused statistical difference in leaf participation and dry biomass production. There was no interaction for any of the parameters evaluated. Forage corn, harvested in the vegetative stage, can be a great ally of the rural producer, since it presents high potential for food production with high nutritional value in a short period of time, and in significant amount with production of up to 14,720 kg ha-1 dry biomass reached at 80 days of cycle with 320 thousand ha-1, freeing the soil for the production of another crop.