Performance of intact and castrated nelore steers grazing Brachiaria humidicola (Rendle) Schweick (Poaceae) alone and intercropped with forage peanut

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the performance of intact and castrated beef cattle on the pasture of Brachiaria humidicola alone and intercropped with Arachis pintoi cv. BRS Mandobi. The experiment was carried out from February to June 2016 on the private property of a partner of Embrapa Acre. The experimental design was completely randomized in a 2×2 factorial arrangement, with two sex classes (intact and castrated) and two types of pasture (alone and intercropped). The leaf to stem ratio was high (P<0.05) in the pasture alone. No significant difference was found for stocking rates. Dry matter intake was high (P<0.05) in the intercropped pasture compared to that alone, with means of 8.96 and 6.66 kg/ day, respectively. Animals managed in intercropped pastures had better performance (P<0.05) than those castrated under pasture alone. Nelore steers castrated at 20 months of age, managed under intercropped pastures, showed similar productive performance (P>0.05) to intact animals.

Pigeon Pea Intercropped with Tropical Pasture as a Mitigation Strategy for Enteric Methane Emissions of Nellore Steers

“…The similar iBW evidenced the animals’ weight uniformity among the treatments, while higher fBW and ADG values in the MIX treatment compared to DEG and REC indicate greater performance in the pasture intercropped with pigeon pea. A higher performance of cattle on pastures intercropped with legumes was also found by Machado and Sales [ 73 ] when comparing these to pastures with Urochloa spp exclusively. Both forage DMI and ADG values were in line with those described by Oliveira et al [ 16 ] for a consortium system using pigeon pea.…”

>b<Pigeon pea intercropping with pastures as mitigation strategy for emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG)>/b<

“…The similar iBW evidenced the animals' weight uniformity among the treatments, while higher fBW and ADG in the MIX treatment when compared to DEG and REC indicate greater performance in pasture intercropped with pigeon pea. In both seasons, the animals from MIX showed higher ADG, and higher performance of cattle on pastures intercropped with legumes was also found by Machado and Sales (2020) when comparing to pastures exclusively with Urochloa spp. Both forage DMI and ADG were in line with those described by Oliveira et al (2017) for a consortium system using pigeon pea.…”