Terminação de caprinos e ovinos em caatinga enriquecida com capim buffel (Cenchrus ciliaris L.): desempenho dos animais e da pastagem.

Abstract

The experiment was conducted on the farm Lameirão, Federal University of Campina Grande, Santa Terezinha - PB and lasted a year. Twenty four animals were used, distributed in 12 goats crossbred F1 (Boer x SRD) and 12 Santa Inês sheep with initial live body weight around 15 kg. The experimental area was 2.4 ha, divided into four paddocks of 0.6 ha. The weightings were made every 14 days to complete 70 days of experiment. To quantify the availability of dry matter (DM), the vegetation was separated into buffel grass, other grasses and herbaceous dicotyledonous. The collections were made on days 0, 40, 69 and 101 of the paddocks occupation. For the assessment of pasture was used a completely randomized design in a split plot in time (0, 40, 69 and 101) with two treatments (sheep and goat), while in the performance of animals, the design adopted was completely randomized, with two treatments and twelve replications. Data were subjected to variance analysis; the means were compared by Tukey test at 5% level of probability. The availability of DM (kg / ha) decreased linearly as a function of grazing days. On paddocks grazing by sheep, the availability of DM responded to a quadratic over the collections, with maximum availability between the second and third collection, to 42 days. There was a quadratic effect of grazing days in the participation of buffel grass, forbs and grasses on areas grazed by goats, while the areas grazed by sheep, the quadratic effect occurred only in the participation of buffel grass and forbs. The crude protein content of buffel grass and gross energy of forbs in ranging in paddocks occupied by animals. The levels of crude protein and in vitro digestibility of DM of pasture declined, and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) increased when increasing grazing time. The average daily body weight gain and final body weight of goats was higher than that of sheep. The average body weight gain of animals was most evident in the period of 0-14 and 14-28 days. The availability of DM total of buffel grass and forbs was more dependent on rainfall than the grazing of animals, the same occurring for the protein content and DM in vitro digestibility. In terms of lower Caatinga, reseeding with buffel grass, the goats crossbred F1 Boer x SRD showed better performance than the Santa Ines sheep.