Ovinos e caprinos terminados em caatinga enriquecida: 1. efeito do pastejo na vegetação herbácea; 2. efeito da suplementação no desempenho animal.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of herbaceous species, the availability and supply of dry matter of the herbaceous stratum and performance of sheep and goats finished in a thinned Caatinga and enriched with buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris L. cv. biloela) and subjected to two types of dietary supplementation. The study was carried out at Lameirão Farm belonging to the Health Center and Rural Technology, Federal University of Campina Grande - CSTR / UFCG. It was used 12 Santa Inês sheep males and 12 crossbred F1 goats (Boer x SRD), not castrated, live weight of 24,30 ± 2,39 kg.. The experimental area was 2.4 ha, divided into four paddocks of 0.6 ha, two for each animal species. For assessment of vegetation each paddock was subdivided into two subplots of 0.3 ha. The animals were kept on pasture from 8:00 until 17:00, when the bays were collected, where stayed overnight and were given the energy supplement based corn meal and mineral mixture and energetic-proteic consisting of soybean meal, corn meal and mineral mixture. To analyze the availability of MS and floristic composition and forage dry matter of the herbaceous vegetation was used a completely randomized design in a split plot in time with two treatments (sheep and goats) and four replicates (field plots). For variables related to animal performance, the design was completely randomized with a factorial 2 x 2 (two animal species and two types of supplementation). The grazing of sheep and goats in Caatinga thinned and enriched with buffel grass favored the disappearance of species of high forage value and increased the similarity of herbaceous vegetation. The two species of grazing animals did not affect the availability, accumulation rate and the supply of forage from herbaceous vegetation. The termination of sheep and goats in Caatinga thinned and enriched with buffel grass was more favorable to the performance of goats in relation to consumption of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein and neutral detergent fiber, with the weights and carcass unchanged. The energetic-proteic supplementation favored a better performance of animals and resulted in higher weight of non-carcass components.