FONTES DE FIBRA E FREQUÊNCIA DE FORNECIMENTO DAS DIETAS PARA TERMINAÇÃO DE BOVINOS NELORE EM CONFINAMENTO

Abstract

ABSTRACT BAVELONI, M.F.G. Fiber sources and frequency of supply of diets for finishing Nellore cattle in confinement. 2025. Dissertação (Mestrado) – Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, MS, 2025. Adequate fiber supply and feeding frequency can result in improvements in the productive and economic performance of cattle finishing in confinement. Automation in feeding can be a tool to assist in food supply. The hypothesis was formulated that the use of a complete diet without bulk, using cottonseed cake as a fiber source, fed six times a day could optimize the productive and economic performance of cattle finished in confinement. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of fiber source and feeding frequency on the productive and economic performance of cattle finishing in confinement. Twenty-four uncastrated Nellore cattle with an average initial live weight of 461.5 ± 23.44 kg, average age of approximately 24 months and housed in individual stalls were used. The experimental design used was completely randomized in a 2×2 factorial scheme, with two fiber sources (corn silage or cottonseed meal) and two feeding frequencies (supply 2x or 6x a day), with 6 replicates each. The increase in feeding frequency reduced dry matter and nutrient intake (P0.05), although a trend toward greater performance was observed in animals fed twice a day +29.0 kg in GPT (P=0.0592) and +0.4 kg/day in ADG (P=0.0585). Rumination time was longer in animals fed a diet with forage (P