DESENVOLVIMENTO DE SOFTWARE DE FORMULAÇÃO E AVALIAÇÃO DE DIETAS PARA BOVINOS DE CORTE

Abstract

Beef cattle farming in Brazil has been improving, considering the growth in the number of animals, alongside the reduction of pasture areas and an increase in meat production. However, many producers still face challenges related to the lack of technology, especially in small farms, when aiming to reduce costs and improve animal performance. In this context, the present work aims to develop software for the formulation and evaluation of diets for beef cattle, capable of estimating the animals' nutritional requirements based on information such as live weight, average daily gain, sex differences, and genetic group. The software was developed using an Excel spreadsheet with the Solver tool. The BR-Corte equations were used to estimate feed intake and the animals’ nutritional requirements. Therefore, it is concluded that it was possible to develop diet formulation and evaluation software capable of estimating the nutritional requirements of different animal categories and promoting better technical and economic performance for farms.