NR 40. Effect of multinutrient blocks hardness on voluntary intake on crossbred bovines

Resumen

An experiment was conducted under tropical dry forest conditions in order to evaluate the storage effect of the multinutrient blocks (BM) on hardness (R), voluntary (CV) and total dry matter intake (CMS), daily gain (GP), feed efficiency (EA) in 20 crossbred of 264 kg of average body weight (PV) in feedlot. The animal’s diet was based in Brachiaria humidicola hay (4.44 % PC) and the suplemmentation with BM. The statistic design was a completely randomized and the experimental unit was an animal, where T0: hay (control), T1: BM 15 days + hay, T2: BM 30 days + hay, T3: BM 45 days + hay. BM (30 x 15 cm) were manufactured in a cilinder molds and carried to the hydraulic concrete testing machine and evaluate resistance in kg/cm2. Increasing storage time affected (P<.01) BM hardness T1: 2.33 kg/cm2 in relation to the T2 and T3 (3.24 and 3.40 kg/cm2) respectively. The CV was affected by treatments: T1 presented the greater consumption (0.75 kg/day/100 kg of PV) followed by the T2 and T3 (0.53 and 0.51 kg/day/100 kg of PV) respectively. Dry matter intake (CMS), daily gain (GP) and feed efficiency (EA) were influenced (P<.01) by BM.