Forage availability and weight gain of goats on caatinga enriched with Urochloa trichopus (Hochst.) Stapf subjected to fallowing and fertilized with phosphate

• Autor(a) principal: dos Santos Pessoa, Rosa Maria
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Soares da Silva, Divan, Morais Pereira Filho, José, de Azevedo Silva, Aderbal Marcos, de Sousa Ferreira, Joyanne Mirelle, Vieira do Nascimento, George
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Ciência animal brasileira (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revistas.ufg.br/vet/article/view/70080

The objective of this study was to evaluate the forage availability and performance of goats in thinned Caatinga enriched withUrochloa trichopus subjected to grazing fallowing and levels of phosphorus fertilization. Twenty-four F1 crossbred goats (Boer xNon-descript breed), whole, 15.0 ± 2.6 kg body weight were distributed in four paddocks (n = 6) according to body weight, age andphysiological status. Animals grazed on Caatinga, under continuous stocking, and were gathered and kept in individual pensovernight. The experiment to evaluate animal performance was a randomized block design with 4 treatments (0, 11, 33 and 60 daysof fallowing) and six replications. To determine dry mass production and floristic composition, phosphate fertilization was used inthe doses of x P2O5 in a randomized block design with five treatments, 0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 kg P2O5 with 4 replications. Phosphatefertilization had an effect on the floristic composition of dicots and U. trichopus (P<0.05). There was an effect of pasture fallowingon the final weight of goats, with the lowest weight (20.40 kg) observed after 60 days of fallowing (P<0.05). Fallowing is notsuitable for an area of vegetation in the caatinga, because there was a decrease in forage availability and quality in the dry period,resulting in a lower performance of animals.Keywords: Food management; forage availability; native pasture; semiarid