Cana-de-açúcar: do plantio à alimentação de bovinos

• Autor(a) principal: Duarte, Fernando Costa
• Data de Publicação: 2009
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: LOCUS Repositório Institucional da UFV
• Texto Completo: http://locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/5958
• topic: Produção de leite; Produção de carne; Cria; Recria; Silagem; Milk production; Meat production; Creates; Recreates; Silage; CNPQ::CIENCIAS AGRARIAS::ZOOTECNIA::PRODUCAO ANIMAL

Sugarcane is a high-yielding culture per area unit. For its maximum production, choice of a good variety, correct soil preparation, and nutrient content correction, either through organic or chemical methods must be observed. Good seedling establishment and weed control are also necessary. Sugarcane was shown to be sensitive to fertilizations, especially those with nitrogen potassium, responding positively to increase in the contents of these nutrients in soil. It also showed to be sensitive to the presence of weeds, since in their absence, its productivity increases significantly. The culture was also flexible towards planting and harvest times. As cattle feed, it can be offered in several ways: in natura, silage or chemically-treated (NaOH or CaO) to improve and preserve its characteristics. Its main sugar alcohol co-product, bagasse, can also be fed to cattle. However sugarcane presents low contents of raw protein and minerals as well as low digestibility of the fibrous fraction. These characteristics limit its use along time for low performance animals, probably as a consequence of their low voluntary consumption. More recent research shows that this reality has changed as, besides its quality improvement, sugarcane and its feeding management have been altered. In beef cattle, sugarcane has shown good results under feedlot performance, mainly in diets using high concentrate contents. In dairy cattle, sugarcane has met the requirement of animals with up to 30 kg/day of milk production. It must be emphasized that its greater utilization is by animals with a daily production around 20 kg, presenting advantageous results over corn silage. Several levels of urea inclusion in the diet have been tested in lactating cows and growing animals, both yielding favorable results.