Ingestive behavior of feedlot finished young bulls fed different concentrate levels in the diet

This study was developed to evaluate the ingestive behavior of beef cattle finished in feedlots with different concentrate levels in the diet. Sixteen bulls fed 22, 40, 59, or 79% of concentrate in the diet were assigned to a complete randomized design, with four replicates each. The supplied diets were isoproteic and the roughage used was corn silage. Data collection was carried out during the finishing period, with a total of six days. The time given to food intake, rumination, the number of bouts per meal and neutral detergent fiber rumination efficiency decreased linearly as the concentrate levels in the diet increased. Idle time increased linearly accordingly to the increment of concentrate in the diet. The animals have greater feed intake and rumination efficiency when fed higher levels of concentrate (79%).

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Missio,Regis Luis, Brondani,Ivan Luiz, Alves Filho,Dari Celestino, Silveira,Magali Floriano da, Freitas,Leandro da Silva, Restle,João
Format:	Digital revista
Language:	English
Published:	Sociedade Brasileira de Zootecnia 2010
Online Access:	http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-35982010000700025
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