The experiment was carried out to determine the supplements effects in the voluntary intake, digestibility, rumen pH and ammonia content of five 18 months old and 286 kg of live weight Nelore-Limousin young bulls, that received rumen and esophageal fistula. The treatments were: control, the animals received only mineral complex; and the others four were constituted by 1,49% of mineral complex, 1,99% of urea, and cracked corn, soybean meal and wheat bran different percentages. The treatments had 24% average crude protein, and non-fibrous carbohydrates and neutral detergent fiber different contents, and were provided on original matter basis, in amount equivalent to 1% of the weight. The animals that were submitted to the supplementary treatments exhibited similar DM intake and digestibility, and showed higher DMI and digestibility than the control group. The average dry matter intakes (DMI) were 2.05% live weight (LW) (84.5 g DM/kg LW.75) and 1.44% LW (57.7 g DM/kg LW.75) for supplemented animals and non-supplemented animals, respectively. The supplementation increased 42% the DMI, 55.4% the dry matter digestibility and 60.4% the digestible energy content, in respect the non-supplemented animals diet. The ruminal fluid pH was influenced linear and positively by treatment with wheat bran amount, and linear and negatively by treatment with 75% cracked corn. The concentration of ruminal ammonia stayed above 5 mg of nitrogen/100 ml of ruminal fluid, except for control treatment.
pasture intake; pH; ruminal ammonia; signal grass; supplementation
