Performance of Growing Crossbred Steers Supplemented During the Dry Season

The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of growing steers, during the dry season, fed supplements with different protein sources. The treatments were constituted of: mineral mixture (control) (MM), and supplements including the protein sources soybean meal (SBM), cottonseed meal (CM), corn gluten meal, (CGM) and wheat bran (WB). The supplements were supplied ad libitum, by using urea end sodium chloride as intake controller, adjusted at the level that allow to intake 1 kg supplement/day. The average urea level was 10%, except for WB (8%), which seems also to act as ingestion controller. Thirty five crossbreed steers with 248 kg of live weight, grazing five Brachiaria decumbens paddocks (8 ha), were used. The average intakes of supplements were 0.046, 1.48, 1.49, 1.50 and 1.48 kg/animal/day for the treatments MM, SBM, CM, CGM and WB, respectively. The values higher than 1 kg/day were justified by elevation of weight of the animals. The average daily gain for MM was 0.09 kg/day, being lower than the supplement treatments, which did not differ to each other, presenting average daily gain of 0.47 kg/day.

beef cattle; supplementation; urea