Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T14:42:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Marcelo_2010.pdf: 2287838 bytes, checksum: 523298b5cdec48468c7172dc20a5ba32 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-07-05 / The objective of this experiment was to evaluate combinations of two intermittent grazing intervals that corresponding to the time required for the sward reached 25 and 35 cm heights and two nitrogen application doses (50 and 200 kg N/ha/year) on the sward structure, light interception and forage production of Marandugrass pastures. The experiment was conducted at IZ - Institute of Animal Science, located in Nova Odessa, SP. Treatments which were denominated like their heights and dose relations by 25/50, 25/200, 35/50 and 35/200 were allocated at experimental units constituting sets of six paddocks of 0.5 ha each in a 2 x 2 (two heights and two doses) factorial arrangement in randomized complete block design, with four replications, totaling an area of 48 ha. The variables were the number of cycle grazing, grazing days, rest days, light interception, leaf area, foliage angle, herbage dry matter (DM), leaf:stem ratio, morphological components spatial distribution along the grass vertical profile, bulk density, total herbage and morphological components and herbage accumulation rate. The data were analyzed in split split plot in a mixed model, considering random and block errors effects. In the plot were considered the time effect (summer I from December 2009 to January 2010 and summer II from February to March 2010) and the block, in the subplot were considered the height and the interactions and in the subsubplot the N doses and their interactions. Means were estimated by the least squares comparing the treatments by t-test of "Student" using SAS v.9.0 program at 5% of significance. The greatest number of grazing cycles (1.82) were observed in treatment 25/200. There was an effect of height and N dose on the variable grazing days (seven days for treatment 25/200) and rest days (34 and 36 days for height 25 cm and dose 200 kg N/ha, respectively). There was an effect of height and N dose for light interception (96.03 and 98.10% for heights of 25 and 35 and 96.62 and 97.51% for dose of 50 and 200 kg N/ha, respectively). A significant interaction between time x height x N dose where the treatments 35/50 and 35/200 showed the highest values of foliage area index (FAI) to the both time, summer I and summer II. The values of foliage angle were significant for the time (41.77 and 44.91º for summer I and summer II, respectively) and the interaction time x dose of N (41.78 value being lower for the treatment 35/50). There was effect of height on pre-grazing herbage dry matter when the height 35 cm showed the highest total herbage dry matter (12356 kg DM/ha), leaf dry matter (4668.76 kg DM/ha) and stem dry matter (3553.69 kg DM/ha). Significant effect of time (1.66 and 1.30 for summer I and summer season II) and height (1.61 and 1.35 for 25 and 35 cm) was observed to leaf:stem ratio. There was effect of N dose on post-grazing total dry matter, and 200 kg N/ha dose showed the highest value (8103.58 kg DM/ha). Post-grazing leaf dry matter was affected by height (1141, 87, and 669.14 kg DM/ha for 25 and 35 cm heights) and by interaction time x N dose with significant difference between summer time I and II for 50 kg N/ha dose (709.71 and 1076.10 kg DM/ha for summer time I and II). Post-grazing stem dry matter was affected by interaction time x height with significant difference between 25 and 35 cm heights at time I (1730.67 and 2372.04 kg DM/ha for 25 and 35 cm heights) and increase value between summer time I and II to 25 cm height (1730.67 to 2340.10 kg DM/ha). Post-grazing dead material dry matter was affected by height (4114.36 and 4936.97 kg DM/ha for 25 and 35 cm height) and interaction time x N dose changing between 50 kg N/ha dose and summer time I and II (5015.49 and 3654.76 kg DM/ha for summer I and II) and between N doses in summer II (4541 and 3654.76, 94 kg DM/ha for 50 and 200 kg N/ha). Post-grazing leaf:stem ratio was affected by the interaction time x N dose x height with higher values for treatments 25/50 and 25/200. Pre-grazing sward structure showed about 50% of its upper portion composed of leaf lamina regardless summer time and treatment. The total volume density was affected by the interaction time x N dose x height with higher values during the summer season I. The leaf volume density was affected by the interaction time x dose x height with changes between summer time I and II. There was no effect of time, height and N dose on herbage accumulation rate. It is recommended like a grazing strategic combined 25 cm sward height with fertilization of 200 kg N/ha dose for better control of sward structure to production animal on pastures. / Objetivou-se com o presente experimento avaliar combinações de dois intervalos de pastejo intermitente, correspondentes ao período de tempo necessário para que o dossel atingisse as alturas de 25 e 35 cm e duas doses de aplicação de nitrogênio (50 e 200 kg N/ha/ano) sobre a estrutura do dossel, interceptação de luz e produção de forragem em pastos de capim-marandu. O experimento foi conduzido no IZ - Instituto de Zootecnia, situado no Município de Nova Odessa, SP. Os tratamentos denominados pela relação altura/dose de nitrogênio 25/50, 25/200, 35/50 e 35/200 foram alocados às unidades experimentais constituídas por conjuntos de seis piquetes de 0,5 ha cada segundo um arranjo fatorial 2 x 2 (duas alturas e duas doses de N) em delineamento de blocos completos casualizados, com quatro repetições, totalizando a área de 48 ha. Foram avaliadas as variáveis número de ciclo pastejo, dias de ocupação, dias de descanso, interceptação de luz, área da folhagem, ângulo da folhagem, massa de forragem em matéria seca (MS), relação folha:haste, distribuição espacial dos componentes morfológicos ao longo do perfil vertical dos pastos, densidade volumétrica da forragem total e dos componentes morfológicos e taxa de acúmulo de forragem. Os dados foram analisados em parcela subsubdividida em modelo misto, considerando como efeito aleatório o bloco e os erros associados a cada parcela. Na parcela considerou-se o efeito da época (verão I período de dezembro de 2009 a janeiro de 2010 e verão II período de fevereiro a março de 2010) e do bloco, na subparcela o efeito da altura e das interações e na subsubparcela o efeito da dose de nitrogênio e das interações. As médias foram estimadas pelo método dos mínimos quadrados com a comparação dos tratamentos pelo teste t de Student usando o programa SAS v.9.0 a 5% de significância. Houve maior número de ciclos de pastejo (1,82) no tratamento 25/200. Houve efeito de altura e dose de N sobre as variáveis dias de ocupação (sete dias para o tratamento 25/200) e dias de descanso (34 e 36 dias para altura 25 cm e dose 200 kg de N/ha, respectivamente). Houve efeito de altura e dose de N para a interceptação luminosa (96,03 e 98,10% para as alturas de 25 e 35 e 96,62 e 97,51% para as doses de 50 e 200 kg de N/ha, respectivamente). Houve efeito da interação época x altura x dose de N, sendo que os tratamentos 35/50 e 35/200 apresentaram os maiores valores de índice de área de folhagem (IAFolhagem) tanto na época verão I quanto na época verão II. Observou-se, sobre o ângulo da folhagem, efeito da época (41,77 e 44,91º para a época verão I e verão II, respectivamente) e da interação altura x dose de N (sendo observado menor valor - 41,78° - para o tratamento 35/50). Houve efeito da altura sobre a massa de forragem em pré-pastejo que, apresentou maiores valores de massa de forragem total (12356 kg de MS/ha), massa de forragem de folha (4668,76 kg de MS/ha) e massa de forragem de haste (3553,69 kg de MS/ha) para a altura de 35 cm. Houve efeito de época (1,66 e 1,30 para época verão I e verão II) e da altura (1,61 e 1,35 para 25 e 35 cm) sobre a relação folha:haste. Houve efeito de dose de N sobre a matéria seca total em pós-pastejo, sendo que a dose de 200 kg de N/ha apresentou maior valor (8103,58 kg MS/ha). A massa de forragem de folha em pós-pastejo foi afetada pela altura (1141, 87 e 669,14 kg de MS/ha para 25 e 35 cm) e pela interação época x dose de N apresentando diferença entre as épocas verão I e verão II para a dose de 50 kg de N/ha (709,71 e 1076,10 kg de MS/ha para época verão I e verão II). A massa de forragem de haste em pós-pastejo foi afetada pela interação época x altura apresentando diferença entre as alturas de 25 e 35 cm na época I (1730,67 e 2372,04 kg de MS/ha para 25 e 35 cm) e aumento do valor entre a época verão I e verão II para a altura de 25 cm (1730,67 para 2340,10 kg de MS/ha). A massa de forragem de material morto em pós-pastejo foi afetada pela altura (4114,36 e 4936,97 kg de MS/ha para 25 e 35 cm) e pela interação época x dose de N havendo variação entre a dose de 50 kg de N/ha e as épocas verão I e verão II (5015,49 e 3654,76 kg de MS/ha para época verão I e verão II) e entre as doses de N na época verão II (3654,76 e 4541,94 kg de MS/ha para 50 e 200 kg/ha). A relação folha:haste em pós-pastejo foi afetada pela interação época x dose de N x altura, apresentando maiores valores para os tratamentos 25/50 e 25/200. A estrutura do dossel na condição de pré-pastejo apresentou cerca de 50% de sua porção superior composta por lâminas foliares independentemente da época do ano e do tratamento. A densidade volumétrica total foi afetada pela interação época x dose de N x altura, apresentando maiores valores durante a época verão I. A densidade volumétrica de folha foi afetada pela interação época x dose x altura apresentando variação entre as épocas verão I e verão II. Não houve efeito de época, dose de N e altura sobre a taxa de acúmulo total de forragem. É recomendada a estratégia de pastejo com altura de entrada de 25 cm combinada com adubação de 200 kg de N/ha para o melhor controle da estrutura dos pastos visando à produção animal.

Two consecutive experiments were conducted to test a hypothesis that mixed grazing outcome is influenced by the type of stocking system applied. The objective of both experiments was to investigate the influence of co-grazing with sheep on cattle liveweight gain (LWG) under continuous (C) and rotational (R) stocking, where sheep weekly liveweight change under the two stocking systems was kept similar. In experiment I nine yearling heifers (266 ± 4.5 kg liveweight) and 27 ewe hoggets (54±0.9 kg liveweight) were continuously stocked for 19 weeks on an irrigated perennial ryegrass-white clover pasture (2.95 ha) maintained at a sward surface height (SSH) of 5cm by adding or removing additional animals in a fixed ratio (1: 1 W⁰.⁷⁵ cattle:sheep). An equal area of pasture was rotationally stocked by a similar group of animals where they received a new area of pasture daily and also had access to the grazed area over the previous 2 days. The size of the new area provided daily was such that the weekly liveweight change of rotationally co-grazed sheep was equal to that of those continuously co-grazed with cattle. Similar groups of animals were used in the second experiment with additional group of 9 heifers grazed alone on C and R pastures. Liveweight of animals was recorded weekly and final fasted weight was determined after 24-hour total feed restriction. SSH on both treatment swards was recorded daily. There were three intake measurement periods spread over the trial period. Organic matter intake (OMI) was predicted from the ratio of N-alkanes in faeces and herbage. Diet composition was determined by dissecting oesophageal extrusa samples. Grazing behaviour (bite rates and grazing time) were also recorded. The mean SSH for C pasture was 5.1±0.09 cm. Overall pre- and post-grazing SSH for R pasture was 15.9 ±0.12 and 5.6 ±0.07 cm, respectively. As determined by the protocol average daily LWG of sheep was similar between C and R (147 (±5.8) vs 138 (±6.7) g day⁻¹; (P>0.05). In contrast, cattle continuously stocked with sheep grew 200 g day⁻¹ slower than those rotationally stocked with sheep (800 (±41.6) vs 1040 (±47.7) g day⁻¹, P<0.0l). R heifers achieved 30 kg higher final fasted liveweight than C heifers (350 vs 381 kg; P<0.01). Overall LWG per ha was also 6 % higher under R than C stocking (674 vs 634 kg ha⁻¹). The OMD of both sheep (73.5 vs 75.8 %) and cattle (75.8 vs 78.0 %) diets was similar under continuous and rotational stocking. There was no significant difference OMI data also concurred with the L WG data (Cattle: 7.94 vs 6.31 (±0.32) kg day⁻¹ (P<0.05); sheep: 1.40 vs 1.44 (±0.04) kg day⁻¹ for Rand C treatments, respectively). There was no difference in clover content of cattle diet under C and R treatments. C heifers had higher number of bites per minute than R heifers (62 vs 56; P<0.05). Proportion of heifers seen grazing (every 15-minute) during four 24-hour observations was greater on C than R pasture (0.44 vs 0.31 (±0.03); P<0.05). The similarity coefficient between sheep and cattle diet was 0.61 and 0.76 under C and R stocking, respectively. The lower daily LWG of C heifers was attributed to (a) the lower SSH under C than R stocking and/or (b) the inability of cattle to compete well with sheep where there is small, continual renewal of resources (C) in contrast to a large periodic renewal under R stocking. This experiment showed that the outcome of mixed gruing can be influenced by the stocking system chosen. But it was not possible to apportion the difference in LWG of cattle between mixed grazing per se and the difference in mean grazed sward height (5.1 for C vs 10.8 cm for R). A second experiment was conducted to determine the relative performance of cattle co-grazed with sheep (CS) and grazed alone (CA) under each stocking system. Hence, there were four treatments. CA- continuous stocking (CA-C), CS- continuous stocking (CS-C), CA- rotational stocking (CAR) and CS- rotational stocking (CS-R). A total area of 4.42 ha was allocated to each stocking system. Under C stocking, 2.95 ha (2/3) was assigned to CS-C and 1.47 ha (1/3) to CA-C, and SSH on both treatments was kept at 4 cm by adding or removing extra animals. Under R stocking, CA-R and CS-R grazed side by side separated by an electric fence. They were given a fresh area daily, the size of which was varied such that the weekly LW change of R sheep was equal to that of the C sheep. CA-R received one-third of the new area though the size was adjusted regularly to achieve the same post-grazing SSH with CS-R. Measurements included: weekly liveweight change, OMI (two periods) and diet composition (using N-alkanes). The mean SSH of CA-C and CS-C swards was 4.27 and 4.26 (±0.02) cm, respectively. CA-R and CS-R swards had mean pre-grazing SSH of 14.9 and 15.2 (±0.08) cm and post-grazing heights of 4.87 and 4.82 cm (±0.03), respectively. The proportion of areas infrequently grazed was higher for CA-C than CS-C swards (0.22 vs 0.17, respectively). C and R sheep daily LWG: 155 (±0.6) and 147 (±0.7) g, and OMI: 1.96 and 2.04 (±0.ll) kg, respectively, were not significantly different. They also had similar diet composition. In comparison, CS-C heifers grew only at 69 % of the daily LWG achieved by CS-R heifers (706 vs 1028 (±72) g; P<0.05). LWG of CA-C and CA-R was 916 and 1022 (±72) g day⁻¹, respectively. The difference in LWG between CS-R and CS-C (D₁) heifers was due to difference in mean sward height, stocking system and mixed grazing, while D₂ (difference in LWG between CA-R and CAC) was due to difference in mean sward height and stocking system. D₁-D₂ (the effect of stocking system on mixed grazing) was 216 g and made up 67 % of the total difference between CS-R and CS-C. There was a significant stocking system-species mixture interaction in the final fasted LW achieved by heifers. Final fasted LW was significantly lower for CS-C than CA-C heifers (283 vs 323 (±9.7) kg), but did not differ between CS-R and CA-R (332 vs 330 (±9.7) kg, respectively). The digestibility of diet OM was similar for both continuously and rotationally stocked sheep (84.4 vs 83.2 %, respectively). Cattle diet OMO was 76.5, 74.7, 79.4 and 77.8 for CA-C, CS-C, CA-R and CS-R respectively (P>0.05). Differences in OMI followed a similar pattern to daily LWG. Mean daily OMI was 8.98, 6.24, 8.80 and 9.45 (±0.40) kg for CA-C, CS-C, CA-R and CS-R, respectively. Clover content of the diet of CA-C heifers was three times higher than that of CS-C heifers (30.7 vs 10.4 % OM; P<0.05); there was no difference in clover content of diets of CS-R and CA-R heifers (21.5 vs 23.9 % OM, respectively). In both stocking systems LWG per ha was higher on CA than CS treatments. These results suggested that the disadvantage of selective clover grazing by sheep outweighed the advantages of sheep grazing around cattle dung patches under continuous stocking. Under rotational stocking, rapid diurnal changes in sward conditions probably limited selective grazing by both sheep and cattle such that there was no disadvantage to CS cattle. The results do not provide a basis for recommending grazing cattle with sheep rather than cattle alone, but do provide some basis for recommending co-grazing of sheep and cattle using rotational rather than continuous stocking.