Ingestive behavior of dairy heifers fed cocoa (“Theobroma cacao”) meal levels in the diet

Abstract

The objective was to evaluate the ingestive behavior of dairy heifers fed different cocoa meal levels. Twenty ¾ Gir x ¼ Holstein dairy heifers, with 165.5 ± 35.8kg of body weight, were used. The animals were distributed in a completely randomized design, with four treatments and five repetitions, receiving diets composed by elephant grass silage as the roughage and concentrate with increasing levels of cocoa meal. The intakes were evaluated, and also their feeding and rumination efficiencies. To determine the ingestive behavior, the heifers were submitted, in the last day of the experimental period, to visual observation, at each five minutes, during 24 hours. The dry matter, neutral detergent fiber, non- fiber carbohydrates and total digestible nutrients intakes were not influenced by cocoa meal inclusion levels in the diet. The time spent feeding, ruminating and in idle did not differ among treatments, neither did the number of periods and the time spent in each period with the respective activities. The time per ruminated bolus, chewing number per bolus, number of ruminated bolus per day and total chewing time were not affected by the diets. The non-fiber carbohydrates feeding efficiency had increasing linear effect as cocoa meal was included in the diet. The inclusion of up to 21% of cocoa meal in the total diet did not alter negatively the ingestive behavior of dairy heifers.