Ingestive behavior of dairy cows fed with inclusion levels of cassava bagasse

Abstract

The objective was to evaluate the ingestive behavior of lactating cows receiving diets with different levels of cassava bagasse (0; 5; 10 and 15%). Twelve Holstein x Zebu dairy cows with 478.5kg of average body weight and 100 to 150 days in milk, were distributed in three 4 x 4 Latin Squares. The dry matter intake, neutral detergent fiber, non fibrous carbohydrates and total digestible nutrients intake, and the ingestive behavior of the animals was evaluated, when they were submitted to four visual evaluations, with 24 hours of duration each, in five minutes scales. The evaluations were conducted on the last day of each experimental period, which had 12 days. The dry matter, non fiber carbohydrates and total digestible nutrients intakes increased linearly with cassava bagasse inclusion. The time spent with feeding, rumination and idle did not differ among treatments, as well as the number of periods and the time spent in each period in the respective activities. The behavioral aspects, only the number of chewing per ruminated bolus was affected by the diets. The feeding and rumination efficiencies only affected the non fiber carbohydrates, which showed quadratic effect. The increase of dry matter, non fiber carbohydrates an total digestible nutrients intakes demonstrates that the cassava bagasse can be used in diets of lactating cows in levels of up to 15%, becoming necessary its evaluation of the productive parameters and cost in the diet.