Ingestive behavior cattle in piatã-grass under intermittent stocking with distinct entry heights

Abstract

Knowledge of the interface plant and animal in the ecosystem grasslands is of fundamental importance when it seeks to maximize production performance of the system. That sense the objective was to verify if the input time piatã-grass (30, 40 and 50cm) interferes with the quality of the forage, feeding behavior, travel patterns and use of food cattle stations in two conditions of time, pre-grazing (zero grazing days) and post-grazing (seven days of grazing). The evaluations were conducted in the period of 06h: 30m 18h: 20m in the second and fourth grazing cycles with animals with 16 months of age and 239.8±25.7kg LW. The pre-grazing heights did not change feeding behavior, but was no effect for the condition of the pasture (pre-grazing and post-grazing). The interval number of meals was higher at 30cm and lower in pre-grazing. The highest bite rate was in 30cm and 40cm to the smallest, reflecting good condition to grazing, while reducing TB to 50cm to 30cm is related to the difficulty of using bits. In pre-grazing largest number of stations per minute was at 40cm, while in the post-grazing to 50cm. In pre-grazing decreased time per meal compared to the post-grazing, reflecting the best pasture structure in this condition. The entry height did not change feeding behavior, however, grazing time modify the feeding behavior standard of displacement, search and seizure of forage by the animals, especially in the post-grazing condition to 50cm.