Ingestive behavior of young bovines kept in sorghum or millet pasture

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the ingestive behavior and the displacement patterns of cutting steers kept in millet or sorghum pastures. The treatments consisted of: millet pasture (Pennisetum americanum Leeke) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench), both undergoing continuous stocking. Eighteen steers Charolais × Nellore breeding cross, with initial age of 14 months, and initial body weight of 195 kg, were used. The experimental design was randomized blocks, with 3 replicates and plots subdivide in time and by periods, and the data were submitted to variance analysis through the MIXED proc with P‰¤0,05. Grazing time was not influenced by forage species. The animals grazed longer in the third evaluation period (613.3 minutes) than the first period (555.5 minutes), both of which did not differ from the grazing time presented in the second period (568.9 minutes). The rumination and idle times were similar among the pastures evaluated, however, leisure time decreased and rumination increased with the advancement of the periods. Forage species did not influence the variables related to the displacement strategies. As the pasture cycle progressed, the time for 10 seasons and the time of rumination per cake increased, while the number of seasons per minute and per day, and the number of times animals water decreased. The use of millet or sorghum pastures does not alter the ingestive behavior and the displacement and feeding patterns of beef steers. The structural variation of the pastures throughout the vegetative cycle, alter the strategies of feeding and consumption, which are closely associated with the productive characteristics of the pasture.