Alexandre Lima Ferreira

Intake, apparent digestibility, and methane emission in bulls receiving a feed supplement of monensin, virginiamycin, or a combination

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the feed supplements monensin, virginiamycin, or a combination of the two, on intake, digestibility, and methane emission in the male cattle breed F1 Holstein × Gir. We used a complete randomised design with four treatments consisting of the control, monensin, virginiamycin, and a combination of the two. The basal diets were composed of sorghum silage with Tanzania grass and the concentrate in the 1 : 1 ratio. Nutrient intake (P > 0.05) and the apparent digestibility coefficients (P > 0.05) were not affected by the supplementation with monensin, virginiamycin, or both. The combination of the supplements did affect methane emission (P < 0.05) when expressed in L/day, L/(kg DM), and L/(kg DM digestible). The lowest methane production was obtained with the combination of the supplements.

Nutritional divergence in genotypes of forage peanut

The objective of this study was to evaluate the nutritional divergence between ten genotypes of forage peanut, based on chemical composition as well as fermentation and in vitro degradation kinetic characteristics. Treatments consisted of ten genotypes of Arachis pintoi, namely eight accessions (31135, 30333, 15121, 31828, 15598, 31534, 13251 and 31496) and two cultivars (cv. Belmonte and cv. Amarillo). The genotypes were harvested in each plot at a height of 3 cm from the ground, in 42-day intervals, during the time of heaviest rainfall. For the multivariate analysis the following variables, the following were used: crude protein, neutral detergent fiber, potential degradation in 48 hours, degradation rate of insoluble potentially degradable fraction and degradation rate of non-fibrous carbohydrate. The application of the hierarchical clustering analysis, using the Euclidian distances matrix of standardized averages allowed for the identification of five homogeneous groups. Among them, the accessions 31828, 31534, 15121 and cv. Belmonte stood out nutritionally among the remaining genotypes evaluated, depicting as promising for the utilization in ruminant feeding.

Chemical composition and fermentation dynamics of jackfruit silage

It was evaluated the effect of adding corn meal (5%) and urea (1%) in the chemical composition and fermentation characteristics of jackfruit silage, using a randomized experimental design with factorial arrangement 3x7 (treatment x day of opening) with two replications. Silos of PVC, 10 cm diameter x 40 cm in length, were used. The opening of the silos then assessing the chemical composition and silage fermentation occurred at 1, 3, 5, 7, 14, 28 and 56 days after ensiling. The dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) were significantly highest (P <0.05) with the addition of 5% corn and 1% urea, respectively. The pH found in all treatments was considered ideal for good quality silage. The addition of urea increased significantly (P <0.05) values of ammonia nitrogen (N-NH3/NT). The addition of 1% urea worked as alkali in the cell wall of the ensiled material, shown by the reduction in levels of fibrous fractions. The jackfruit has a potential for conservation as silage and the use of corn and urea as additives enhances the fermentation and silage quality.