Replacement of soybean meal by soybean in multiple supplements for beef heifers grazing Urochloa decumbens during the dry season

Abstract

<p>This study aimed to evaluate the effect of replacing soybean meal with soybean in multiple supplements on nutritional parameters, microbial efficiency and productive and reproductive performance of heifers grazing in <em>Urochloa decumbens </em>during the drought period. Were used 39 crossbred heifers of initial age and initial weight of 21 months and 309.5±7 kg, respectively. The experimental design was completely randomized with four treatments with eight replicates, and a control treatment with seven replications. Two treatments had soybean meal as the protein source and two treatments had soybean as the protein source, containing 25% and 40% crude protein. The amount of supplement offered was 1.0 kg/animal/day. The animals of the control group received only mineral salt <em>ad libitum</em>. The supplemented animals had higher average daily gain (ADG) than control animals (P&lt;0.10), and there was no difference in ADG among the supplements (P&gt;0.10). There was an effect of supplementation (P &lt;0.10) on intake of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), non-fiber carbohydrates (NFC), total digestible nutrients (TDN) and neutral detergent fiber corrected for ash and protein (NDF). There were no differences (P&gt;0.10) on intake of OM and DM grazing between the supplemented and non-supplemented. Supplementation improved DM digestibility and all constituents of the diet (P&lt;0.10). It was found that the provision of multiple supplements optimizes the performance of heifers grazing during the dry season, and that the substitution of soybean meal by soybean did not improve productive performance of animals.</p>