Dynamics and Production of Forage in Winter Pasture under Continuous Grazing with Energetic Supplementation

Dynamics and Production of Forage in Winter Pasture under Continuous Grazing with Energetic Supplementation

This experiment was carried out at Federal University of Santa Maria, from July 09 to November 12, 1999 to evaluate the dynamics and production of forage of oat (Avena strigosa Schreb) and italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam) mixture. The grazing system used was continuous with variable stocking rate to maintain 1500kg/ha of herbage mass in all treatments. The heifers were subjected to different levels of energetic supplementation. They are 0, 0.7 and 1.4% of LW/day. The pasture of oat and italian ryegrass presented an accumulation rate of 45.7, 55.1 and 50.0 kg of DM/ha /day and a total dry matter (DM) production of 7067, 7222 and 8137 kg/ha for 0, 0.7 and 1.4% of LW/day levels, respectively. The average percentage of leaf component was 8.26, 11.48 and 11.72 for oat and 23.12, 22.35 and 20.93 for Italian ryegrass at 0, 0.7 and 1.4% of LW/day levels, respectively. The supplementation neither affected the accumulation rate nor the total DM production of the pasture (P> 0.05). The senescent material was lower (P< 0.05) with no supplementation.