PSIII-A-21 Weight Gain of Nelore Females on Pasture Using Different Genotypes of Brachiaria

Abstract For an increasingly sustainable livestock, the use of quality pastures is essential. In this aspect, the development of new hybrids appears in order to optimize the weight gain of animals on pasture. Thus, the objective was to analyze the weight gain of Nelore females kept on pastures of five Brachiaria hybrids identified as 152,153,154,155 and 156, using the cultivar Marandu as a control treatment. The experiment was conducted at the "Capim Branco" experimental farm of the Federal University of Uberlândia, in a completely randomized design (CRD), from April 2017 to March 2019. The animals were weighed every 90 days to obtain the average daily gain, live weight gain and stocking rate. Data were analyzed using the SAS PROC MIXED (SAS Inst. Inc., Cary, NC), and the p-value was P≤0.05 as the critical probability level for type I error. There was a difference among the hybrids analyzed during the rainy season, with an average gain of 0.548 kg/day, and during the dry period, with an average gain of 0.293 kg/day. There was a difference for the average daily gain between the rainy and dry season (p=0.05). The stocking rate has been different between the rainy and dry season, with averages of 3.057 and 1.279 AU/ha, respectively. Therefore, the total live weight gain per hybrid was different between these periods. In the rainy season, the live weight gains of each hybrid were: 152 (363.783), 153 (470.951), 154 (668.588), 155 (432.659), 156 (622.827) and Marandu (484.882), with an average total gain of 507.282 kg. In the dry season the gains were: 152 (83.348), 153 (94.605), 154 (142.541), 155 (117.101), 156 (126.653) and Marandu (85.534), with an average total gain of 108.297 kg.