Santa Inês sheep supplementation on urochloa grass pasture during the dry season: intake, nutrient digestibility and performance

This study was conducted with the objective of evaluating the effect of concentrate supplementation, formulated with different ingredients (Mesquite pod meal, sorghum meal or wheat meal and mineral supplementation) on performance, intake and digestibility of nutrients in Santa Inês lambs grazing on urochloa grass during the dry season. Twenty-four uncastrated weaned Santa Inês sheep, with average body weight (BW) 20±2 kg with an average of 120 days of age were used in the assay. The experiment lasted 75 days. The animals grazing deferred Urochloa grass (Urochloa mosambicensis (Hack) Daudy) were distributed into four treatments consisting of mineral supplementation provided ad libitum and concentrated supplements containing mesquite pod meal, sorghum meal or wheat meal, supplied 10 g /kg BW on dry matter basis. The intakes of dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) were affected by the intake of concentrate supplement, regardless of the ingredients used in the supplements, compared with the mineral supplementation treatment, since the consumption of forage was reduced in 30% with mesquite pod meal supplement, and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) intake was not affected in relation to treatments. The digestibility of DM and CP were higher for treatments with supplements, and NDF digestibility did not differ between treatments. A significant difference was observed in the values of average daily gain for the treatments with concentrate supplementation compared with the one of mineral supplementation. The supplementation with concentrate in grazing enables improvement of performance, intake and digestibility of nutrients regardless of the ingredient used in the supplement.