Comportamiento ingestivo diurno de bovinos de ceba en praderas del pasto Guinea (Panicum maximum cv. Mombasa)

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of stocking rate on the diurnal feeding behavior and productive performance of fattening steers. The research was carried out over 107 days, from July until October 2010, at the Turipana research center of Corpoica (Cerete, Colombia). Beef cattle commercial zebu with an average weight of 314 ± 29 kg grazed in a pasture of Guinea cv. Mombasa (Panicum maximum) grass. We used two experimental designs. The first employed a randomized complete block design with subsampling, with three treatments (5, 6, y 7 animals/ha) and two replicates for the production analysis of forage quality and daily live weight gain. The second was a randomized complete block design with three treatments and three repeats, corresponding to nine experimental units, designed for the analysis of diurnal feeding behavior variables. Differences were found between the dry matter yield and daily live weight gain (P ≤ 0.05) with the load of 5 animals/ha (5,070 kg ms/ha and 0,730 kg/day-1, respectively). As for the diurnal grazing variables, total rumination, and standing ruminating, the study also resulted in disparities (P ≤ 0.05) between the different units. The stocking rate of 7 animals/ha had the highest grazing time (7.53 hours), compared to the treatments of 5 and 6 animals/ha, which showed 6.81 and 6.37 hours, respectively. The biting rate did not vary (P ≤ 0.05) between loads. Ingestive behavior variables assessed, as well as the daily live weight gain and yield were influenced by stocking rate.