Associação entre consumo alimentar residual e tempo de permanência no cocho em bovinos da raça nelore.

Abstract: Identifying efficient animals is an alternative for reducing food costs. The objective of this study was to identify if the Residual Feed intake (RFI) is related to Permanence Time in the Trough (PTT) of Nellore cattle created in confinement using the Intergado® system. The work was realized at Embrapa Arroz e Feijao, in 39 bulls aged between 18 and 21 months and initial weight of 455 kg. The diet was given twice daily, with the voluminous ratio: concentrate of 60:40. The animals were ranked in more negatives than the most positive for RFI. The statistical comparison for PTT and RFI were made by the Tukey test at 5% probability. The difference between the less and larger animal RFI represented a consumption of 0.240 kg DM/day. For RFI, it checked that animals with medium RFI spent less time consuming than animals with low and high RFI. However, it was possible to observe a trend of increased PTT as the RFI becomes more positive. It is concluded that it was not found a relationship between RFI and PTT, although there is a trend of increased PTT in function the RFI, indicating more studies with a greater number of information needed.