Suplementação energético-protéica no desenvolvimento corporal de novilhas Jersey em pastejo

The trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of three levels of energy-protein supplementation with corn ground and soybean meal on grazing dairy heifers body development. Fifteen Jersey heifers, aged of 6 to 18 months and weighing 142,2 ± 7,8 kg, were used. Animals were kept under rotational grazing system and fixed stocking rate on a ryegrass and black oats pasture. Animals were classified by their initial body weight and randomly assigned to treatments according to a complete randomized block in a split plot design: 100% corn ground, 70% corn ground + 30% soybean meal, 40% corn ground + 60% soybean meal. Evaluation was performed over six periods of 28 days. No effects for treatments were detected on animals body development attributes as increases in daily live weight gain, total live weight gain, increments of height at withers and heart girt, probably due to high values for pasture quality herbage mass.