Behavior of beef cattle in silvipastoral systems with eucalyptus

Abstract

-It was aimed to verify the effect of the presence of trees and their heights in silvipastoral system on the intake behavior of Nellore heifers in the summer. Ten heifers for the following systems were used: system without shade, silvipastoral system with 8-meter and 18-meter trees. The data were collected in three days during 12 hours, subdivided in morning (7:15 a.m. to 1. p.m.) and afternoon (1:15 p.m. to 7 p.m.). It was evaluated the times and frequency of grazing, rumination, idle and the percentage of time that the animals remained in the shade; black globe-humidity index, whose average and minimum values (86 and 82) were equal for 8-meter tree system and 18-meter tree system; however they were lower when compared to the without shade system (89 and 86). There was an interaction between the systems and the periods for all the analyzed variables, except for the rumination frequency. For system without shade, the grazing time did not differ between morning (202 min) and afternoon (187 min); however the grazing frequency was lower for the afternoon (3.17). For 8-meter trees systems and 18 meter trees system, the grazing time in the afternoon, respectively, with 195.50 and 219.00 min was higher than in the morning, respectively, with 128.00 and 158.50 minutes. The rumination time was higher in the morning for all systems. The grazing frequency for 8-meter trees was 3.58, for the without shade system it was 3.05 and for 18-meter tree system it was 2.22. A higher idle time and the idle frequency was found in system without shade (97.50 min and 3.80 respectively) in the afternoon. For 8-meter tree system (98.50 min and 4.47 respectively) and 18-meter tree system (127.00 min and 4.27 respectively), they were higher in the morning.

Thermal comfort and grazing behavior of Girolando heifers in integrated crop-livestock (ICL) and crop-livestock-forest (ICLF) systems

“…The heifers' internal temperatures (IT) followed the THI variation through the day (Figure 2), with lower (p < 0.05) values during the night (39.37±0.56°C) than those during the day (39.46±0.56°C), being this last a slightly higher than the variation (38.0-39.3°C) considered normal for dairy cattle (Costa, Feitosa, Montezuma, Souza, & Araújo, 2015). During the day, heifers in the ICL system had a significantly higher IT (39.51±0.56°C) than those in the ICLF system (39.41±0.52°C), where the tree shades reduced the direct exposure of heifers to the solar radiation, consequently, reducing the heat absorbed by them (Souza et al, 2010b). At night, no statistical differences were found between the systems with the IT of heifers in ICL (39.39±0.56°C) and in ICLF (39.35±0.51°C) being within the normal range for this animal category (Costa, Feitosa, Montezuma, Souza, & Araújo, 2015).…”

Gastrointestinal nematode infection in beef cattle raised in silvopastoral and conventional systems in São Paulo state, Brazil

“…Environmental factors, mainly temperature and air humidity/soil moisture, have a strong influence on the development, survival and distribution of nematodes in pastures (Stromberg 1997). SPS typically have lower levels of evapotranspiration, solar radiation and wind speed and more stable temperature and soil moisture than CPS (Garcia and Couto 1991;Souza et al 2010). Apart from shade, the higher quantity and variety of plants in SPS can alter biodiversity, influencing the survival of the free-living forms of parasites (Martinez and Merino 2011).…”

Productive sustainability in a silvopastoral system

“…It was notable that the grazing time took place between 10.00h and 16.00h, thus including the times with most sunshine. This is not observed in animals evaluated within an extensive grazing system (NICODEMO et al, 2004;ZANINE et al, 2006;THUROW et al, 2009;SOUZA et al, 2010). The physiological indicators of stress in the experimental animals and the plasmatic concentrations of cortisol and progesterone were restricted to 6.73 (± 2.92) ng.mL -1 and 0.84 (± 0.11) ng.mL -1 , respectively.…”