Liveweight gain of beef cattle in Brachiaria brizantha pastures and mixtures with Stylosanthes guianensis in the Brazilian savannah

Abstract

The use of stylosanthes in mixed grass‐legume pastures may minimize the decline in forage quality and quantity that occurs in monoculture grass pastures, even though the availability of commercial cultivars in Brazil is still limited. The objective of the study was to evaluate the liveweight (LW) gain of young Nellore bulls in a mixed pasture of Brachiaria brizantha (cv. Paiaguás) with the latest release Stylosanthes guianensis cv. Bela. The study was conducted in Planaltina, FD, Brazil, from September to August in two consecutive years, right after seeding. The experimental design was a randomized complete block design with two treatments (mixed or monoculture Paiaguás pastures) and three replicates. The average daily gain (ADG) was on average greater in mixed pastures (0.436 vs. 0.350 kg head−1 day−1 in mixed and grass pastures respectively), particularly in the dry period (0.344 vs. 0.183 kg head−1 day−1). The benefit of mixed over monoculture grass pastures throughout the year was 22 kg LW/head and 55 kg LW/ha. The presence of stylosanthes increased the crude protein (CP) concentration in mixed pastures (120 g/kg) when compared to monoculture grass pastures (109 g/kg), probably influencing the ADG of bulls. The increase of liveweight gain, predominantly in the dry season, makes the high‐protein stylosanthes cv. Bela an alternative to buffer the seasonal deficit of forage quality in newly seeded grass pastures.

Topics from the 2023 EGF Symposium: The future role of ley‐farming in cropping systems, and other recent grassland events

“…(Bretas et al, 2024) and guineagrass (Megathyrsus maximus) (de Almeida et al, 2024). Recent work also illustrates the increasing interest in mixtures in tropical grasslands including legumes (e.g., Boddey et al, 2020;Braga et al, 2023;dos Santos Oliveira et al, 2023).…”

Impacts of grazing management strategies on forage canopy structure in multi-species pastures during the wet-dry transition period

“…The strategic increase of nitrogen via fertilization in tropical pastures during the end of the rainy season is a sustainable technique that increases forage production and the presence of green leaves in the forage canopy (SILVEIRA et al, 2016). Another way of providing nitrogen in this period is to include forage legumes in the pasture system, because through biological nitrogen fixation and decomposition of organic matter (DEPABLOS et al, 2021), this can result in nitrogen inputs ranging from 72 to 86 kg/ha year (NOTARIS et al, 2020) or even 150 kg/ha year (SANTOS et al, 2023), thereby increasing grass production (BRAGA et al, 2020).…”

Forage intake and nitrogen metabolism of beef cattle grazing palisadegrass‐calopo mixed pasture managed using canopy light interception

“…The use of legumes in pastures is linked to numerous benefits to the soil-plant-animal system (Braga et al, 2020), such as increased animal performance, improved soil fertility and decreased greenhouse gas emissions, such as enteric methane (CH 4 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) from livestock excreta and forage systems (Boddey et al, 2020). In this context, the use of legumes mixed with grasses, mainly Brachiaria genus, is widely studied in Brazil (Boddey et al, 2020).…”