Multinutritional blocks as a food strategy to optimize the use of concentrate for lactating goats

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of multinutritional blocks (BMs) associated with the concentrate content in the diet of lactating goats and their effects on milk production and economic viability. Eight goats Parda Alpina, multiparas were distributed in two Latin squares (4x4). The experiment consisted of four treatments (0.971, 0.746, 0.521 and 0.296 kg concentrate day-1 per goat) and BMs ad libitum. It was evaluated the consumption, milk monitoring and the system was analyzed economically. If there was a significant effect of the concentrate, the control treatment was compared to the others using the Dunnett test and 5% regression analysis. When the concentrate contents were high in the diets, the total dry matter intake decreased linearly. However, there was an inverse behavior for the consumption of BMs. Milk production (PL kg day-1) was linear and positively related to the increase of concentrate levels in the diets. The PL was lower for the decreasing levels of concentrate when compared to the control diet. The economic parameters indicate that the use of low concentrate levels associated with BMs is the best feeding strategy for lactating goats. The multinutritional blocks can be used to feed lactating goats to partially replace the concentrate.