Desempenho de bezerros lactentes da raça Nelore suplementados com cromo

Abstract

The performance of infants Nelore calves supplemented with chromium in creep feeding was assessed. They used 131 Nelore calves with an average age of 60 days and adjusted average initial weight of 75 kg, with all calves accompanied by their mothers. The experimental groups were thus defined: T1 35 males supplemented with chromium; T2 34 males without chrome, T3 30 supplemented with chromium and females; T4 32 females supplemented without chrome. The experimental period was 60 days of age 210 days (weaning), the animals were kept in two pickets of Panicum maximum cv. Mombaça troughs provided to creep feeding system, allowing exclusive access to the calves concentrate formulated in TDN 75% and 20% crude protein, with 35% soybean meal, 63% corn and 2% mineral core 10 mg chromium chelate for each kg of product. The data were submitted to analysis of variance at the level of 5% significance level, using the procedure R software (R Development Core Team, 2013). In assessing the live weight at 150 days of age there were no differences (P> 0.05) for the use of chromium in males and females (regardless of sex). However when we analyze the difference between the sexes, females were lower than males (p = 0.04), with weights of 131.1 kg and 138.1 kg respectively. In assessing the live weight at 210 days there was no significant difference between males and females (P = 0.07), but significant differences (p = 0.03) for the Chrome use in treatments evaluated. It was concluded that the creep feeding system with chrome chelate supplementation promoted an improvement in the growth of male calves and females for average daily weight gain and weight at 210 days, with positive influence on the weight of arrays.