Animal Performance and Productivity of a New Cultivar of \u3cem\u3eBrachiaria brizantha\u3c/em\u3e

Brazil has the competitive advantage of a very dynamic and cost-effective animal production system on pastures over other countries. The pursuit of more productive forages that will result in higher quality beef at a lower cost is justified. As Brachiaria is the most important forage genus utilised in Brazil, an intense search for new cultivars amongst collected and introduced ecotypes from Africa is underway. Following agronomic evaluation of this material in plots, 8 Brachiaria ecotypes were pre-selected. As part of Embrapa`s process of cultivar development, B. brizantha cv. Xaraés, characterised by high productivity (liveweight gain/area), was released in 2003, followed in 2007 by cv. Piatã, characterised by high nutritive value and consequently high animal performance (Euclides et al. 2009). From the 8 ecotypes pre-selected, one presented good traits for surviving dry periods (Euclides et al. 2001), which is the main constraint to herbage production under tropical and subtropical conditions. This study aimed to evaluate this ecotype under grazing conditions

Herbage Accumulation and Animal Performance on Xaraes Palisade Grass Subjected to Intensities of Continuous Stocking Management

The large majority of species used in Brazil belong to the Brachiaria and Panicum genus, with marandu paladisadegrass (Brachiaria brizantha (Hochst. ex A. Rich) cv. Marandu) being the main cultivated forage grass species (Santos Filho 1996). Brachiaria brizantha cv. xaraés (xaraes palisade grass) was released as an option for diversifying forage species, and it had the advantages of fast regrowth and herbage yield, favouring larger stocking rates and animal productivity (Euclides et al. 2008; 2009). The objective of this study was to evaluate herbage accumulation and animal performance of beef cattle steers grazing continuously stocked xaraes palisade grass managed at 15, 30 and 45 cm

Dry Matter Intake by Beef Steers on Piatã Palisadegrass (\u3cem\u3eBrachiaria brizantha\u3c/em\u3e cv. BRS Piatã) Pasture

Beef production in Brazil is primarily based on tropical pastures and 85% of these pastures are Brachiaria brizantha cv. Marandu. Such a monoculture could prove disastrous if some pest or disease emerged. With the goal of further diversifying pastures and contributing to the sustainability of the pasture production system, B. brizantha cv. BRS Piatã was released by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa). Little is known about the characteristics of this cultivar in relation to grazing management and plant-animal interactions. Dry matter (DM) intake by grazing animals is influenced by the structural characteristics of tropical grasses (Stobbs 1973, 1975), and the presence of stem and dead material at the grazing horizon limits bite depth (Carvalho et al. 2008). Under such conditions, it is common to observe a reduction in bite rate and increases in time per bite and daily grazing time (Difante et al. 2009), resulting in inefficient harvesting and lower herbage intake. The aim of this work was to estimate the DM intake by beef steers grazing Piatã palisadegrass managed at 3 grazing intensities