El experimento se llevó a cabo en la Hacienda Piedra Gorda, municipio de Ubaté (Cundinamarca), situado a 2600 m.s.n.m. con una temperatura promedia de 13,5° C; desde Octubre de 1980 a Marzo de 1982, correspondiendo a un periodo de lluvia y dos de sequía.
Se utilizó ci pasto kikuyo sometido a pastoreo en franjas con ganado Holstein en levante y producción (7,7 L/día) con una carga de 2,5 cabezas/ha. Las muestras de pasto se tomaron a mano, de las porciones que los animales estaban consumiendo y que una vez secados y molidos se determinaron las concentraciones de proteína cruda y de los macro y micro elementos.
La proteína cruda presentó contenidos de 14,6% a 16,2%, suficientes para no menoscabar ci consumo de alimento por parte de los animales.
Los contenidos de calcio en la época de lluvias y sequia fueron de 0,51% y 0,79%, respectivamente, niveles que Ilenan los requerimientos de este nutriente para ci ganado lechero del área bajo estudio.
Los macroelementos fósforo, magnesio, azufre y sodio se encuentran en niveles deficitarios en el forraje-
Mientras que ci potasio, hierro y manganeso están por encima del nivel normal y posiblemente ocasionaban imbalances en los niveles de magnesio y cobre provocando problemas metabólicos en el ganado.This experiment was carried out at the Piedras Gordas Farm, Ubaté (Cundinarnarca) valley, located at 2600 inabove sea level, with a mean temperature of 13,5 0 C, from October 1980 to March 1982, corresponding to one period of wet season and two periods of dry season.
Kikuyu grass was used under rotational grazing with 2.5 Ilolstein cows per hectare and 7,7 L/day of milk production.
The gtass samples were taken by hand from the areas and fractions that the animal were grazing. Those samples were dried at 60° by 48 hr, ground and kept until the chemical determinations were made.
The crude Protein content were 14,6%and 16,19% for dry and wet season, respectively, with enough concentration to guarantee the fulfillment of the animal requirements. The Ca content in wet and dry season were 0,51% and 0,79% respectively, enough for animals in lactating period and during the year.
The P, Mg, S and Na were in low concentration during the year in kikuyu grass. However the K, Fe and Mn were at vcry.high levels and could have been producing metabolic interferences to Mg and Cu.
In paddocks with kikuyu grass will be possible to found serious deficiencies of Cu and Zn.Ganado de leche-Ganadería lech
