Respostas morfológicas e produtivas de gramíneas forrageiras tropicais à intensidade de pastejo

Abstract

at This study was carried out at the Experimental Station of the Agronomic Institute of Pernambuco (IPA) located in Itambé, a dry rainforest region of The State of Pernambuco, Brazil. Two trials were performed. The first one evaluated tillering dynamics Pennisetum sp. Clones; the second trial evaluated morphological aspects of Pennisetum sp. clones and Brachiaria decumbens Stapf. In both trials a rotational stocking was applied and crossbred Holstein-Zebu cattle used as experimental animals. Grazing cycle was 35 days (32 days resting and three days of grazing period) in the rainy season and 70 days (67 days resting and three days of grazing period) in the dry season. The experimental design used for the first trail was a randomized block design in a split plot arrangement, with the main plot being the grazing stubble height and the subplot, the clone, with three replications. For trial two, a randomized block design with three replications was applied for B. decumbens.and treatments were different stocking rates; the design used for Pennisetum sp. the design was randomized block in a split plot arrangement, with the main plot being, the grazing stubble height and subplot, the clone, with three replications. Response variables assessed at pre-grazing for the test one included: tillering dynamics in fixed clumps (ten cycles of grazing), tiller weight, and tiller number in random clumps during nine cycles of grazing. The variables assessed for test two were: leaf area index (LAI), light interception (LI), and mean leaf angle (MLA), through the canopy analyzer model LAI 2000, at the time of pre- and postgrazing, over nine cycles of grazing. In general, the post-grazing stubble height did not promote changes in the tillering dynamics of Pennisetum sp. clones. The clone elephant B showed lower average tiller weight compared to Venezuela, with an average of 279g and 512 g, respectively. The highest post-grazing stubble heights (80 cm and 120 cm) promoted higher average tiller weight compared to post-grazing stubble height of 40cm. The number of basal tillers was affected both by clones and by post-grazing stubble heights, with clone Venezuela showing less tillering, compared to Elephant B clone, with averages of 30 and 66 tillers/m2, respectively. Lower stocking rate 2 AU promoted greater light interception (LI) and leaf area index (LAI). The clone Elephant B showed higher values of LAI, LI and mean leaf angle (MLA) compared to clone Venezuela, post-grazing. The stocking rate of 2 AU / ha resulted in greater LAI and LI at the pregrazing. In general, the studied clones of Pennisetum sp. showed differences for the studied variables, demonstrating a genetic component influencing the morphogenesis.