Palma forrageira (Opuntia ficus indica Mill) associada a diferentes volumosos em dietas para vacas da raça Holandesa em lactação

Abstract

The experiment was carried out to evaluate the association of forage cactus (Opuntia ficus indica Mill) with different roughage sources on the apparent digestibility, intake and the performance of lactating cows. The treatments contained different roughage sources: sugar cane bagasse (CB), tifton hay (TH), elephant grass hay (EH), sorghum silage (SS) and one mixture of sugar cane bagasse + sorghum silage (CBSS). It was evaluated the intake of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), ether extract (EE), organic matter (OM), total carbohydrates (TCHO), total digestible nutrient (TDN), and non fiber carbohydrates (NFC). In addition, the apparent digestibility coefficient for DM, CP, NDF, EE, TCHO, NFC, OM, milk production, and milk fat concentration of lactating holstein cows were also avaluated. The different roughage did not affect the digestibility coeficients and the intake of most nutrients. The roughage sources did not affect also the milk production, fat corrected milk production and milk fat concentration, with average 16.92 kg/day, 17.57 kg/day and 3.76 %, respectively.