Diferentes níveis protéicos na suplementação de vacas leiteiras

Abstract

The research was conducted on a farm in the municipality of Aceguá RS. The objective was to observe the milk production of animals whose diet was supplemented with concentrates of different protein levels (16% and 18%). The animals were tested from October to November 2011. This period was not extended due to a drought that hit the area at the end of the testing period, jeopardizing the quality of the forage fed to the animals. 20 milking cows were used for this research. The animals were divided into two homogeneous lots classified according to their stage of lactation and their daily production before the start of the experiment. Ten animals were supplemented with commercial concentrate of 16% crude protein (CP) and ten with 18% CP. Data was collected twice a week, on Saturdays and Mondays, totaling fourteen samples during the research period. The analysis of the data allowed to verify the production of animals on different diets. It was noted that there was no difference (P> 0.05) in milk production for the different treatments. The good performance of production to lower protein level supplement (16%) was attributed to the quality of the forage offered to the animals thus, allowing the producer to decrease the cost of production by purchasing supplements at a lower cost.