Efeito do estádio de maturação sobre o consumo e digestibilidade aparente da matéria seca de três gramíneas tropicais

Resumo

The effect of stage of maturity upon dry matter consumptionand digestibility was studied with three tropical grasses, gordura grass (Melinis minutiflora Beauv.), pangola grass (Digitaria pentzii Stent.) and sempre-verde grass (Planicum ma- ximum Jacq.). Male sheep in matabolism cages, were used for this experiment. The data were computed for each two days, at 2, 4, 6 and 8 months development of the grasses. 

The dry matter content of the three grasses was pratically the same but there was a highly significant difference betweenthe dry matter content at different stages of maturity. The dry matter consumption decreased withthe increase in maturity, There was no difference between grasses but there was a statistical difference at the 1% level between stages of maturity concerning dry matter intake. Gordura grass had the greatest decrease in dry matter intake (0.17 units monthly) and sempre-verde grass had the lowest decrease in dry matter intake (0.086 units monthly). There was a statiscally significant difference in dry matter digestibility between grasses and stages of maturity. Pangola grass had the highest digestibility and sempre-verde grass had the lowest. Regarding the intake of digestible dry matter there was also a statistically significant difference between grasses and stages of maturity. The pangola and sempre-verde grasses resulted in the highest and lowest consumption, respectively. The digestible dry matter content of the forages studied did not differ even in different stages of maturity.