Qualitative evaluation of differed pasture of Brachiaria decumbens Stapf., under grazing, in the dry season, using three sampling methods

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the quality of the differed pasture of Brachiaria decumbens under grazing in the dry season. Samples were collected by the total harvesting (TH), hand-plucking sample (HPS) and Extrusa (EXT) collected using four Holstein-Zebu steers, with esophageal fistula. The samples were analysed for dry matter content (DM), crude protein (Cl?), ether extract (EE), mineral matter (MM), total (TC) and non-fibrous carbohydrates (NFC), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), neutral detergent fiber corrected for ash and protein (NDFap), acid detergent fiber (ADF), insoluble acid detergent fiber (iADF), lignin and in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD). TH was superior (P < 0,05) in DM, TC, NDf, NDFap, ADF, iADF and lignin contents. These observations reflected the low IVDMD for TA. The EXT and HPS did not differ on CP, EE, NFC, NDF, NDFap, ADF, iADF, lignin and IVDMD. The CP content were 5.60 and 6.50 and the ones of NDF were 71.87 e 71.70, respectively to EXT and HPS. These results indicate that the sample HPS, in comparasion with sample TH, would better represent those diet selected by grazing animals.