Effects of different temperatures upon european steers. II. Performance

Abstract

Twelve crossbred Holstein, 2 years old castrated males teers, were used in a factorial 2 x 2 in a change-over design, comparing four treatments: A) outdoors plus roughage feed; B) outdoors plus roughage feed and concentrate meal; C) climatic chamber plus roughage feed and D) climatic chamber plus roughage feed and concentrate meal. The outdoors steers presented higher hay consumptions (P<0,01) than that ones inside the climatic chamber. The addition of concentrates did not produced variations in outdoor, but significantly (P<0,01) depressed indoor hay consumptions. The steers drank more water in rations with concentrate meal outdoors than indoors the climatic chamber.