Effect of phosphate nutrition during the growing phase of beef cattle on short and long-term performance

Abstract

Our objective with this study was to evaluate the short and long-term effects that phosphorus supplementation during the growth phase could have on the performance, digestibility and carcass parameters of beef cattle. In this experiment, 90 recently weaned Nellore heifers weighing an average of 195kg were allocated as a trio in 30 stalls and divided into 3 treatments: P70 (70% of phosphorus requirements), P100 (100% of phosphorus requirements) and P130 (130% of phosphorus requirements). The animals received the treatments during the growth phase, for a period of 108 days, after which all animals entered the finishing phase, receiving the same diet, for a period of 115 days. The weight gain of animals during the growth phase tended to increase linearly according to the increase in phosphorus level (P = 0.08). There was no effect of treatments on animal performance in the finishing phase (P ≥ 0.1). Phosphorus digestibility in the growth phase suffered a quadratic effect of treatments (P = 0.045). There was a tendency for a positive linear correlation between treatments and phosphorus digestibility at finishing (P = 0.092). There was no effect of treatments on blood phosphorus concentration during the growth phase (P ≥ 0.1). The results show that increasing the level of phosphorus in the diet of animals in the growing phase does not directly alter the weight gain of animals at finishing, but has the potential to improve the efficiency of phosphorus use after the animals' growth phase.