Objective:

To determine the yield and nutritional quality of the herbaceous community present in the pasturelands of the Ressacada farm, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil, after the application of different doses of calcareous, phosphoric and potassium fertilizers.

Materials and Methods:

The research was conducted in the cattle area belonging to the Ressacada farm, Federal University of Santa Catarina, according to a randomized block design, with four repetitions. The pastures were fertilized 2,5 years before the sample taking, according to the treatments T1) 0 calcareous, 0 P2O5 and 0 K2O; T2) 0 calcareous, 0 P2O5 and 1 K2O; T3) 0 calcareous, 1 P2O5 and 0 K2O; T4) 0 calcareous, 1 P2O5 and 1 K2O; T5) ½ calcareous, 0 P2O5 and 0 K2O; T6) ½ calcareous, 0 P2O5 and 1 K2O; T7) ½ calcareous, 1 P2O5 and 0 K2O; T8) ½ calcareous, 1 P2O5 and 1 K2O; T9) 1 calcareous, 0 P2O5 and 0 K2O; T10) 1 calcareous, 0 P2O5 and 1 K2O; T11) 1 calcareous, 1 P2O5 and 0 K2O y T12)1 calcareous, 1 P2O5 and 1 K2O. The forage cutting was done through the 0,25-m2 frame method, which was replicated four times in each treatment. Biomass yield, CP, NDF and ADF were determined. Variance analysis was carried out. The means were compared through Fisher’s test, for a significance level of p < 0,05. The statistical package InfoStat 2012, free version, was used.

Results:

There were highly significant differences for each of the studied variables in the different treatments. Regarding yield, the best ones were T5, T8, T9 and T10, which did not differ statistically from the others, except from T2. The CP values were low (lower than 8 %), and the best corresponded to T2 and T4. The NDF and ADF showed characteristic values of natural pastures (between 47,24-55,77 and 28,79-32,83 %, respectively).

Conclusions:

Low yield of the farm pastures was shown, in spite of going through the rainy season. The nutritional quality was also low, typical of natural pastures of the region

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · English ( pdf ) | Spanish ( pdf )