Herbage intake by lambs grazing missioneira gigante grass with or without access to peanut pastures

ABSTRACT The missioneira gigante grass (Axonopus catharinensis Valls) is a grass that deserves to be better investigated both pure and receiving the inclusion of legumes. The objective of this work was to evaluate the herbage intake by sheep grazing missioneira gigante grass with or without access to peanut grass (Arachis pintoi cv. Amarillo). A previous experiment was conducted using lambs housed in metabolic cages, generating an equation for estimation of herbage intake as a function of faecal crude protein excretion (CPf). The equation presented a value of R 2 = 0.91. In the grazing experiment, the herbage intake was evaluated using missioneira gigante pastures with two pre-grazing sward heights (25 or 35cm), with or without access to peanut areas during two hours per day. The pre-grazing sward height of missioneira gigante did not change the total OM herbage intake, but the access to peanut pastures increased the herbage intake by approximately 20%. In conclusion, missioneira gigante grass has shown flexibility to be used with pre-grazing sward heights between 25 and 35cm, while the access to forage peanut pastures during two hours daily increases herbage OM intake by lambs grazing grass.