Table 2.
Pasture, supplement, and total dry matter intake of Nellore bulls finished on tropical pasture and fed a Bacillus-based probiotic
| Days | Treatments* | SEM1 | P – value2 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Control | Probiotic | Treatment | ||
| Pasture intake, kg | ||||
| 0–28 | 6.20 | 5.42 | 0.735 | 0.41 |
| 29–56 | 10.23 | 8.84 | 1.103 | 0.26 |
| 57–84 | 6.54 | 5.45 | 0.579 | 0.05 |
| 85–112 | 6.16 | 5.61 | 0.502 | 0.31 |
| Overall mean | 7.18 | 6.32 | 0.698 | 0.04 |
| Supplement intake, kg | ||||
| 0–28 | 1.74 | 1.72 | 0.070 | 0.27 |
| 29–56 | 1.88 | 1.84 | 0.061 | 0.13 |
| 57–84 | 1.80 | 1.72 | 0.066 | 0.02 |
| 85–112 | 1.83 | 1.79 | 0.062 | 0.20 |
| Overall mean | 1.81 | 1.77 | 0.066 | 0.12 |
| Total dry matter intake, kg | ||||
| 0–28 | 7.95 | 7.14 | 0.783 | 0.40 |
| 29–56 | 12.12 | 10.68 | 1.141 | 0.24 |
| 57–84 | 8.34 | 7.16 | 0.692 | 0.04 |
| 85–112 | 7.98 | 7.41 | 0.484 | 0.29 |
| Overall mean | 9.25 | 8.23 | 0.795 | 0.02 |
*CON; energy-protein supplement without any feed additive (n = 14) - Probiotic; energy-protein supplement containing 2 g of probiotic/animal per day (n = 14). The probiotic was composed of Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus subtilis (6.4 × 10⁹ CFU/g). 1Standard error of mean;2 P-value; The significance level was set at P ≤ 0.05, and 0.05 < P ≤ 0.10 was considered a tendency