Live Yeast Supplementation for Heifers (F1 Angus x Nellore) in Intensive Grazing Finishing System

The objective of the experiment was to evaluate the weight gain, digestibility and carcass quality characteristics of heifers supplemented with live yeast, in an intensive finishing system on grassland. The work carried out at a commercial farm, lasted 60 days. Sixty-two crossbred heifers (F1 NellorexAngus): 13 +/- 1.5 months, body weight of 404.85 +/- 18.77 kg was allocated to two dietary treatments on bread grass (Brachiaria brizantha) cv. Marandu grassland. The dietary treatments were: control diet (CON) without the inclusion of live yeast and a diet supplemented with live yeast (LY) at the level of 15 g/day. The diets were formulated and adjusted according to daily weight gain for beef cattle, with an intake of 1.2% body weight. The protein values of the grassland areas grazed by the C and LY heifers were observed as 5.08% and 6.75%, respectively. The LY heifers consumed less diet (4.46 vs. 5.31 kg) and had a higher performance (438.5 vs. 431.2 kg) compared to the C heifers. Also, the studied carcass parameters, the digestibility of dietary starch and providing improvement in rumen health in the LY treatment were higher than those in the CON treatment. In conclusion, the dietary LY enhanced growth performance and carcass traits of crossbred (Nellore/Angus) heifers, which are likely linked with improvement in the rumen health and the starch digestibility of the diet in an intensive finishing system on grassland.