Análise econômica do emprego da uréia para terminação de ovinos em confinamento em substituição à cama de frango e em substituição parcial a dietas a base de milho e soja

Abstract

The forage scarcity during the drought period leads to a constant search for alternative food supplements for the flock. The confined raising system can be a good solution for the problem that may result onto weight gains and a better food conversion. However, it increases the cost with food due to high price of the true protein.” The supplementary food for ruminants using the non-protein nitrogen found in the urea and chicken litter can be an alternative able of reducing the costs of confined production. This study had as main objective to study the theoretical economic feasibility of using the urea in two food supplements: standard ration and chicken litter. This food supplement is combined with grazing elephant hay to feed sheep of the Santa Inês breed. In this sense, we adjusted a production function using experimental data. The experimental design consisted of randomized blocks with five treatments and four replications. The treatments were the following: 1 - 50% grazing elephant hay plus 50% standard ration; II — 60% grazing elephant hay plus 40% ration with chicken litter: IT — 40% grazing elephant hay plus 60% ration with chicken litter: TV — 60% grazing elephant hay plus 40% ration with urea; and V — 40% grazing elephant hay plus 60% ration with urea. The dependent variable used in the adjustment was the weight gains in confinement (Y), and the explanatory variables were the time period of 14 days (T) and the animal sex dummy. Among the estimated models, the ones showing the best results were the quadratic models. They showed that only male animals should be confined. It also demonstrated that 60% ration with urea decreases the food cost and weight gain. Therefore, it can substitute the ration with chicken litter in the feeding of confined sheep.