Consumo voluntário em ruminantes

Abstract

Voluntary consumption is the amount of food that a ruminant ingests spontaneously, without imposition. This consumption is influenced by factors such as animal weight, productive stage, forage quality, ambient temperature and food passage rates through the digestive tract. The greater the digestibility and palatability of the diet, the greater the tendency to consume. The balance between fiber and concentrate is also essential to maintain rumen health and improve efficiency. Estimating consumption in ruminants is extremely relevant and challenging, due to interactions between the animal and food, with little data available to support the use of formulas. When animals are fed low-quality forage, intake can be predicted more accurately through factors that determine physical limitation of intake and body weight. In better quality diets, intake can be estimated based on factors that express the animal's physiological demand. Maximizing animal food intake is a fundamental element in developing diets and nutritional strategies to improve production profitability