SURVEY ON NUTRITIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS AND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ADOPTED BY FEEDLOT CATTLE NUTRITIONISTS IN BRAZIL IN 2023

Abstract

The Brazilian feedlot industry is relatively recent and it is ever-searching for innovation. In order to monitor, understand and expose the development of nutritional and management practices adopted in Brazil, four surveys were conducted in the last decade focused on the feedlot industry in order to map the technologies and practices adopted by feedlot nutritionists. However, the last survey was conducted four years ago, and to follow the documentation of the industry's evolution, we propose in this project a new survey for feedlot cattle nutritionists. The questionnaire in an online format consists of 102 questions, which are divided into general information (n=11 questions), general information about ingredients used in finishing diets (n=14), use of coproducts in finishing diets (n=5), forage sources and levels (n=5), adaptation methods (n=7), mixers (n=6), management (n=7), animal management and information (n=16), information on diet formulation (n=17), information on sources for nutritional recommendations (n=2), additional questions and animal welfare parameters (n=12). Nutritionists will be contacted first via email, and then invitations for the interview, either in person or via Google Meet, will be sent. Data management will be performed using Excel spreadsheets, and when appropriate SAS (2003) will be used for correlation analysis. Thus, the objectives of this project are: 1) to outline an updated snapshot of the nutritional practices adopted in Brazilian feedlots; 2) to identify critical points to propose methods for improvement; 3) to encourage the development of new research; and 4) to show the evolution in comparison with previous studies.