Pre- and post-weaning injections of bovine somatotropin to optimize puberty achievement of Bos indicus beef heifers.

ABSTRACT: The present study evaluated the growth and puberty attainment of Bos indicus heifers administered recombinant bovine somatotropin (bST) or saline injections during preweaning and/or postweaning. On day 0, 177 suckling Nellore heifers were stratified by initial age and body weight (BW) (80 ± 10 d; 97 ± 16 kg), and randomly assigned, in a 2 × 2 factorial design (n = 44 to 45 heifers/treatment), to receive s.c. injections of saline (5 mL 0.9% NaCl) or sometribove zinc (Posilac; Elanco, Greenfield, IN; 6.14 mg/kg of BW^0.75) on days 0 and 10 (PRE) and/or days 167 and 177 (POS). All heifers were managed as a single group in Brachiaria decumbens pastures from day 0 until 24 d postweaning (day 191), and then provided a corn silage-based TMR from days 191 to 380 to a

SUBMITTER: Moriel P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7200584 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature