Dairy farming characterization at São Paulo northeast region concern to pastures

Abstract

The dairy cattle farming have a great importance on the economy and social aspects of the São Paulo Northeast region. The use of correct technologies, monitoring of the bovine cattle, financial and productive planning and the best application of disable resources can lead to a dairy activity more rentable to the farmers. The objective of this quiz was to evaluate majorly the situation of pastures in to farmer profile, property characteristics, herd characteristics, area of grasslands and forage species, employed fertilization and adopted management system inside or not CATI Milk project. CATI Milk is a project of technical assistance and rural extension, which aims to develop the milk production chain (including improvement in herd management and grazing). This work consisted on appliance of a 97 questions quiz given to 40 dairy farmers from the São Paulo Northeast region, Brazil, where 20 farmers were part of the CATI Milk project and other 20 farmers were not. Pastures with up to 32.5 ha comprise 75% of the studied properties (77.5%), Urochloa (sin. Brachiaria) was the predominant forage (46%), followed by Megathyrsus (sin. Panicum) 41.5% of pasture. The older age of pastures (> 6 years) were predominant (54%), while those grazing 3-6 years represented 15% and younger than 3 years, 31%. It was found that (Urochloa decumbens and Urochloa Marandu, Xaraés, MG-4, MG-5 and Piatã) and the genus Megathyrsus (mainly represented by Tanzania and Mombaça) together accounted for 87.5% of pastures and not differs each other by chi-square. Cynodon (Estrela and Tifton) pastures were also frequent in regional dairy farms although to a lesser extent. The chi-square test showed that the adoption of rotational grazing system was significantly higher (P=0.0038) in the properties served by the CATI Milk project. In these farms 95% of pastures were fertilized, after the animals left the rotational grazing, 80% of farmers use urea as a nitrogen source for pasture. We conclude that farmers included in the CATI Milk Project adopted technologies capable of enabling the increase of pasture productivity and animal production in small areas.