ECONOMICAL EVALUATION OF THE USE OF INTERCROPPED CULTURES FOR THE FEEDING OF DAIRY-COWS IN MILK-PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

The economical possibilities of the use of intercropped cultures for f orage production for dairy cattle feeding were studied. Data were take n from an experiment carried out at the Institute of Animal Science wh ere the intercropping of different species (soybean, maize and dolicho s) were evaluated at sowing time in a Brachiaria purpurascens cv. Agua da grassland. The cost of each treatment using a random block design w its determined. A technical and economical analysis using the ANALIT c omputer programme was carried out to estimate the milk production pote ntials from a feeding system with pastures plus forages from the inter cropping. Also the possible number of animals to be fed according to t he availabilities per treatment was considered and the expected econom ical entry in terms of the estimated milk yield was calculated. Maize intercropping showed the lowest cost/t of DM, while dolichos and soybe an offer the greatest possibilities for producing milk and feeding a g reater number of animals, showing an increase higher than 3 litres/cow /day with respect to the alternative of supplying pasture alone in the diets. These treatments also contributed with the highest economical profit. Production systems based on combinations of pastures plus inte rcropped forage cultures demonstrated that it could offer perspectives for improving cattle rations and that the application of mathematical and economical techniques could contribute to optimizing the use of t he available resources, and at the same time it may facilitate the pla nning of productive and economical efforts.