Produtividade e qualidade da brachiaria irrigada no outono/inverno

One of the reasons of low performance of the Brazilian livestock industry include the seasonal growth of tropical pasture grasses. Irrigated grasslands may have higher and most stable rates of yield during autumn and winter seasons. Therefore, we aimed at evaluating: a) Brachiaria brizantha dry matter yield and forage quality as a function of different water depths during the autumn and winter, and b) soil moisture and air temperature effects on forage yield. The experiment was carried out at the Experimental Farm of the University of São Paulo State (FCAV - UNESP), campus in Jaboticabal - SP, Brazil. We used a line-source sprinkler system to provide five levels of irrigation (L1= 0.18, L2= 0.52, L3= 1.00, L4= 1.45, and L5= 1.67). These water depths corresponded to fractions of reference evapotranspiration in both autumn and winter. Forage yield was higher in autumn and water depth responses were fitted by a quadratic function, reaching maximum values at 267 and 269 mm during autumn and winter, respectively. During the autumn, we observed a highly nutritive forage with crude protein increment by increasing water depths. However, water application had no effect on neutral detergent fiber content.