The objective of this trial was to determine the intake and the total, ruminal and intestinal apparent digestibilidade of dry matter (DM) and its components: organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), in neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and no-fiber carbohydrates (NFC) of the elephantgrass in different regrowth ages and to quantify the microbial protein production. Four crossbred steers fitted with ruminal and abomasal cannula were fullfed with elephantgrass and mineral salt. The experiment was evaluated considering the group of animals as simple random sample, being the corresponding periods of evaluation to the increasing regrowth ages (33, 48, 63, 78 and 93 days) and each animal as repeated measures. Intakes of dry matter (DMI) and total digestible nutrients (TDN) and total digestibilities of the others nutrients linearly decreased as days of regrowth ages increased. The content of OM, NFC and NDF presented maximum intake at 44.43, 51.05, and 60.50 days of regrowth ages, respectively. The minimum CP intake was at 94.27 days of regrowth ages. The ruminal digestibilities of DM and OM linearly increased as days of regrowth ages increased. Microbial protein yield linearly reduced as days of regrowth age increased. The microbial nitrogenous compounds also showed a linear reduction with the increase of the days of regrowth ages of elephantgrass. It is recommended to use elephantgrass between 30 and 35 days of regrowth ages, when it observed greater nutritional value of the plant.
intake; nutrients; partial digestibility; roughage; total digestibility
