The aim of this work was to evaluate how nitrogen fertilization can affect forage mass production and quality on annual Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) pasture under continuous stocking of beef lambs. Ryegrass was established on June 6th, 2006, on no-tillage cropping system with seed density of 45 kg seeds/ha. Base fertilization was 300 kg/ha without N, with 60 kg/ha P2O5 and 60 kg/ha K2O. Fertilization consisted on four doses of nitrogen (N) using urea fertilizer (45% de N) in covering application 35 days after seeding: 0; 75; 150; or 225 kg/ha N. Periods of evaluations lasted 84 days. For each kg of nitrogen applied on ryegrass pasture, it was observed linear increases of 2.82 kg/ha of forage mass, 1.28 kg/ha of green leaf dry mass, 2.47 tillers/m² and 15.84 kg/ha of total forage mass. Doses of applied nitrogen did not affect crude protein contents (21.21%), acid detergent fiber (25.90%) and neutral detergent fiber (54.93%) of forage harvested through grazing simulation. The increase on nitrogen doses interfere positively in the accumulation rate, providing greater total forage mass.
accumulation rate; dry matter production; lambs; tiller; urea
