Growth Performance
In the current study, the pasture intake (DM basis) was between 240 and 420 g/d. These values were highly variable because of the heterogeneous nature of the pastures and the variability of pasture intake during the experimental period. No differences were observed in ADG, ADFI, and G:F between the 2 treatments (Table 3).This is similar to studies by Janicki et al. (2000) who
reported that pasture (maize green forage) intake had no effect on mixed feed consumption and the BW gain of geese. In contrast, Ponte et al. (2008) observed that
pasture (Trifolium subterraneum or Trifolium repens) consumption promoted greater intake of a cereal-based diet available ad libitum and increased BW gain of freerange broilers. Variability in these results may be related to the composition and consumption of pasture.