This experiment was carried out for two years with the objective of evaluating the performance of genetic groups with different genetic potentials for growth, such as Nellore (N), ½ Angus - ½ Nellore (AN) and ½ Simmental - ½ Nellore (SN).This study is part of an ample project, which has as principal goal, to evaluate the efficiency of production of systems composed by animals with different mature sizes (Projeto cruzamento Embrapa 1). Using a bivariate analysis involving the variables average daily gain and dry matter intake, it was determined the first discriminant canonical function which was used for estimating performance indexes that were denominated bio-nutritional efficiency. The data were obtained from 72 animals under two diets, one composed by Tanzânia hay plus 600 g of ground soybean (diet A), provided ad libitum, and other where this hay was combined with a concentrate ration (diet B). The bio-nutritional efficiency was significantly affected by the interaction between genetic group (GG) and diet (D). Thus, the least square means were compared by four different contrasts. These contrasts were, on diet B: C1) Nellore versus average of crossbreds and, C2) ½ Angus - ½ Nellore versus ½ Simmental - ½ Nellore. And on diet A: C3) Nellore versus crossbreds and, C4) ½ Angus - ½ Nellore versus ½ Simmental - ½ Nellore. The analyses of these contrasts revealed that, independently on diet, Nellore animals had a worst performance than the average observed for the F1s. The average of bio-nutritional efficiencies were equal to 429.74 and 490.46 for Nellore and crossbred animals, respectively, on diet B and, in the same sequence, 299.70 and 376.10 on diet A. Relatively to the F1 animals, their performances were dependent on diet. On diet A, the ½ Angus - ½ Nellore and ½ Simmental - ½ Nellore presented the same bio-nutritional efficiency (376.10) while on diet B, the ½ Angus - ½ Nellore were superiors (529.84 versus 451.09).
beef cattle; bio-nutritional efficiency; crossbreeding; feeding; performance
