THE FORAGE LEGUMES OF THE GENUS LOTUS AND ITS IMPACT ON ANIMAL COPPER NUTRITION IN FLOODING PAMPAS

PEREA GARCÍA A.; ESCARAY F.J.; BAILLERES M.A.; COPELLO G.; ANTONELLI C.J.; ROSA D.; FAZZIO L.; MATTIOLI G.; RUIZ O.A.

Simposio; INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM OF FORAGE BREEDING; 2015

Copper (Cu) is an essential micronutrient for all livingorganisms. However certain conditions on soil, as for examplealkaline orflooded soils, can causea loweruptake of this micronutrient by plants. These soilconditions are present in Flooding Pampas where the bovine production is theprincipal activity based on natural grassland.Low levels of Cu in forage affectcattle production, causing hypocuprosisthat is the second most importantnutritional deficiencyon this region. A practice used toprevent hypocuprosis is asubcutaneous injection of Cu solution, but anotherpossibility is to improve the forage increasing the content of thismicronutrient. In this sense, it has been described that legumes have more Cucontent than grasses, however only a few forage legumes are able to developproperly in Flooding Pampas conditions. Lotusspecies, in particular L. tenuis, isa good candidate for evaluating. For this purpose, in association with theChacra Experimental IntegradaChascomús (where it has carried out a comparativestudy of natural grassland with promoting L.tenuis) we evaluate the Cu content of both situations. Measurements takenfor each season in a whole year reveal a metal sufficiency condition forplants, however L. tenuis containalmost double Cu concentration than grasses. To complete the information willevaluate other ions that may interfere with the Cu uptake, such as iron, molybdenumand sulphur. Considering our preliminary results, the promotion practice ofL. tenuis could be used as a newapproach to improve the animal fitnessfrom a nutritional point of view.