Abstract #T364

# T364
Nutrient intake and productive performance of beef cattle fed diets containing soybean, corn, or sorghum silages.
Lilian Oliveira Rosa*1, Odilon Gomes Pereira1, Karina Guimarães Ribeiro1, Sebastião de Campos Valadares Filho1, Stefanie Alvarenga Santos2, Rilene Ferreira Diniz Valadares2, Andressa Fernanda Campos3, 1Viçosa Federal University, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil, 2Bahia Federal University, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, 3Sao Paulo State University, Jaboticabal, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The aim of this work was to evaluate the nutrient intake and productive performance of Nellore cattle fed with diets containing soybean, corn, or sorghum silages as forage sources. The experimental diets was composed for: 1 - soybean silage (SS); 2 - corn silage (CS); 3 - sorghum silage (SOS); 4 - 50% SS:50% CS; and 5 - 50% SS:50% SOS, on dry matter basis. Diets consisted of 60% silage and 40% concentrate (corn, soybean meal, urea, and mineral mixture), formulated to be isonitrogenous (12% CP, DM basis). Forty-five crossbred Holstein-Zebu bulls none castrated, with initial live weight of 360 kg were allotted in a randomized blocks design with 5 treatments and 9 replicates. The animals were kept in individual pens of approximately 10 m2, with protected feeders and waterier. The experiment lasted 99 d, divided in 15 d of initial adaptation plus 3 periods of 28 d each. All data were analyzed using MIXED procedure of SAS and differences between means were determined using the DIFF, which differentiates means based on Tukey’s test. Significance was declared at P < 0.05. The dry matter (DM) intake was affected by the silages (P < 0.01), being SS silage that got lowest value among silages. The soybean silage (SS silage) provided lowest values of organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and non-fibrous carbohydrate (NFC) intakes, kg/d. The ether extract (EE) intake was highest in soybean silage, as only forage source or associated with CS or SOS. The maximum NDF intake, in % BW, was found to animals fed diets with sorghum silage as only forage source (0.88% BW) or associated with soybean silage (0.74% BW). The average daily gain (ADG) was lower in animals fed diets with soybean silage (0.433 kg/d) compared the others diets, that were not different statistically, with average to 1.163 kg/d. However, no effect of different silages (P > 0.05) was observed on dressing percentage, on average 54.5%. Our results suggest that soybean silage, as only forage source, results in lower animal performance. However, when this silage was associated with corn and sorghum silages, it has similar animal performance that of animals fed corn and sorghum silages as only forage sources.

Key Words: average daily gain, carcass dressing, forage source