The effects of increasing amounts of pelleted sugar cane straw (SCS) replacing corn in finishing diets (85% whole corn + 15% pelleted concentrate) of feedlot young bulls were evaluated during a 103 d period. Nellore bulls (n = 80; 337 ± 31 kg of BW) were allotted to 20 outdoor pens (4 bulls per pen) and assigned to a complete randomized block design with 5 blocks (initial BW) and 4 dietary treatments (Table 1): Control (whole corn), SCS3%, SCS6%, SCS9%. Bulls were adapted over 21 d by decreasing inclusion of SCS on dietary DM (d 1 to 7, 30% of SCS; d 8 to 14, 20% of SCS; d 15 to 21, 10% of SCS). The DMI increased linearly up to 23%, as kg/d and 22% as % of BW (P = 0.01), 19% on DIP intake (P = 0.03) and 39% on peNDF intake (P < 0.01) with increased addition of SCS. No effects were observed in NE intake (P > 0.05). The Final BW and ADG tended to increase linearly (P = 0.10, BW; P = 0.07, ADG) with increasing amounts of SCS. In conclusion, SCS is a possible peNDF source replacing whole corn. There were evidences of growth and nutrients intake improvement. Table 1. Composition of finishing diets with increasing amounts of pelleted sugar cane straw (SCS; composition of 92% DM, 6.9% ash, 1.8% CP, 0.5% EE, 69% NDF, 13% peNDF, 37% ADF) replacing corn (3, 6, and 9% of dietary DM) and effects on growth and intake of Nellore bulls fed 85% whole corn + 15% pelleted concentrate

Item	Diet				SEM	P-value
Control	SCS3%	SCS6%	SCS9%	Lin	Quad
Diet composition, % of DM
CP	14.6	14.3	14.1	13.8	—	—	—
DIP	8.1	7.9	7.8	7.7	—	—	—
NDF	14.1	15.8	17.6	19.3	—	—	—
peNDF	5.4	5.6	5.9	6.1	—	—	—
NEm, Mcal/kg	2.10	2.03	1.97	1.90	—	—	—
NEg, Mcal/kg	1.44	1.40	1.35	1.31	—	—	—
Growth
Initial BW, kg	340.1	338.3	336.5	336.5	1.50	0.95	0.21
Final BW, kg	490.3	499.8	498.6	500.8	6.00	0.10	0.24
ADG, kg/d	1.459	1.567	1.574	1.595	0.052	0.07	0.34
Intake
DM, kg/d	8.59	9.40	10.05	10.57	0.499	0.01	0.71
DM, % of BW	2.07	2.25	2.41	2.53	0.113	0.01	0.84
NEm+g, Mcal/d	30.06	32.24	33.33	33.94	1.661	0.11	0.65
DIP, kg/d	0.684	0.745	0.784	0.813	0.039	0.03	0.69
peNDF, kg/d	0.461	0.530	0.626	0.641	0.032	<0.01	0.41
G:F	0.170	0.168	0.157	0.153	0.007	0.08	0.91