Sugarcane or sugarcane bagasse ammoniated with urea replacing for sorghum silage for beef cattle in feedlot

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate weight gain and carcass traits of finishing Nellore bulls fed different levels of sugarcane or sugarcane bagasse ammoniated with urea replacing sorghum silage. Thirty five young bulls were used with an average of 2 years old and initial body weight of 448,2 kg, being distributed into 7 treatments: T1 – 100% sorghum silage; T2 – 70% sorghum silage + 30% sugarcane; T3 – 30% sorghum silage + 70% sugarcane; T4 – 100% sugarcane; T5 – 70% sorghum silage + 30% sugarcane bagasse ammoniated with urea; T6 – 30% sorghum silage + 70% sugarcane bagasse ammoniated with urea and T7 – 100% sugarcane bagasse ammoniated with urea. Concentrate was provided in the amount corresponding to 1.2% of body weight. The replacement of sorghum silage by sugarcane did not affect (P>0.05) the average daily gain (ADG), but the replacement by sugarcane bagasse ammoniated with urea had a linear decreasing effect (P<0.05) on ADG. Hot carcass dressing percentage decreased linearly (P<0.05) as sorghum silage was replaced by both sugarcane and sugarcane bagasse. The replacement of sorghum silage by sugarcane had a linear effect on beefplate weight, which decreased, but a positive effect on ribeye area (REA), which increased linearly (P<0.05). Increasing levels of sugarcane ammoniated bagasse led to a linear reduction on hot carcass weight, cold carcass weight, hindquarter and forequarter weight, beefplate weight, but a linear increased on REA (P<0.05). Nelore bulls produced carcasses with similar quality when fed sorghum silage or sugarcane. However, carcass quality in terms of some quantitative characteristics decrease a sugarcane bagasse ammoniated with urea increase in the diet as roughage source.