Consumo e desempenho de novilhos alimentados com borra de soja em confinamento

This study was designed to evaluate the feasibility of using soybean dreg in finishing of confined steers, with age and initial body weight of 20 months and 328.3 kg, respectively. Each treatment consisted of six experimental animals, which were fed with forage: concentrate ratio, 40:60 (dry matter basis), being bulky corn silage and concentrate based of bark, chaff and soybean dreg, corn, sodium chloride and calcium limestone. The steers were distributed in the treatments: 00, 30, 60, 90 and 120 g of soybean dreg per kg of dry matter in the diet, which contained 29.0, 47.3, 66.7, 86.8 and 106.8 g of ether extract, respectively. The dry matter intake was similar (P>0.05) among the studied treatments with an average of 9.71 kg day(-1). Similarly, no differences were observed (P>0.05) in crude protein intake with an average of 1.36 kg day(-1). However, there were differences in the consumption of ether extract and neutral and acid detergent fibre, which had behavior with the increase in the inclusion of dreg in the diet (CEE=0,305+0,0061SD; CFDN=5.71-0,011SD; CFDA=3.89-0.008SD kg day(-1), respectively). The performance of steers was similar (P>0.05) between treatments, being the average daily gain of 1.542 kg, the fed conversion of 6.35 kg DM kg(-1) weight gain and slaughter weight of 457.95 kg. The use of soybean dreg until the limit of 120 g in the diet of confined cattle is feasible.