Stylosanthes silage as an alternative to reduce the protein concentrate in diets for finishing beef cattle

• Published in: Livestock science 2022-04, Vol.258, p.104873, Article 104873
• Main Authors: da Silva, Vanessa Paula, Pereira, Odilon Gomes, da Silva, Leandro Diego, Agarussi, Mariele Cristina Nascimento, Filho, Sebastião de Campos Valadares, Ribeiro, Karina Guimarães
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alternative silage; Feed efficiency; Nitrogen balance; Nutrition
• ISSN: 1871-1413; 1878-0490
• DOI: 10.1016/j.livsci.2022.104873

•Stylosanthes silage tended to decrease total crude protein digestibility.•Corn silage showed higher nitrogen balance and tended to increase microbial nitrogen.•Corn and Stylosanthes silages had similar animal performance.•Diets containing soybean meal showed greater nutrients intake and carcass daily gain. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of silage and concentrate on nutrients digestibility, ruminal fermentation, efficiency of nitrogen use and animal performance of feedlot beef cattle. Two experiments were conducted simultaneously evaluating the same diets. The forage: concentrate ratio was 50:50 and diets consisted of Stylosanthes (StS) or corn (CS) silages in combination with two concentrates: without (C1) or with soybean meal (C2). In experiment 1, four rumen and abomasum fistulated bulls with an average initial body weight (BW) of 200 ± 15.7 kg were distributed to a Latin square design with a 2 × 2 (S × C) factorial arrangement (experiment 1). Experiment 2 was conducted using 48 Nellore bulls with an average initial BW of 358 ± 30 kg, distributed to a complete randomized design with a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement and 12 replicates. In experiment 1, there was an S × C interaction tendency (P ≤ 0.09) for DM, OM, CP and NDF intakes. Greater intake of DM, OM, CP and NDF was observed for CS with C2. The intake of iNDF was greater (P = 0.01) for StS-based diets. There was a decrease tendency (P = 0.06) on the total CP digestibility in StS-based diets. Nitrogen balance was greater for CS-based diet (P = 0.04). There was an S × C interaction tendency (P = 0.10) for microbial synthesis efficiency (MSE). In experiment 2, C2-based diets showed greater (P