ABSTRACT
This experiment was conducted at the Laboratory of Sheep, Federal University of Santa Maria, and aimed to evaluate the effect of using different high-grain diets on nutrient intake and performance of lambs in a feedlot, as well as conduct an economic analysis of feeding used for termination of the animals. A total of 32 Texel breed castrated male lambs, born from a simple birth and weaned at approximately 50 days of age were used. The treatments consisted of different types of grains, unprocessed, as follows: corn grain, white oat grain, black oat grain or grain of rice in the husk. The animals were slaughtered when they reached a pre-established body weight of 32kg for slaughter, which corresponds to 60% of the mature weight of their mothers. Lambs fed diets with high corn grain have higher intakes of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, total digestible nutrients and total carbohydrate, lower consumption of neutral detergent fiber and better body condition score, weight gain and feed conversion, which leads to reduction in the number of days in confinement needed to reach slaughter weight. In addition, lambs using high-grain diet based grain corn provide better economic results when compared with lambs with other high-grain diets used in this experiment. The use of diets high in grain corn, white oat grain, black oat grain or grain of rice in the husk for finishing lambs in feedlot is a viable alternative from a productive point of view. However, the use of corn grain provides better performance and economic results.
feed conversion; weight gain; sheep; Texel