The objective of this study was to evaluate the productive performanceand mean daily intake of nutrients in sheep fed diets containing sisal, Agave sisalana, and co-products. Twenty-four male sheep were used in individual stalls. A completely randomized design was used, with four treatments and six replications. The treatments consisted of four isonitrogenous, in which: i) standard diet containing 38% forage (millet silage) and 62% concentrate (corn, soybean meal and urea), ii) inclusion 20% agave mucilage silage to replace millet silage in the standard diet, iii) inclusion of 20% agave mucilage silage associated with agave powder as additive to replace millet silage in the standard diet, iv) inclusion of 20% agave mucilage hay in substitution of millet silage. The final body weight, average daily gain, the total weight gain and feed conversion of sheep was not affected by the diets tested (P>0.05). Similarly, the intake of nutrients in g/day, % BW and g/kg0,75 were not affected by the diets. The results indicate that the experimental diets based on the agave co-products can be used as alternative roughage in the semiarid region of Brazil, as well as help increase the profitability of cattle ranching in the region.
sheep; Agave sisalana; weight gain; nutrients; agriculture waste; by-product
