ABSTRACT - The objective of this work was to evaluate the performance of female and male Texel x Bergamacia, Texel x Santa Inês and straitbred Santa Inês. Thirty-six lambs were individually penned for a period of 50 days. The animals were fed elephant grass silage and the following diets: A= without coffee hulls (control), B = with untreated in nature coffee hulls and C = with urea in nature treated coffee hulls and ground soybean seed. The animals were slaughtered with average age of 180 days. The intakes of dry matter (DMI), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), feed: gain ratio (F: G), final weight (FW), average daily gain (ADG), slaughter weight (SW), weight loss due to fasting period (FWD), gut content weight (GCW) and empty body weight (EBW) were evaluated. The diets did not affect the intake of DM, CP, FW, SW, FWL, ADG, F: G, GCW and EBW. The neutral detergent fiber intake increased as the coffee hulls increased, and this increase was lower for the animals that consumed diet containing urea treated coffee hulls. The crossbred lambs T x B and T x S showed lower intake of DM, CP and NDF and higher FW, SW, GCW and EBW as compared with straitbreed Santa Inês lambs. There was no difference among the genetic groups for F: G, ADG and FWL, although small high values, but not significant were observed for F: G and ADG of T x B and T x S lambs. The male lambs showed lower DM, CP and NDF and F:G and higher FW, SW, ADW and EBW than the females. The males and females showed similar FWL and GCW.
feeding; development; genetic group; sheep
