The goal of this study was to evaluate the intake of nutrients and the total and partial apparent digestibility of sugar cane + citrus pulp (ScSCp), cassava hulls + citrus pulp (ChSCp) and cassava root + citrus pulp (CrSCp) silages. The basal diet with corn silage (CS) and soybean meal composed 60% of the total dry matter of ChSCp and CrSCp treatments. Four castrated crossbred (HxZ) steers were, canulated in the rumen and in the duodenum and confined according to 4x4 Latin Square design. For total and partial digestibility of nutrients determination, the dry matter (DM) fecal output and duodenal flow, were estimated by neutral detergent fiber. The DM and crude protein (CP) intake (%LW) of CS (2.47 and 0.33), ChSCp (2.12 and 0.30) and CrSCp (1.88 and 0.27) were higher than ScSCp (1.38 and 0.19). The dry matter (65.0%), organic matter (66.9%), and the gross energy (64.3%) total apparent digestibilities were higher than the other diets, with the exception for NDF (39.4%). The DM, OM and CP ruminal (RDC) and intestinal (IDC) digestibility coefficients, as percentage of intake, did not show significant differences among the diets. The RDC of the NDF to diets: CS (43.4%), the CrSCp (39.3%), and the ScSCp (37.0%) were higher than ChSCp (20.0%). The cassava meal + citrus pulp silage utilization showed to be a good alternative for bovine feeding.
cassava residue; digestion partition; indigestible acid detergent fiber; intake; nutritional value
