Forty-eight crossbreed beef cattle were used to evaluate four commercial mineral supplements: Treatment A- Salt + protein without urea (20% crude protein); B - salt + protein with urea (52,5 % crude protein), C) mineralized salt; D) mineralized salt with urea (91% crude protein). The animals were distributed into 24 plots of Braquiaria decubens grass, with supplementation of (10.5 kg/an/day) of sugar cane, during 112 days, with 28 days of adaptation and 84 days of data collection. The animals were weighed at the beginning and at the end of the experiment, and the mineral supplement intake was weekly controlled. The weight gain and the mineral supplement intake (g/d) for the treatments A, B, C and D were 86 and 325, 357 and 650, -96 and 56, 207 and 135, respectively. The worst result was observed for the animals that received only mineralized salt and the best was obtaneid by the animals that received salt with protein with urea. The animals that received salt with protein without urea showed similar performance to the group that received only mineralized salt with urea.
mineral supplementation; mineral mixture; steers; urea
