The effect of increasing level of whole cottonseed (0, 12, 24, 35 and 49%) to a basic diet of Brachiaria decumbens hay on digestibility coefficient of neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), hemicellulose and cellulose was evaluate in sheep. Twenty five castrated male sheep were randomly allotted to the treatments. No differences between treatments for consumption and digestibility of NDF were observed. The pattern of the digestibility coefficient of ADF was similar for all treatments, except for treatment with 49% of whole cottonseed. The pattern of the digestibility coefficient of cellulose was similar to the corresponding digestibility coefficient of ADF. The digestibility coefficient of hemicellulose for treatments with whole cottonseed was larger than that with no cottonseed.
sheep; Brachiaria decumbens; digestibility; whole cottonseed
