The objective of this paper was to evaluate the performance of ewes receiving corn, sorghum or sunflower silages. Half of the dry matter diet came from the silages and the other half from a concentrate, 25% of soybean meal and 75% of ground corn. Forty-seven ewes were used and confined during a period of 70 days. Ewes receiving sunflower silage had a greater (P<0.01) daily weight gain (0.263kg) than ewes receiving corn (0.175kg) or sorghum (0.171kg) silages. Feed consumption, as a percentage of the body weight (BW) or per unit of metabolic body weight (BW0.75), were greater (P<0.01) for ewes receiving corn silage, intermediate for ewes receiving sunflower silage and lower for ewes receiving sorghum silage. Feed conversion were 7.96, 6.14 and 7.26 (P>0.05), respectively, for ewes receiving corn, sunflower and sorghum silages. Ewes fed sunflower silage showed greater percentage of hot carcass (53.14%) than the ewes fed sorghum (48.13%) or corn (46.36%) silages. It can be concluded that the sunflower silage is better than corn and sorghum silages for termination of feedlot sheep.
carcass; feed conversion; sheep; silage; sunflower; weight
