The objective was to evaluate the use of four levels of soybean hulls (0.0, 8.0, 16.0 and 24.0%) to replace the corn meal (0.0, 25, 50 and 75%) in the diet of sheep in feedlot. Performance, nutrient digestibilities and feeding costs were evaluated. Twenty Santa Inez breed lambs with 32.96 kg BW were distributed to a completely randomized design with four diets and five replications. The diet was composed of 50% forage (50% of corn silage and 50% of sugar cane) and 50% concentrate. The concentrates were composed of corn meal, soybean meal, mineral mix and urea, so corn meal was gradually replaced by soybean hulls. No effect was observed in the levels of soybean hulls of diet on feed intake of nutrients, except for NDF, which linearly increased according to soybean hulls level in the diet. Soybean hulls levels did not affect digestibility of nutrients, weight gain (0.215 kg/anim.day) and feed conversion ratio of the animals (6.20 kg DM/kg weight gain). Increasing of soybean hulls levels in the diet reduced feeding cost and increased the gross margin from R$ 10.89 to R$ 18.63 per animal in the 0 and 75% of replacement levels, respectively. The replacement of up to 75% of corn meal by soybean hulls in the diet does not affect performance of sheep finished in feedlot.
digestibility; feed: gain ratio; consumption; lambs; weight gain
