The objective of the present study was to evaluate the digestibility, intake, performance and carcass characteristics in young crossbred bulls fed balanced diets based on sugarcane or sorghum silage. In the digestibility assessment in the feedlot, four and eighteen young crossbred young bulls were used per diet, kept in individual stalls, in a randomized complete experimental design with two diets (sorghum silage + 1.0% live weight in concentrate and chopped sugar cane + 1.2% of live weight concentrate). The diets were formulated to have around 12% crude protein. No difference was observed between the diets for intake and digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, neutral detergent fiber and total carbohydrates among the animals fed sorghum silage or sugarcane. The animals fed with sugar cane yielded worse feed conversion and lower daily gain. No differences were observed for live weight, hot carcass weight, carcass dressing, carcass conformation, loin eye area, subcutaneous fat thickness, cushion thickness, meat color, texture and marbling and percentage of bone, muscle and fat. The mean classification of the carcasses was very good minus. Substituting sugar cane for sorghum silage did not influence the studied variables, except feed conversion, daily gain and acid detergent fiber intake and digestibility. Sugar cane can reduce animal performance if used as the only source of forage.
carcass yield; daily weight gain; feed conversion; subcutaneous fat thickness; total digestible nutrients
