In order to evaluate different levels of sugar cane bagasse and urea as replacement of soybean meal in growing dairy cattle diets, two trials were conducted. In the first, twenty crossbreed bull calves (Holstein x Zebu) were allotted in a completely randomized design with four treatments. The animals were fed forage cactus based diets, containing levels of 5.5, 14.4, 24.4 and 34% of sugar cane bagasse on the dry matter basis. The liveweight gain decreased while the feed: gain ratio, […]

This work was carried out to evaluate the intake and apparent digestibility of nutrients in the diet with four replacement levels of corn (0, 25, 50 and 75%) by forage cactus meal. Sixteen lambs, averaging 30 months age and live weight (LW) of 40 kg, were allotted to a completely randomized experimental design. There was no effect of levels of replacement on the intake of nutrients, that were restricted at 2.5% of LW. There was no effect of levels of […]

The experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of lactating Holstein cows fed diet with different replacement levels (0, 12, 24 and 36%) of forage cactus (Opuntia ficus indica Mill) for sorghum silage (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench). Eight cows were assigned to a two 4×4 latin square design. Each experimental period lasted 21 days, 14 days for adaptation and 7 days for data collection. The intakes of dry matter (DM) in kg/day, % of live weight (LW) and g/kg0,75, organic […]