Utilização de grãos secos de destilaria (DDG) como substituto de farelo de soja na fase de terminação de novilhas Nelore

Abstract

Brazil presented in 2019 the world’s largest beef cattle herd, but still has great potential for development of this productive chain. Beef cattle supplementation is one of the tools for optimizing the meat production in the country. Accordingly, the use of high rumen undegradable protein (RUP) supplements like soybean meal (SM) and dried distiller’s grains (DDG) on meat production becomes interesting. Thereat, the objective of that study is evaluating the replacement of SM by DDG in terms of productive efficiency during finishing phase beef cattle. Sixty Nellore heifers were used to evaluate their performance submitted 3 different treatments of concentrate supplementation: T1 - conventional SM as protein source; T2 - supplement with 50% replacing SM protein source by DDG, and T3 - supplement with 100% replacement of SM protein source by DDG. During dry season, the finishing developed in grazing system, during 30 days (first moment), which were maintained in Bracchiaria grass pasture, receiving supplementation. Then the last 63 days (second and third moment) were maintained in corn silage, in additional to the same supplementation. In between every moment of 30 days and in the last day of the experiment were collected weight and body condition score (BCS), then animals were slaughtered and collected carcass weight and carcass yield. It was concluded that DDG can partially replace SM in feedlot diets without changing animal performance. The total replacement of SM by DDG, without being accompanied by ingredients that provide a better rumen degradable protein RDP / RUP ratio, can change performance.