ECONOMICS AND PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF FEEDLOT LAMBS FED DIETS WITH DIFFERENT AGROINDUSTRY RESIDUES

Abstract

We evaluated the use of agroindustry residues in finishing lambs in feedlot. Twelve non-castrated male Texel lambs were randomly distributed in the treatments composed of different residues at 30% of dry matter of the total diet, as follows: soybean hulls, broken rice or malt powder from a brewery. The lambs were confined  for 70 days and slaughtered at approximately 40 kg body weight. In the economic analysis of the diet, we considered the market prices in the study region for the diet ingredients and weight of lambs. The intake of non-structural carbohydrate was higher (P<0.01) in lambs on the treatment with broken rice. There was no difference between treatments in dry matter consumption. Daily weight gain and total weight gain were higher (P<0.05) in lambs receiving broken rice. Profit was higher (P<0.01) when malt powder from a brewery was used (R$ 1.89/kg of live weight gain) compared with soybean hulls (R$ 0.96/kg of live weight gain) or broken rice (R$ 1.15/kg of live weight gain). The use of malt powder from a brewery provides lower cost of the diet when compared to use of soybean hulls or broken rice, proving to be a good alternative for finishing lambs in feedlot.

Keywords: animal production; intake; sheep; weight gain.