SILAGEM DE SORGO COM E SEM TANINO EM SUBSTITUI O à SILAGEM DE MILHO NA ALIMENTA O DE OVINOS: DESEMPENHO E CARACTERíSTICAS DE CARCA A

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of using sorghum silages with and without tannin as a substitute for corn silage on performance and carcass characteristics of feedlot sheep. We used 18 whole, Santa Ines, male lambs, distributed in a completely randomized design with three treatments: sorghum with tannin in grain silage (SCT), sorghum without tannin in grain silage (SST); and corn silage (SM). The forage: concentrate ratio was 70:30, and we used a commercial concentrate with 19% CP and 75% TDN. The dry matter intake (DMI) for the treatment SCT, SST, and SM were 1.03, 1.20 and 0.85 kg / day, respectively, and the SCT was similar to the others, but the SST was higher than SM. The sheep which consumed the SST diet had higher average daily weight gain (DWG) and total average gain (153.72 g and 8.61 kg) than those consuming SCT (111.19 and 6.23 kg) and SM (94.40 g and 5.46kg). There was no difference in feed conversion (FC) between diets. The carcass traits were not influenced by the type of silage consumed. The SCT can be used as the only roughage in the diet of sheep in confinement, without changing the DMI, FC and carcass characteristics. However, animals that consumed the SST had higher DWG.